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Alcestis, Heracles, And Iphigenia's Treatment Of Women

967 Words4 Pages

Women play an important role in Roman myths, and the stories told about them help offer insight into the lives of the Roman people at the time. Looking at Euripides Alcestis, Heracles, and Iphigenia at Aulis, as well as Homers Iliad the reader can examine the treatment of women and what that says about patriarchal and matriarchal roles of the time. These four stories have one main theme in common, women being used as a means of punishing the men around them. In these stories the reader sees both gods and men take away the women that they hold dear, to punish the men. This treatment can help to explain how women are valued in Roman society, and suggest that women are treated as expendable extensions of their patriarch. The story of Iphigeneia doesn’t paint a friendly picture for how women were valued in Roman society. Iphigenia’s life is …show more content…

Apollo offers the gift of a longer life to Admetus, on the one condition that Admetus finds someone for Death to take in his place. Admetus is unable to convince either of his old parents to die on his behalf, and so he turns to his wife and the mother of his children, Alcestis. Alcestis agrees to sacrifice her life so that her husband can live a longer one, leaving their children motherless. Alcestis sacrifices herself for her husband and acknowledges that this is a very important gift that he should not take lightly, “…it’s not possible to pay me back what I deserve (for nothing is worth more than a life) ...” (318-320). This sacrifice of Alcestis shows that in Roman society a good Roman wife will sacrifice everything for her husband, his needs come before hers. Alcestis’ sacrifice wasn’t saving her husband from an untimely demise or an unjust punishment from the gods; this sacrifice was purely because Admetus wanted to live longer than naturally

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