Hermaphroditus The King's 'Metamorphoses'

They fought for Helen as if she was an object in which they had to have as their property. This also shows what role a woman’s beauty can have in a Greek man’s life.

Love is a supernatural force that unites two beings, whether they are the two most unlikely candidates or childhood friends, and it inspires hope in all. Homer’s The Odyssey is the tale of the epic hero Odysseus on his quest back from the Trojan War, and all the hardships he faces as a result of his decisions. Throughout the course of the book, love plays a large role, and is his fuel to return to Ithaka, his home. There are three types of love are presented in the epic; lust, which is purely sexual and lacks a deeper meaning, family love, such as that displayed between Odysseus and his men, colleagues and Telemakhos, and lastly there is true love, which is shown between Odysseus and Penelope, true love holding the most value and power over all other forms of love.

The infidelity amongst the Greek Gods is a common occurrence as well as there being a lack of morality- Zeus is married to his elder sister Hera, and Aphrodite and Ares, her brother, are sleeping together. The Gods do not put as much emphasis on the idea of fidelity as the humans represented in the poem do, this is clearly depicted by the fact that there are two different goddesses for love and marriage. This brings forward they idea that love did not need to be present when a marriage was chosen. Aphrodite was forced into a marriage with Hephaestus, being as unhappy within the marriage that she was, later became the mistress of Ares, her brother, and being caught red handed by her enraged husband. In addition, the troublesome union between

• Throughout the story, many characters show love for each other. For example, Mariam loves Jalil unconditionally as a child, then Mariam shows a strong love for Aziza. Laila loves Tariq, etc. • In the story there is a clear distinction between forced marriage and true love. Mariam hopes for her marriage to turn into love, only to be let down by abuse.

Another example of Zeus’ predisposition for not having control over his more human needs is the fact that Aphrodite has power over him. Aphrodite, the very powerful goddess of love and lust, flaunts about her alleged power over Zeus. This, however, angered Zeus and led to a very stern punishment for Aphrodite. Zeus was growing tired of Aphrodite’s arrogance, so he punished her by making her fall in love with a mortal named Anchises.

Odysseus has shown this many times throughout the poem, but mainly his disloyalty shines through in love. One may say that “love hurts” is a major theme in this epic, escecially for Odysseus wife Penelope. Penelope has waited 20 long years for her husband to return home to her and their son Telemachus. She has avoided the “love-hungry” suitors and stayed loyal to her husband, not sleeping with anyone, but much to her dismay Odysseus has cheated on her more than once. Once, while on Kirke’s island where Odysseus says, “’ I entered Kirke’s flawless bed of love/’” (X. 390). And twice again on Calypso’s Island, the “hero” Odysseus sleeps with a women other than his wife, adding to the long list of why he is not a modern

The major principles and beliefs of Ancient Greece are grasped through their stories, those written by intellectual, philosophical men such as Ovid, Euripides, Homer, Sophocles, and many others. Their captivating tales consisted of tragedy, chaos, deaths, love affairs, and heroic deeds; however, they all had one minor flaw: the degrading attributes they gave to women, like that of infidelity and weakness. Their goals were to define men as heroic, value their strength and hard work, emphasize their status, and to imply a patriarchal society. However, blinded by these over-powering attributes, we easily disregard that women, too, in fact, showed signs of heroism and bravery. Their roles were essential, despite their depictions. Just like today, women were the reason for protection, affection, guiding, rationale, and of course, life.

In “The Trojan Women,” there are four enduring women who dominate the play and only two men who say anything at all. Moving us with their rants and dramatic reactions, these women engulf the audience in overwhelming grief and irresistible pride. Euripides emphasizes these four women to help us understand one of his main themes. Hecuba with her pride, Cassandra with her virginity and uncanny wisdom, Andromache with her misery and heartache, and Helen with her powerful, seductive reasoning all represent superior illustrations of feminism throughout the play.

Living in ancient patriarchal Greek society, women were held to strict values and were always subordinate to men. Sophoclean tragedy provides a window into this society, and reflects on the topic of gender inequality; however, the works show a disconnect of relativity between different points of view. While male characters in both Oedipus the King and Antigone presume that their female counterparts are held equally to them, the female characters are much more aware of societal differences that justify their inferiority.

What can be sweeter than a mother's unconditional love? In most nuclear families, the family members interact with each other to support and construct a home with values of love and prosperity. However, not every home can be categorized as loving and bountiful as certain circumstances can cause an unfortunate crisis that impacts family members to change how they perceive one another. Revenge, being an approach to handle some circumstances, is a very common topic in Greek mythology which, leads the characters to take justice into their own hands by any means necessary— to restore their honor. In Ovid's poem the Metamorphoses, tales of grandeur and unpleasant fates are retold in sequence, revealing heroic people, lessons, and origins from stories

In Ovid’s stories about love it almost never leads to a happy ending, although the quest for love is prevalent. In the myths, sex without love, seems to be a recurring theme and rarely do things go well for our hero’s or damsels. Rape is how the gods show affection, Peleas uses bondage for his display of affection for Thetis, where as Tereus uses mutilation, as rips poor Philomela’s tongue out after his rape, foreplay for the women in mythology is not something to be dreamed of. The women are no better as Medea’s love for Jason causes her to betray her family, and Scylla to scalp her father, even the goddess of love, Venus is denied happiness. No matter how many times Jupiter seduces a poor maiden, or Juno unleashes her revenge, the

In Mandelbaum’s The Metamorphoses of Ovid, book six tells us a story about Arachne who is the daughter of Idmon and an incredible weaver, challenged by the goddess Minerva. When Arachne wins the challenge it causes Minerva to strike back with violence. When reading Ovid’s stories, we recognize that he wrote stories based on the way the mind contemplates; interest in human awareness. Meanwhile reading Metamorphoses of Ovid helps us understand characters emotions of powerful and powerless. The characters express jealousy, envy and anger towards each other. At this time, the gods have the power to manipulate and use their evil strategies. I will be focusing on Arachne and Minerva; how the emotional powerful takes over the powerless and the powerless

This protection instilled by Zeus is related to the notion that the end result for Semele and Dionysus was subject to a sexual matter. Another key erotic relationship can be observed in the dominantly female following of Dionysus or the Bacchic women he employs to his worship. Of these women, Agave is noticeably the most important member. Dionysus did not choose her as one of his maddened women by coincidence, and the madness he inflicts could be seen as erotic in itself. The irony of Dionysus exploiting Agave in this way stems from Pentheus’s assumption that his mother along with the other Bacchic women are raving in sex and drunkenness.

Aphrodite the goddess of beauty reported, “How could Zeus break the law of marriage between immortals and mortals!?” Zeus had seemed to see a connection between the mortal goddess and Cupid. “I saw the love in their eyes toward each other, even if it meant breaking rules to make someone happy,” said Zeus.

To further give evidence that women did indeed have some control in their sex lives, we must return to Aristophanes who say that many women who are split from the androgynous human whole are “lecherous women who run after men.” Much like a modern concept of a woman’s sexual freedom, she would be shamed for chasing after men the same way that a man does a woman.