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Herodotus Histories: Women Vs. Modern Women

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It’s important to remember that when someone is talking about an event that occurred in ancient times, we must use a different set of guidelines to assess what we’re looking at. Things were both simpler and far more complex then things are today. The question of whether or not a Queen has the right to sentence one of two men to death just because one of them saw her naked may seem a tad ridiculous by today’s standards. However, one must keep in mind that in Herodotus’ Histories, the Queen was living in a very different time than modern women are accustomed to. It was a time where lack of respect for women reigned and there was almost no way for females to fight back. It was a time where the Queen in this story lacks even a name as opposed to …show more content…

Not that the modern era is by any means perfect in terms of gender equality, but women are granted so many more leadership opportunities. They’re able to actually influence the world around them. Back then, it truly was a man’s world. Not just a man’s world. A rich man’s world. Politics, finance, armies and basically everything of importance was run by a select few men who had power and money. If you were born into a royal line, or you somehow came into great wealth influence, you had everything you wanted. It created an attitude of “I can do whatever I want and get away with it”. This attitude is especially prevalent in Candaules in the story. He persuades Gyges, who was quite hesitant, to view his wife while she is naked by essentially telling him that no harm could possibly come to him from either him or his wife. He was so confident in his power and he thought himself so far above his wife that he wasn’t even slightly concerned of any sort of consequence coming from the situation. It’s a dismal trait that was sadly prevalent in a lot of powerful men of this time. Now, did Candaules necessarily deserve to die because he violated his wife if this were just an isolated incident? Maybe not. But the Queen was justified in her demand that he, or Gyges, die given the society they were living in. If Candaules had merely gotten a slap on the wrist and been told

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Men made all decisions for women; in doing so, men control women’s fate. For Cunegonde, being ravished was only the beginning to her suffering and oppression. She gets rescued from the Bulgar by a Bulgar captain, but only because the captain noticed the lack of respect his soldier showed him. Once again, Cunegonde’s thoughts and opinions are completely worthless to those in charge. The Bulgar captain decides her fate for her by taking her as a prisoner of the war; he thought her “pretty as well as useful” (41).

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Also women did not really have a say in what could happen in a situation because the men had to speak for them. Women had to be loyal to the husbands or there would be a consequence for there actions. An example for this is when Jocasta and Laius were deciding to expose Oedipus on Mount Cithaeron. Laius took the newborn Oedipus from Jocasta 's arms and sent him with someone to be left out and to be exposed. Mothers have a strong connection with their children, so it must have been very difficult for Jocasta to watch her baby be exposed.

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