Andromache In EuripidesTiger At The Gates

As Helen said “Have you a favorite mortal man there too?”, she regarded Aphrodite as the embodiment of sexual desire, implying that Aphrodite was trying to use her immortal power of lust to enslave Helen as the sex partner of Paris. Holding the one cardinal idea that she is not supposed to be a sex slave, Helen used her words to punch Aphrodite right in the face, as she replied “Is that why you beckon here beside me now with all the immortal cunning in your heart?” But with the infuriated reply “Don’t provoke me — wretched, headstrong girl! Or in my immortal rage I may just toss you over, hate you as I adore you now…”, Aphrodite had implied that she could either love or hate Helen. More importantly, Aphrodite also noted that if Helen chose to be hated, then Aphrodite as an immortal could use her power to make other people hate Helen, as she said “withering hate from both sides at once… then your fate can tread you down to dust!” This had really left Helen with a great shock, as she could not afford the consequence of being hated by both the immortals and mortals. So as a result, she had no choice but to obey Aphrodite and return to Paris, failing to establish her agency. Bear in mind that Helen was the daughter of Zeus and she got such treatment, it could be even worse for other

During the first appearance of Helen, she appears to be weaving the suffering of the Trojans. (3.122)

The female characters portrayed in Aeschylus and Sophocles’ works have considerably different personalities and roles, yet those females all have the common weaknesses of being short-sighted and stubborn. They intensify the conflicts within their families while being inconsiderate of the impacts that they may bring to their nations and societies, which leads to consequences that they are incapable of taking responsibilities for. Clytemnestra and Antigone, two major characters in their respective author’s works, possess different motivations for their deeds in the stories. While Clytemnestra is driven by the desire of revenge to murder her husband Agamemnon, Antigone acts against Creon’s will and strives to properly bury her brother. Despite having different motivations and personalities, Clytemnestra and Antigone both commit

Odysseus, dressed as a beggar went to Troy to gather information. While there, Helen saw and recognized Odysseus. To learn if it was truly Odysseus, she bathed him to remove his beggar’s clothes. To have called a guard would be an easy way to arrest Odysseus, but she didn’t. Instead, she learned what would happen while also giving Odysseus information about the Trojan side of the war. If Helen did not like Menelaus and wished the Trojans to win, many situations could have happened to allow Helen to betray Menelaus. Helen sincerely liked Menelaus and her abduction by Paris was not with her consent. In addition, when Helen puts a drug in everyone’s wine to prevent sadness the only reason for this action could be to prevent the pain of past events from resurfacing. The book specifically says, “she cast a medicine of Heartsease, free of gall, to make one forget all sorrows.” This action was done out of care for her husband. Helen seems a loyal wife, but the Helen in Trojan Women, not so

Though the Greek hero overcomes many hardships in his twenty-year journey back, he shows no mercy to the young women who slept with the suitors. Heroes, who are expected to be the gleaming, godlike examples for humanity to aspire to, should not penalize miscreants with death. Instead, like Apollo required Hercules to perform twelve labors, Odysseus might punish the maids with difficult intellectual or physical tasks or actually forgive them of their ‘sins’. The ‘hero’ also spares no thought to the fact that the maids are forced into sexual relations with the suitors, rather than being willing participants in them. Time and again, Homer establishes the unruly behavior of the suitors, who “after [putting] aside desire for food and drink…set their minds on other pleasures,” making a sly reference to their harassment of the maids who carouse with them (82). Yet, Odysseus still refuses to acknowledge the result of coercion that clearly merits forgiveness. Furthermore, the maids are unmarried, but Odysseus sees their relationships as a breach of his own relationship with the maids, though he was not reluctant to have adulterous sex with Circe. Odysseus “[mounts] Circe’s gorgeous bed,” quickly, and without any visible qualms (241). While readers might argue that Odysseus needed to sleep with Circe in order to return home to Ithaca, his maids, and ever-faithful Penelope, Odysseus exhibits tells that show he in fact, wanted to stay in Aeaea amid his comrades, “feasting on sides of meat and drafts of heady wine” until a year “had run its course”

Greek society is highly stratified, one where the distinctions between Nobles, peasants, and slaves are explicit. While many people consider women oppressed in the ancient hierarchy, this notion is somewhat contradicted in the Odyssey, where many women act as powerful figures. Penelope separates herself from the suitors that plague her palace, who are relentless in their pursuit for her hand in marriage. Circe has the capability to seduce an entire unit of Odysseus’ men and turn them into pigs. Athena benevolently guides Telemachus over the many obstacles he faces on his quest to seek out his father. Helen defects from Sparta, rallying all of Troy for her cause. Clytemnestra deceitfully plans Agamemnon's death for her new love interest, Aegisthus. Women in the Odyssey show that through seduction, trickery, and wisdom, women of Ancient Greece are able to obtain significant power.

Penelope: In the opening chapters of The Odyssey Penelope is angry, frustrated, and helpless. She misses her husband, Odysseus. She worries about the safety of her son, Telemakhos. Her house is overrun with arrogant men who are making love to her servants and eating her out of house and home, all the while saying that they are courting her. She doesn't want to marry any of them, and their rude behavior can hardly be called proper courtship. She has wealth and position; she has beauty and intelligence; most of all she has loyalty to her husband. But against this corrupt horde who gather in her courtyard shooting dice, throwing the discus, killing her husband's cattle for their feasts, and drinking his wine, she is powerless.

The next and less benevolent role is that of the seductress. Two stories about such women referred to in The Odyssey are those of the half-sisters Helen and Klytaimnestra. The entire Trojan War was caused by Helen's unfaithfulness to Menelaos; her affair caused many deaths and Odysseus would not have had to leave home if she had not run away with Paris. The other sister also caused pain and suffering by having an affair and then killing her husband, Agamemnon, with her lover on his homecoming day. The seductress is always looked upon as dangerous and harmful to mankind. The Seirenes symbolize this role; their song seduces and compels anyone listening to linger until death. Kirke tries to seduce Odysseus before she helps him, and the beautiful Kalypso entices him with sex and immortality and will not release him to go home. It is the hero's job to resist the temptation of the seductress or it will lead to his downfall.

the many constraints to which she is subject.Helen appears in only six encounters in the Iliad, with a different audience

Euripides and Sophocles wrote powerful tragedies that remain influential to this day. The vast majority of work recovered from this time is by male authorship. What remains about women of this time is written through the lens of male authors’ perspective and beliefs about the role of women in Greek culture. The works of these two playwrights frequently characterize women as unstable and dangerous. Agave, Antigone, and Medea are all undoubtedly the driving force behind the tragic action in these plays. It is their choices that lead to the pain and death of the people around them. Through an examination of the evidence from three separate works, Antigone, The Bacchae, and The Medea, the role of women in ancient Greek tragedy becomes clear. The actions of Agave, Antigone, and Medea repeatedly prove their characters instability and danger.

Its main characters are women each with differently complex personnalities. Hecabe was the queen of Troja, her situation makes her a tragic character and atracts pity. On the other hand, her daughter the princess Cassandra is dedicated to the gods; she bears the curse of having the ability if foresight yet never being trusted, thrown onto her by the god Apollo. Finaly Hecabe's daughter-in-law Andromache, proud and noble. The protagonists being so different, they each will have a different approach to the play's events. Furthermore Menelaus, one of the play's two male characters, is considered weak in contrast with the strong female personnalities present. The trojan women also question the god's power and men dependence on them. The gods in the play are depicted as flawed, therefore assimilated with simple

Unlike Thetis, Andromache’s values are clear. On the rampart in book six, she makes an impassioned plea to Hector for reason and peace. "Pity me, please!" she says, "Take your stand on the rampart here, before you orphan your son and make your wife a widow." (ll. 230-231) When her fears are realized and Hector is struck down by Achilles, she laments, "Hector, what help are you to [Astyanax], now you are dead?" (l. 571) This single statement lays bare the true folly of pride: How can one justify the preservation of honor at the cost of the destruction of all that one fought for in the first place?

Aeschylus' play, The Persians, took place at the Persian Royal Palace in Susa. It depicted the emotional response of the Persian Elders, the Queen Mother Atossa, a herald, King Xerxes, and the ghost of Darius upon hearing the news of the Persian defeat at the Battle of Salamis against the Greeks. The play began with a conversation amongst the Persians elders about their war with the Greeks. They possessed grave trepidations because of a lack of news from the front. This fear stemmed from the great risk King Xerxes took by calling all the heroes and soldiers of the Persian Empire to fight in Greece. At first, they were confident of their victory, describing their forces as an "unconquerable ocean of men". However, their fear persisted of their forces' decimation.

Marriage – the amalgamation of two imperfect souls to form an affectionate and beautiful relationship – is exceptionally intricate and delicate. Two different people with different insights come together to form a harmonious relationship. Power, or control, is a chief concept that can “make or break” the relationship. Distribution of the ruling is frequently divided into males versus females. This partition leads to many conflicts and tribulations. In the catastrophic Greek play Medea, by Euripides, the liaison between Medea and Jason demonstrates how both males and females assert power in the relationship and how incorrect usage of this supremacy leads to dilemmas.

Agamemnon returns from Troy, a victorious general, bringing home spoils, riches and fame. He is murdered on the same day as he returns. Clytemnestra, his adulterous wife, has laid in wait for her husband's homecoming and kills him whilst he is being bathed after his long journey. During the Agamemnon, large proportions of the Queen's words are justifications for her action, which is very much concerned with the sacrifice of Iphigenia to the gods, in order for the fleet to set sail for Troy. Aegisthus, the new husband of the Queen Clytemnestra, and partner in the conspiracy to murder the war hero, had reasons, which stemmed from the dispute between the Houses of Atreus and Thyestes. Was the