Synopsis: Impatiently waiting for the women of Athens and Sparta to arrive, Lysistrata plans to discuss the war between the Spartans and the Athens in front of the Akropolis in Athens. While she is waiting, she rants about how women might not show up because they lack organizational and structural power and responsibility, but her rant gets interrupted by Kleonike, her neighbor who is older than her. Kleonike tells Lysistrata that all that women possess is beauty and glamour and those characteristics cannot possibly end the war. However, Lysistrata claims that that is exactly the key to ending the war. As Kleonike gets fascinated by Lysistrata’s idea, two groups of women led by Myrrhine and Lampito (Spartan) enter with Ismenia and Korinthian.
His goal in writing this play was to make Phaedra a more sympathetic character to the reader and less of a villain in which she was portrayed as in the original myth and Euripides’ tragedy. Aricia is the princess of the Blood Royal of Athens who, after Theseus killed all of the men in her family, was forbidden to marry in order to make sure she doesn’t give birth to any boys who could contend for the throne. However, with a twist of fate, Hippolytus fell in love with Aricia, creating a forbidden love between them. Of course Theseus had her off limits so she would not be able to have children, but as fate would have it, Theseus was believed to have died while he was out on one of his travels. This gave both Hippolytus and Phaedra an opportunity to chase after personal desires, but unbeknownst to Hippolytus, Phaedra wanted Hippolytus to herself.
However when passion gets in-between justice to voice of reason is muted. To begin, sympathy is given to Medea when first introduced that her husband, who she has sacrificed literally everything for, has left her for another woman. Medea changed herself to fit the standards for a Greek wife that society had molded, but had no success. She could not understand why he would do this adulterous crime that breaks the logical code of general conduct in ancient Greece. This conflict raises the value of passion over justice because Medea takes whatever steps necessary to achieve what she believes is equal
In ancient Greece, a woman could be pressured to marry a man, a woman could not control any property at all, and a woman could not even command respect from her own servants unless supported by a man (Od. pgs, 18, 19, 49). Odysseus’s wife, Penelope, reflects the image of a free, non slave woman living in the ancient Greek time period. The Greek society of that time frame has built up general standards that almost everyone followed. One of these standards is that if a woman becomes a widow, then she should re-marry (Od.
In the Greek period, women were not aloud to have any of their own properties; such as land or houses. If a woman wanted to have something of her own during that period she was cast out and more then likely stoned to death. In todays society however, a woman who owns her own house or car is respected for being independent and being able to support herself. Today, women are looked up on as the “brats” that always get their way. Some people even go as far to try to prove that women get better treatment in some cases because of the sexual status.
Although Helen was the most beautiful woman in the world, she was manipulated and deemed secondary to her male counterparts. Helen can be looked at as a woman who had no say so in how she wanted to run her life and was manipulated throughout the years. In the Iliad the Greek Goddess Aphrodite played the key role in controlling Helen. Helen was taken from her husband Meneleus and could not return. Aphrodite being the goddess of love was the one who took Helen from him, and forced her to stay with Paris of Troy, which sparked the Trojan War.
During classical Athens women could not leave there homes unless there was a religious festival, birth of a child, or funeral but have to have their heads covered. In Athens, women like slaves and resident aliens, had few rights under the law. “The courage of a man is seen in commanding, of a women is obeying” (Document Q). This was said by the student of Plato and the teacher of Alexander the Great, Aristotle one of the greatest philosophers. This idea, of women having to be subordinate to men, passed down from teacher to student is what caused it to spread worldwide (Document Q).
In my opinion Athena is the most important female character in The Odyssey. She is a powerful Goddess who helps Odysseus return to his home of Ithaca, she looks after Odysseus and his family like a guardian angel. Without Athena he wouldn't have been able to escape the Island of Ogygia on which Calypso had kept him. In Book 1 Athena goes to Zeus to ask him if he can help Odysseus escape from Calypso's island and Zeus agrees to send the god Hermes to tell Calypso that Odysseus 'must now set out for home'. If it hadn't been for Athena then the unhappy Odysseus would have remained on the island with Calypso because she wanted him to stay with her and marry her and she even offered to make Odysseus immortal as long as he would remain with in Ogygia.
She was expected to just step aside and watch her husband and children be taken away from her after she sacrificed everything to have a life with him. But, because of her courage, she stayed, and thus began the happenings that led to her downfall. According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is a character, usually of high birth, who is neither totally good nor totally evil, and whose downfall is brought about by a tragic weakness or error in judgment. Medea’s downfall is brought on by a result of both. Medea exhibited hamartia here as she allowed the anger and bitterness she felt toward Jason, her husband, to convince herself that punishment, in any shape or form, was completely justifiable.
Instead of living her life in shame, she decided to marry him to cover this dark part of her past. Their marriage was based off of strife and anger. From their marriage came Ares—god of war, Hephaestus, Eileithyia—goddess of childbirth and Hebe—the goddess of youth. Another one of his female counterparts was Metis, a cunning Titan goddess of good counsel and wisdom, was a counselor to Zeus during the Titan War. After being in power, he impregnated her.