The chapter, “Women and the City of Athens”, matters because it shows that women are still facing the same inequality as seen thousands of years ago in ancient
In many societies today, individuals are led to believe that the concept of women possessing their own strength or independence is abnormal. As a result, women experience the world in a constrained way in comparison to men, even if they are in higher classes of society. However, these extensive aspects of females are contradicted in some ancient Greek literature. In the epic poem, The Odyssey, Homer portrays women as a vital and powerful force through the characters Penelope and Circe, who counter the normality of misogyny in Homer’s time. Penelope’s character displays how some women are able to exceed society’s standards and show strength and cleverness when it is necessary.
The Odyssey by Homer showcases the varying roles and treatment of women across different times and places, throughout the poem, highlighting limitations in their agency and power. Generating a comparison to modern society and Homeric worlds for women in ancient Greek communities and the 21st century. Homer’s depiction of Penelope, Athena and Calypso formulate the clear cultural dismissal of women’s voices and rights. Homer establishes the relationship between women and men to be diminishing and that of a power game, practically between powerful woman characters and the protagonist, Odysseus. The epic poem formulates ideologies in ancient culture and forces the audience to conduct thought and opinion on his insight on the role of women.
In Euripides’s The Bacchae and in William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, I found the gender roles in these particular plays to be very interesting because this was my first exposure to cross-dressing in works of literature. In The Bacchae, women play a huge role because women are often portrayed as feminine and inferior in many past works, however, in The Bacchae, the women of Thebes decide to rebel against the men and join the Greek God of grape harvesting, wine, fertility, and partying, in the woods. The women were manipulated by Dionysus and were turned into maenads because they joined Dionysus and rejected the norms for women, to stay in their place and they all went from the first world they were living in, Thebes, to the second world,
What is worth mentioning in Sophocles’ play is that he not only showed the weak side of women but also the strong ones. For example, Ismene is the traditional role of women in ancient Greek—coward, fear of men power and feeble. For Ismene, "we must remember we were born women, not meant to strive with men" (Antigone). She even chose to die with Antigone while hearing her sentence, for she was afraid that she would be alone, she could not be able to fight against Creon, this men-dominant society. In contrast, her sister Antigone presents the “women power”.
Firstly, the social system is patriarchal and women hold an inferior position in society. In book two, one of the suitors tells Telemachus how they forced his mother, Penelope, to finish weaving the burial shroud. Ancient Greek society had very specific gender roles, expecting men to be masculine and domineering while women were passive and obedient. Secondly, slaves serve family and the guests’ needs, for example the household’s slaves were used to entertain the suitors.
In Lysistrata, men and women were entangled in an unhealthy relationship; it was based on the objectification of human beings. They didn’t care about anything but sexual pleasure. Women didn’t give much thought about how men are using them as a sex object and men didn’t concern themselves about their wives, families or even household responsibilities. One of the most compelling examples in the play, that supports
Women are still subjected to falling short of equal status with men on a daily basis. Throughout The Iliad women are treated like property. Women are not people but rather a prize to be won or lost, bereft of individual identity. In the opening of The Iliad, Agamemnon captures Chryses’ daughter, Chrysies.
Treating women with inferiority is a warning sign of a possibility of something being sexist. With inferiority playing a huge role throughout the book that makes the Iliad a sexist work. A work like
Euripides’ The Trojan Women expresses the disbelief and hope of ancient Greek women during the Trojan war. The characterization and dialogue between Hecuba, Andromache, and Cassandra, shows the role of women in society during that time, as well as their different prerogatives towards the war and its consequences. Likewise, The Odyssey by Homer uses the main female character, Penelope, to convey the role of women and their opinions towards the social changes from the war. Both texts, collectively, use dialogue to develop hopeful and hopeless ideas within the women of ancient Greece. Euripides’ The Trojan Women tells the story of three women, Hecuba, Andromache, and Cassandra, who struggle with their lives after the murders of their husbands
This also leads to a sort of uprising in Thebes as for the first time the masses were mourning Antigone’s death sentence supporting a woman which marked a turnaround in the society. As such acts were never accepted by the society at that time. In fact the woman was seen as the culprit by the entire society. Another element of ancient Greek society that is highlighted was to accept your destined fate. When Ismene says poor sister ,if this is how things are what can I do to prevent or change it.
Euripides created an unusual art work that left people mouth-opened. It was criticized and dissed during its time since the audience witnessed a very odd ending. The fact that Medea was really clever and powerful made it different as well. During those times, women had no role in the society. Women were just supposed to serve their husbands and take good care of the children.
Throughout history, women have been second fiddle to men. Females have been degraded, disrespected, and undermined; they’ve been ignored, silenced, and gone unheard. This gender inequality is present even in The Odyssey, though it includes many important female figures. Penelope, Calypso, Circe, and more are all crucial to the plot, and some even responsible for the happy ending, yet when inspected closely female stereotypes emerge. The majority of the women are presented as seductresses, the others as mothers, and almost all as fragile and dependent on men.
Women’s power in the play contrasts the real women life’s conditions in Greece in 500/400 b.C. This sudden empowering of the female characters is the main reason why I have chosen to examine this comedy. The analysis will be focused on the figure of the women in the play and the contentious ideology of the author.
The men of Athens feel threatened when women show agency because their whole patriarchal system depends on female complacency. Although Athenian society
