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Zeus In Hesiod's Speech On Love From The Symposium

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In my essay I will look at how Zeus and his actions appears in Hesiod’s Works and Days (GHM 1.5), Aristophanes speech on Love from the Symposium (GHM 5.6), and Teiresias (from Apollodorus’ Library) (GHM 5.8). We will start with Hesiod’s Works and Days (GHM 1.5) where Zeus takes away fire from mortals which holds back the advancements of civilization which helped mortals with things such as cooking and metalwork to name a few. Prometheus steals the fire back for mortals and receives eternal punishment from Zeus. But Zeus wasn’t over with punishments and punished the mortals with the introduction of women. But Zeus was not always against mortals and was sympathetic in Aristophanes speech on Love.

In Aristophanes speech on Love from the Symposium (GHM 5.6), Zeus (with Apollo) shows his compassionate side when he turns mortals’ genitals to the front so mortals can have intercourse. In Teiresias (from Apollodorus’ Library) (GHM 5.8), Zeus and Hera find themselves in a disagreement over whether the man or woman has more pleasure in sexual relations. Tiresias has experienced both genders and sided with Zeus and agreed that men find more pleasure in sexual relations. It was said that men enjoy one and woman enjoy nine parts out of ten parts. …show more content…

In Hesiod’s Works and Days (GHM 1.5) Zeus takes away fire from mortals this occurs in the Iron age. In Aristophanes speech on Love (GHM 5.6), Zeus turns mortals’ genitals to the front so mortals can have intercourse which occurs in the golden age. In Teiresias (from Apollodorus’ Library) (GHM 5.8), Zeus disagrees with Hera and claims that men find more pleasure from sexual relations which was written after the golden

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