Promethean Motif

The “Tale of Philomene and Tereus” is an epic poem, written by John Gower, that is heavily based on a greek mythology. It focuses on the story of Philomene and how she is continuously raped by her sister’s husband who later became very angry at her for exposing his secret to his wife, Progne. This story begins in a the castle of Pandion, the king of the land.

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.

Hector has killed good Patroclus and many other friends. May such anger, which upsets the wisest, no longer affect the deathless gods and mortal men!” (145). All of these great qualities Achilles possesses both start two different behavior cycles that start at different times in the epic poem.

The play, Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles is set in the plague stricken city of Thebes. Oedipus, their king is determined to get rid of the plague. Sophocles extensively uses the motif of sight vs blindness both literally and symbolically within the play, sight is juxtaposed with ‘truth’ and ‘knowledge”.

INTRO: Despite difference of around 400 years between them Greek poet Homer and tragedian playwright Euripides explore many of the same themes in their works the Odyssey and Trojan Women (written by each respectively). Both works are inspired by the events of 12th Century BCE Trojan War that Homer previously explored in the Iliad. The two examine the worth of cunning over brute strength, the dangers of temptation and the role of women in their respective time periods. Despite having extremely similar central ideas, the techniques employed by each are markedly different. These differences arise as the result of changes in socio-historical contexts and format of each work’s presentation, for example the critical shift of the 5th century which saw the rise of sophistry and a certain scepticism in regard to Athenian leadership and the very existence of the gods.

Mary Wroth alludes to mythology in her sonnet “In This Strange Labyrinth” to describe a woman’s confused struggle with love. The speaker of the poem is a woman stuck in a labyrinth, alluding to the original myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. The suggestion that love is not perfect and in fact painful was a revolutionary thing for a woman to write about in the Renaissance. Wroth uses the poem’s title and its relation to the myth, symbolism and poem structure to communicate her message about the tortures of love.

At the beginning of Anthem by Ayn Rand, Equality 7-2521 states that it is a sin to write his individual thoughts in secrecy. Later in the story, especially in the past few sections, he has completely changed his view of his individuality and past actions against the society of his brothers. Equality 7-2521 changes from being a scared slave to his community and lifestyle, to being Prometheus, a confident man working to change the world for “I” and against “we” with his plans for the Uncharted Forest. Prometheus’ view of society is correct, opposed to how he thought when he was Equality 7-2521. He approaches this new prospective and favors it because it has given him the most, and possibly the only, happiness that he’s ever had in his life.

Power is the definitive goal for the characters of Homer’s The Odyssey. In a society ruled by gods, relationships are influenced by a gods’ power, which also affects relationships between two mortals. This explains why the relationship between Telemachus and Athena becomes submissive opposed to the dominant and disrespectful relationship, which Telemachus has with his mother, Penelope. The difference in relationships between Telemachus and Athena to Penelope and Telemachus, in Fagles’ translation of Homer’s The Odyssey, is due to the significance of power within the poem.

Despite being written in a period of time in which women were considered “Third class” citizens, and being considered expendable, the portrayal of women in ancient Greek literature is consistently rebutting societal norms through the roles of intelligent mortal women such Penelope from the Odyssey, or Antigone from the aptly named “Antigone”. These women, whose intelligence and blatant bull-headed stubbornness is displayed rather early in these stories, both rebuke the societal norms explained by the stories, and consistently proves that women are not just ancillary characters literature, and are capable of besting their male cohorts in challenges of wit and loyalty.

As individuals we grow, we magnify our knowledge, augment to our experiences, learn from our mistakes, heed the advice of others and mature into someone we can be proud of. As children, we look to others older than us to pave the way for us and educate us about life. Nevertheless, when we reach the state of adulthood, we should be able to give advice and take advice just as easy. As the years go by not only do we age, we get wiser. Being wise means being able to make a sound decision by incorporating experience, knowledge, and good judgment. One cannot be wise and arrogant. This essay explores the tragic downfall of the characters in the play Antigone, by Sophocles as a result of their inability to rely on their wisdom and their determination to remind arrogantly.

In many countries around the world, ignorance carries a considerable weight in politics, households, between friends, and in other vicinities. This ignorance can be depicted as blindness of the mind. In the Greek philosopher Sophocles’ play, Oedipus the King, Oedipus’ family and friends share their blindness in the fact that they love Oedipus and don’t have a desire to know the truth of his ruined past. They keep things from Oedipus and end up withholding the actualities of life from themselves in the process. Sophocles urges the reader that the love people clutch to can cause people to lose sight of the truth. He then expands on the blindness, demonstrating the idea that when the truth comes out, it pulls the love a person feels for another into darkness with it. Love is fragile, and can be easily destroyed by the opening of the eye, causing families to crumble underneath.

The stories that as a whole make up the body of ancient Greek mythology have treatedthe complex subject of women in various ways. Although women are generally considered to beweak and subordinate to their husbands, there exist some examples of strong, even heroic womenin certain myths. Such “extraordinary” women include Deianeira, Phaedra, Medea, Penelope,and Clytemnestra, among others. This discussion of women will focus on the latter two,comparing and contrasting them and addressing the ways in which the former is often considereda “good” wife and the latter a “bad” wife. The comparison of Penelope and Clytemnestra willultimately show that, in certain ways, the line between “good” and “bad” wife is rather blurryand the distinction between husband-killing monster and devoted, faithful wife is not as clear-cutas one might expect.The major works in which Penelope and Clytemnestra appear are Homer’s Odyssey andAeschylus’ Oresteia, particularly the Agamemnon. One of the first things to notice about theseworks is that they were both written by men, for men. Given the ancient Greek context, this is arather obvious observation, but it deserves to be pointed out because it should be expected thatmen would have a biased view of women. Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days describe thecreation of Pandora, the first of “the race of women”, as a gift and punishment from the gods.While she is made to “look like a goddess immortal, / having the lovely, desirable shape of a

Some of the greatest writers of all time actually found the start of their best ideas and works from other artists. William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, for example, used the same archetype that the Greek writer Ovid used in his short story, “Pyramus and Thisbe.” In each story, two star-crossed lovers meet against the will of their parents, which soon leads to the pair’s demise. However, more than just the archetypical plot is shared between these two masterpieces. The tragedies of Romeo and Juliet and “Pyramus and Thisbe” both have their own representations of lack of communication, misinterpretation, and impassable obstacles for crucial information.

Ignorance can blind an individual from the truth. Plays were of great importance in early Greek culture. Plays were the main source of entertainment, and one of the most exceptional examples is Oedipus the King written by Sophocles. The drama is tremendously uplifted by the character development and the excellent structure Sophocles has put forward. Interactions between characters and each character’s motivations generate brilliant themes throughout the play. Sophocles uses a technique called recognition, which illustrates a character’s turn from ignorance to the truth. The play is about the city of Thebes which is racked by a plague and a crisis that is quickly wiping humans from the earth. The great king of Thebes is Oedipus who must dispose of the problem very quickly. He welcomes information from the god Apollo, who says Oedipus must punish the killer of the former king, Laius. In one of the instances where Oedipus tries to find the killer, he encounters Tiresias, who is a physically blind man but can see everything because he is a prophet of Apollo. Tiresias possesses the information but declines to cooperate with Oedipus. After a series of verbal insults, the audience is left in awe when Tiresias puts the blame on Oedipus. Similarly to Oedipus the King, dialogue “Allegory of the Cave” written by Plato also in the early Greek times, shows that ignorance can lead an individual to be blind from the truth. Sophocles magnificently develops a question of “Who sees and who is blind”. Also in Oedipus the King, Sophocles exhibits how selflessness and ignorance can blind a person from the truth, but eventually has to go through recognition which can cause great agony.

In this essay, I will be comparing the importance of knowledge in terms of power in The Tempest and Paradise Lost. Adam and Eve are the main characters I will focus on in Paradise Lost, and the main character in The Tempest will be Prospero. During the English Renaissance, knowledge was becoming easier to obtain, and the literature became concerned with telling people about the possible unforeseen dangers of certain types of knowledge. In The Tempest and Paradise Lost, knowledge becomes more important than anything else to the main characters of each story. Also, these two literary works help reinforce the idea that the pursuit of knowledge can have devastating effects. Consequently, both stories end with Adam and Eve of Paradise Lost and Prospero of The Tempest being left to deal with the consequences of their actions.