Rape : A Common Narrative Element

Sophocles’ Theban tragedy, Oedipus the King, is not sexist. The prominent play portrays both men and women justly. The events presented by Sophocles exemplifies a level of admiration and respect for women that was not ordinary in ancient Greece. This is predominantly achieved through the dialogue of Jocasta and Oedipus, illustrating a corresponding relationship. In addition, the behavior of Jocasta, analysis of other literature, as well as the bad fortune of the male characters reaffirm that the Oedipus the King is not sexist.

In Greece, homosexuality became common within their culture; which with this socially accepted involvement, some could say, provided the groundwork for the child molestation act of pederasty. It appears the Greek’s institutionalized sodomy to a new level for children that involved predominantly upper-class men in the 7th century B.C.; shamefully, boosted with pride concerning this ‘training system as their civil duty.’ They professed to be giving needed guidance to young boys (eromenos); who became effectively courted by older men (the erastes or ‘lover’). The Greeks became flamboyant with their exploitation of adolescents and cunningly gave personal attention to young boys to produce sexual cooperation. Distinctly, there existed a real challenge between Greek homosexuals, involving who would become the ‘dominating partner;’ (which transpires as an extreme shame if you were the lesser); therefore, an infinite number of repugnant circumstances arose, while using children’s passiveness to conceal the men’s perverted actions.

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.

“Before the rape I felt good. My life was in order. I was getting ready to get married. Afterward everything changed. I kind of lost who I was as a person…

Homer’s epic, The Iliad, highlights the influence and jurisdiction that beauty provides. The prizes and glory a man accumulates from war measure his power, while beauty measures a woman’s power. Since conquering a woman is the ultimate prize to a man, her beauty represents ultimate power. Though the beauty of mortal women has the power to turn men against each other, mortal women have no influence over this power and are instead objectified by men. Immortal women, however, have authority over their beauty and are able to control men with their power. Helen, on the other hand, though mortal, has the beauty of a goddess. Yet, Helen is bound by her fate to Paris, making her power obsolete. By presenting Helen’s hopeless power and supplying the reader with insight on her suffering through her thoughts, Helen is portrayed as a tragic hero.

In Ovid Metamorphoses, the Roman literature described the ruthless act of Pluto of rape, to seize and carry away Proserpine without the consent of Ceres and in parallel in the Homeric Hymns of Demeter; Persephone was seized and carried away by Hades without the consent of Demeter. The invariant theme that was identified in both the Greek and Roman literature was the loss of innocence of Persephone/Proserpine. Despite the various differences the story was presented, it reinforced the innocence that was stolen from the god of the underworld, Hades or also known as Pluto. Throughout this paper, it will discuss the similar characteristics of the two myths such as the motive that led and encouraged the god of the underworld to kidnap

Religion, literature, and art have historically illustrated a virtuous woman as a submissive, fragile being. Her moral purity is desirable compared to the contrasting dangerous depiction of a woman that deviates from this male contrived ideology. Sexually liberated and independent characteristics in a female figure are often accompanied by malicious and cunning intentions. When femininity is used as a seductive tool of destruction, the concept of the femme fatale, or fatal woman, is introduced. Her attraction is irresistibly detrimental. Written works often utilize this archetype as a literary device to symbolize a threatening temptation. This concept is represented in the Epic of Gilgamesh and Homer’s The Odyssey. Both exploit luring women

However female homosexuality was never acceptable and was punishable by death. In contrast to the Roman views of female homosexuality, Ovid’s story about Iphis[3] suggests that he supported the behavior.

It would be easy to assume that thousands of years later, the rape culture evident in ancient Rome would have evolved, changed significantly, or quite simply been eradicated, but in this world, there still exists many similarities between ancient Rome’s rape culture and modern rape culture. In Livy The Early History of Rome, we read the founding myths which shaped Rome. These stories include the tale of Romulus and Remus, but I will be talking about their mother, Rhea Silvia who was made into a Vestal Virgin, raped, and imprisoned, and how her story relates to the modern world. Although rape is not as pivotal in modern countries’ narratives as it was in Rome’s history, the culture and actions towards rape have remained the similar.

In Livy’s story the “Rape of Lucretia,” the writer illustrated prime examples on how gender is represented in Roman society. The assumptions of both men and women roles within the Roman Empire are defined and presented within this legend. The expectations of men, women, and honor are identified to provide examples of the conventions about gender in Roman society. Men in the legend were presented as being heavy drinkers and strong. On the other hand, women were represented as being pure and weak in the eyes of men. The contrasting views of both men and women help illustrate the assumptions about gender in Roman society defined in the story.

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

Nonetheless, the present tense used between lines 433 and 447 drives this carmen perpetuum, and us within it, onward. The effect is only to stress the endlessness of Dis, but also of those incarcerated inside. However, we ought to consider the reliability of our implied narrator when he omits the twin sons of Aloeus, Salmoneus and Pirithous mentioned by Virgil [Aen.6.575-605]. Hardly a trapping of Callimachean novelty, the manner in which the poet crafts his depiction of Dis largely reflects the function of the text itself. Perhaps Tantalus, Sisyphus, Ixion, Tityos & the Belides are simply more reckless, whose petty (rather than hubristic) actions might better accord with Ovid’s Junonian katabasis. Conceivably even, together they represent a sufficiently broad palette of immorality, evoked by the density of pauses between 458 & 460, to convey Ovid’s moral didacticism. What is that exactly? Ovid’s inversion of Sisyphus’ traditional task petis…urgues (suggesting that even unending punishment may not have conveyed a moral to him) might evoke the dangers of aspiring beyond oneself. Yet, equally the poet’s presentation of the gods, certainly on a macro scale, is not all to aspire for. Even in this passage ingemuit limen under Juno’s grauis; a burden that is not entirely august but of an equally ethical weight. Hence where Virgil employs these incarcerated victims to express the pathos of death, characterising Aeneas’ piety; the implied author’s moral convictions make this passage didactic rather than

Rape is an experience which shakes the foundations of the lives of the victims. For many its effect is long term, impairing their capacity for personal relationships, altering their behaviour and values and generating fear, Temkin (1986:17).

An ancient prose narrative, all versions of “Arachne and Minerva” warn readers of the consequences facing those who disrespect the gods by recounting Athena’s actions when faced with mortal hubris. In studying prose narratives, William Bascom defined a valid myth as one: set in an earlier world, focused on a main character of a divine nature, and considered sacred and true by its original audience. Ovid’s “Arachne and Minerva” adheres to Bascom’s definition of a myth because it was viewed as a truthful account of the past, detailed the goddess Athena’s true process of addressing human disrespect, and focused the legitimate divine repercussions that follow

Most people would agree that as you grow up you learn by seeing, feeling ,touching , smelling, and hearing . Albert Bandura supports this by a theory he created called the Social Learning Theory (McLeod, 2011). Social Learning Theory is a theory that explains that behavior is learned by your social environment, interactions and observations of others. With this theory I would say it supports opinion in which I would say that rape is not something somebody just decides one day to do. I believe that rape is learned throughout time. There are many social and even media factors that sometimes may come off with the intention that rape is acceptable. In some media factors they may even perceive that being forcibly raped is pleasurable. Movies tend to do it often and sometimes movies don 't realize that what people see on television can sometimes influence people to see these acts as a norm. For instance the fact that a college kid is in a frat and he 's in a party there is a good percentage that he would reenact what television had stereotype frats boys to do. Television would label the frat boys as potential rapist and the human mind would consider that when you take on that role as a frat boy. One of the biggest media factors all the way from television to the internet that for so many years that perceive rape as acceptable is pornography.