Compare Antigone And Lysistrata

Antigone is a play written by Sophocles and is about a young girl named Antigone who struggles with written laws of her city, Thebes. Her uncle is King Creon and sentences her to death because she decided to bury her brother, Polynices, after it was declared that he deserved no burial. Antigone's sister, Ismene, was too afraid to go along with her. Antigone's fiancé, (who is also

Gender and its roles are exposed in the story of Antigone as the central themes. Roles and rules are set and followed by several people in this era, this is appreciated in this text. Ideas of contradiction to these rules were not explored. In Greek mythology, several women held positions of power, but none of these women were human, making the idea of a powerful woman godlike and unattainable, as if to keep woman in their place, which of course, was always under the rule of the superior gender, the male. To challenge a patriarchy with feminism was dangerous, for both sexes were equally protective of it, leaving the challenger desolate in the battle against it. To rely on women to help other women rebel against this social norm was not probable, in the contrary, women held each other accountable for complying to these rules and punished those who didn’t. Women were their gender’s prevalent critics and suppressors, not only because they feared the repercussions, but since they didn’t have the means to rebel against it.

Misogyny pervades the picture Aeschylus, Aristophanes, and Sophocles paint of Athenian society. In their literature, however, female characters catalyze plot by challenging this picture. Such characters--from Sophocles’ Antigone to Aristophanes’ Lysistrata--face grim consequences for acting independently. Clytemnestra and Cassandra from Aeschylus’s Agamemnon exemplify this archetype of autonomy and destruction. When they confront injustice, male characters perceive them as vindictive and hysterical. This paper will compare the standards of justice Aeschylus’s society imposes on men and women. I will argue that Clytemnestra and Cassandra are protectors of divine justice who reject subservience and thereby transcend the sexism of their society.

Sophocles, a great tragedian, was the one who gave Greek tragedies their traditional form. An important part of traditional Greek tragedies is the presence of a tragic hero. All tragic heroes should have the characteristics of rank, a tragic flaw, a downfall, and a recognition of mistakes. The seemingly tragic hero is Antigone. She wants to bury her brother Polyneices even though this would be going against Creon, who is her uncle and the king. When Antigone buries Polyneices Creon sentences her to death because of it. In Antigone by Sophocles the tragic hero is not Antigone because she only meets the characteristic of a tragic flaw, hers being pride, but doesn 't meet the other three characteristics of a

Throughout history, art has been a reflection of society, an indication to culture and a way to analyze historical context. Art is a gateway to understanding how people think, feel, and act in the context the art was created in. Athenian theater remains popular in modern times; it is not only timeless in its message but it can be useful in analyzing the way in which people lived during the time. Oedipus and Lysistrata, both Greek dramas, prove an example of this: they provide a reflection on the views of women at the time. The playwrights, Sophocles and Aristophanes, were both highly popularized at the time, deeply culturally ingrained into society and therefore highly reliable when it comes to cultural observation. The role of women in Ancient Athens was that of subservience and limitation. Respectable women held no job, instead bound housework and childcare. While higher class women often had

To start, Antigone was written by Sophocles to make the people question their faith in both their religion and their government. Putting a young woman in a position in which she had to choose between staying loyal to her country and staying loyal to the gods, Sophocles showed the men of Athens in their comfortable lives that there wasn’t always a simple solution to all of life’s problems. It is important to note that it was only the men of Athens that were shown because they were the only ones that were able to see this remarkable play because of its depiction of women, specifically through Antigone. In a way, if women had been able to see this play, being

In the Land of Ancient Greece, one of power Gods and Legendary hero’s. Two men wrote two extraordinary plays about the lives of the Greek people. The first was written by the author Sophocles, and his work Antigone is a play about a young girl who goes against the wishes of her king to abided by the will of the Gods. The second was written by Aristophanes and this piece of work was called Lysistrata. This play told the tale of the women of Greece as they try and find a way to end the Peloponnesian War. These two tales both revolve around the women of Greece however, these two tales show us that both what traditional life was like for the women of Greece and how those same beliefs were at times challenged. In this essay, I will explore how both

First, the major characters in both of the plays are suffering through great pain and end up with death. The drama Antigone which is written by Sophocles, tells the story of Antigone. Antigone is a tragic heroine who doesn’t have the power to challenge the authority of the king; she has to obey the rules. However, she shows her strong will and voices her opinions

In the ancient world, views of women were often derogatory, yet some viewed women as intelligent and powerful. The Epic of Gilgamesh and Lysistrata both display the complex opinions towards women of the time. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, the characters Shamhat and Ishtar provide the audience with a biased view towards women, but this work also provides a more positive opinion of women through Siduri, Utnapishtim's wife, and Aruru. As paralleled in Aristophanes’s Lysistrata, Calonice and Peace represent negative perspectives of women, but this play also portrays women positively with Lysistrata and Myrrhine. The ancient texts of The Epic of Gilgamesh and Lysistrata simultaneously depict women as inferior, equal to, and superior to men to represent the complex views of women that were present during ancient times.

The different portrayals of female characters Antigone and Lysistrata illustrate the fundamental nature of the proper Athenian woman. Sophocles' Antigone allows the reader to see that outrage over social injustices does not give women the excuse to rebel against authority, while Aristophanes' Lysistrata reveals that challenging authority in the polis becomes acceptable only when it's faced with destruction through war. Sophocles and Aristophanes use different means to illustrate the same idea; the ideal Athenian woman's ultimate loyalty lies with her polis. This Greek concept of the proper woman seems so vital when considering Athenian society because both a tragedy and comedy revolve around this concept. The differing roles accorded to

In Antigone and Lysistrata the tension between the polis and oikos is reflected in different ways. Antigone prioritizes oikos over polis, while Creon prioritizes polis over oikos. The men in Lysistrata favor fighting for the state over being at home while the women want their husbands with them instead of being at the war. We find ample evidence of different conflicts and similarities in both plays, but the male's prioritizing polis over oikos and the female's prioritizing oikos over polis causes the central tension in Antigone and Lysistrata.

For centuries men have been finding ways to gain control over everything and everyone. One group that has been oppressed by men throughout history are women. Men have placed rules and regulations upon women making them seen as unequal and inferior. Was it fear? Was it the hunger for power? Was is the highness of superiority? Whatever the reasons were, men had to be seen as the highest being next to whom they worshiped. In the play Antigone by Sophocles, the audience is exposed to the roles of men and women in an ancient Greece society known as Thebes. Although ancient Greece was a male-dominant society where women had as much freedom as a slave, Sophocles’ main character in the play, Antigone, is an example of a brave, strong-minded woman who goes against the limitations that were unfairly set upon women during that time to do what she believes is right. In this play, gender roles assists in the process of portraying the story since it affects some of the decisions of the characters and helps lead the story into the climax.

Bernstein, Elizabeth Dr. Thomas Haeussler CWL 320 M/W 8am Essay One: Lysistrata Lysistrata is an example of a comedic story that can apply to many generations, cultures and intellects. With Aristophanes’ combination of witty, bawdy, vulgar, yet thematic comedy, it offers its readers a story for the ages. What I found to be the most humorous aspect of Lysistrata was the juxtaposition of how the comedy was initially intended to be viewed at the time it was written, and what makes it funny in today’s comedic culture.

In the end, I think it is safe to say while Antigone and Lysistrata had very little truth behind them, they each tell us about the lives of Greek women and about Greek society as a whole. In the Antigone, while King Creon thought he was above the Gods and Antigone’s sister like most women would follow his rule. Antigone however, would not do such a thing, she would defy her King in order to obey the true rulers of Greece, The Gods of Olympus. Antigone would also put her family first which in Greek culture at the time was among one of the top importance’s. We then saw in Lydistrata, how one women would stop at nothing in order to put an end to the Peloponnesian war this included putting this woman into situations where a traditional Greek woman would never have partaken.

In the play Lysistrata, Aristophanes imagines the women of Greece "fighting" for peace with a very elemental, and essentially feminine, weapon: sexual blackmail. An Athenian woman named Lysistrata plans to convince women to abstain from sex in order to end the war between the men of Greece. Lysistrata brings the Spartan and Theban women into the plan as well. Her idea was to not just starve the Athenian men of sex, but men on all sides of the conflict. She hoped that this would bring them to the negotiating table to find a solution for peace between their city-states. Lysistrata is a woman of strong convictions who, being tired of the war, its cost, and the continued absence of men from the home because of their presence at the front lines;