Paris Vs. Helen

        Penelope and Helen are the real human women who can steal men's hearts with their own feminine ways and they never let their man go.  Helen stole the heart of Paris and later married Menelaus-the love that Paris had for Helen began the long Trojan War.  Even with her shaded past, Helen is able to live her life as a proper adjusted middle-class matron.  Penelope and Odysseus were only together for a few years before he was sent off to war and, while he was gone for over twenty years, his love for her lasted.  Penelope is the symbol of marital fidelity, of trust, honor  and devotion.

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 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

At the beginning of the story, the gods are debating what to do with the Greeks after they pillaged Troy, but more specifically, violated Athena’s shrine. Athena asks for help and says to Poseidon, “I want to help the Trojans who were my enemies, and make the Greek army’s homecoming a bitter one.” (Euripides 63). To which Poseidon replies, “You’re so fickle. Your mind leaps here and there: now you hate, and now you love, and both in excess.” (Euripides 65). Even Poseidon admits to the “fickleness” of the goddess since her allies during the war were the Greeks. This lends itself to show that Helen could be telling the truth about the goddesses having an argument about the beauty of each other and Aphrodite forcing Helen to run away with Paris. Helen also helps her argument by pointing out that the fight was preordained by the gods based on the prophecy about Paris, and then blames Paris’s mother and father for letting Paris live, rather than slaying Paris and trying to stop the prophecy from coming true. Through the many effective arguments, Helen shows that she did not ask to be carried away by Paris and that she liked Menelaus. Menelaus seems very weak compared to Helen, especially since he seems to not be able to make up his mind whether to kill her or not. In the end, Menelaus seems to decide on letting her live, though he still tells

The Other Paris Love waxes timeless. It is passionate and forbidden and a true head rush. Marriage, on the other hand, is practical, safe, a ride up the socioeconomic ladder. In "The Other Paris," Mavis Gallant weaves the tale of Carol and Howard, a fictional couple who stand on the verge of a loveless marriage, to symbolize the misguided actions of the men and women in the reality of the 1950s, the story's setting. By employing stereotypical, ignorant, and altogether uninteresting characters, Gallant highlights the distinction between reality and imagination and through the mishaps and lack of passion in their courtship mockingly comments on society?s views of love and marriage.

In Antigones case, her tragic flaw is pride. This is shown various times throughout the play. For instance, she says that "Creon is not strong enough to stand in my [her] way." She says this when talking about going against the kings, Creon, wishes and bury her bother. She also says,"All these men here would praise me were their lips not frozen shut with fear of you." Saying such things is a very daring act considering that he is the King and has anger issues.

Explore the themes of speech and silence in Hippolytus: Euripides adopts the themes of speech and silence within Hippolytus in order to enable plot progression, to create dramatic effect and to develop his characterisation of key individuals such as Aphrodite, Phaedra, the Nurse, Theseus and Hippolytus himself. Through exploration of the

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”

By taking the wife of Menelaus, he had dishonored him. While his brother is described as a great warrior, Paris is a described by Homer as a pretty boy that has success with women due to his charm. However, none of those traits seem to matter because he shies away from battle and he is mainly the object of disdain. In chapter 3, Paris didn’t have the courage to fight Menelaos for his own wrong doing. In chapter 6, as Hector arrives back to the city to make a sacrifice he sees Paris whom is not involved in the fighting. Another character that is depicted as dishonorable is seen in Book 2. Agamemnon decides to test the desire and courage of his soldiers by suggesting a retreat. The results were definitely counter to what Agamemnon intended, his troops quickly prepared their ships to depart. Odysseus quickly rallies the troops and reminds them of Calchas prophecy. However, one soldier Thersites whom is described as deformed and ugly (perhaps a metaphor because of his dishonor) argues that the war isn’t worth fighting. Odysseus quickly scolds Thersites and infers that Thersites has no honor because he does not wish to continue to fight. Odysseus then goes on to hit Thersites with a scepter and the Achaeans agree to fight again.

A Comparison of the Relationship between Paris and Helen and the Relationship between Hector and Andromache

Virgil portrays the main female characters of the Aeneid as stubborn, selfish individuals who manipulate those around them to accomplish their goals. As seen throughout the first six books of the poem, Juno acts against Aeneas because he is destined to found Rome and destroy Carthage— a city dear to

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

Paris is offered Helen by Aphrodite, and so he takes Helen as his wife from Menelaus. Paris may not have known that taking Helen would have resulted in the Trojan War; however, he still accepted Helen as a bribe, making him an extremely greedy person. After seeing all the bloodshed and lives at the hands of Paris, he should’ve realized that he needed to return Helen. Anyone with the lowest sense of morality would realize that the right thing to do is to return Helen. Paris was lucky enough to be saved by Aphrodite after he was nearly killed by Menelaus. In the last few lines of Book 3 it is clear how the people feel about Paris and what Paris needs to do:

can simply climb onto a Greek ship and sail home with the army. The very thought seems to be beyond the world of the poem. Helen’s position as possession is made plain when Iris comes to fetch her to witness the duel that Menelaos and Paris will fight over her. Looking forward to a decisive end to the fighting, Iris eagerly informs Helen that “you shall be called the beloved wife of the man who wins you” (3.138). It is not only that Helen is not to have any choice in the

out when Paris has an affair with Helen. Paris is the son of the king of troy, and Helen is from Sparta.