At first, her dream of his death keeps him home, but Decius is able to convince him that this wife is silly in her concern. Clearly, Calpurnia is not as powerful a woman as Portia. However, both women go to extreme actions to attempt to sway their husbands. Ironically, Calpurnia's dream of a Caesar statue bleeding from a hundred holes with which Romans bath their hands, is an accurate prediction of Caesar's death, which occurs in the Act 3. Decius first mocks the dream, saying, "Bring up the Senate till another time, / When Caesar's wife shall meet with better dreams" 2.2.98-99).
Sophocles’(496-406) second most famous play Antigone contains many contrasts. According to G. M. Kirkwood, “A contrast between Antigone and Creon lies at the heart of the drama can be taken for granted” (118). In the story, Antigone wants to bury her brother, who fought bravely and died on the battlefield, but to do so would be to break the law since her brother fought on the side of Argos, the enemy of Thebes. Creon, her uncle, who has become king, represents the law. Although she cares for and respects her brother, her conscience will not let her disrespect her brother.
Medea is the tragic tale of a woman scorned. It was written in 431 B.C. by the Greek playwright, Euripides. Eruipides was the first Greek poet to suffer the fate of so many of the great modern writers: rejected by most of his contemporaries (he rarely won first prize and was the favorite target for the scurrilous humor of the comic poets), he was universally admired and revered by the Greeks of the centuries that followed his death('Norton Anthology';). Euripides showed his interest in psychology in his many understanding portraits of women ('World Book';).
These people are called humanist. Many people believe that Ancient Greece is just famous for the movie “Hercules” and those columns on the White House. The truth is, that if the Ancient Greeks didn’t accomplish as much as they had, then life today would be drastically altered. The Greeks are a huge part of our culture, customs, and government. The Ancient Greeks are the most significant to western culture because of its creation of different types of government, ideas on philosophy, and the impact of Hellenistic culture.
The essay sheds light on the impacts of Medea on the image of women in Ancient Greece. Euripides’ use of language and structure helps Medea, the main character, create a strong and meaningful initial impact on the audience as they are led to sympathize with her. After Jason leaves Medea heartbroken and shattered, her situation depreciates, as King Creon orders Medea “take your sons and go, into exile” (page 17). This event will cause some of the men in the audience to sympathise with Medea, because she was sent into exile after her husband left her and their children, to marry a princess. Euripides structures the play in order for sympathy towards Medea to build up slowly.
Electra fights with her mother, Clytemnestra, and her mother’s lover, Aegisthus, because she feels betrayed by them as they killed her father. When Electra and Orestes are finally reunited, they plot against their fathers killers, and finally kill them. The play has several themes, such as vengeance and deception which are extenuated by the heightened realism style of the play. In Electra’s introductory speech, I would emphasises her agony of her father’s death, as this is the main reason the character is vengeful. To fit with the heightened realism of the play, I would exaggerate the mental pain that the character is going through by associating some lines with physical pain, such as ‘But my mother, and her bed mate Aegisthus, Split open his head with a murderous axe’.
The most absurd and humorous of Aristophanes' comedies are those in which the main characters, the heroes of the story, are women. Smart women. One of the most famous of Aristophanes' comedies depicting powerfully effectual women is the Lysistrata, named after the female lead character of the play. It portrays Athenian Lysistrata and the women of Athens teaming up with the women of Sparta to force their husbands to end the Peloponnesian War. To make the men agree to a peace treaty, the women seized the Acropolis, where Athens' financial reserves are kept, and prevented the men from squandering them further on the war.
Both women can be seen as victims of oppression, as they both are products of their Patriarchal societies, and the fates that belie them only prove to oppress them further. Medea's position as a victim of fate is defined by the first lines of the play, in which the nurse tells the tale of Medea and Jason so far. Medea had, through Hera's influence, fallen in love with Jason and given up her home, killed her brother, and taken various risks upon her to save him and live with him in a foreign country (Medea, 1-15). Throughout the play, Medea's ill fate is recognized most clearly by her servants and fellow women. According to the nurse, Medea had gone through the entire adventure to retrieve the Golden Fleece and defied her household only to be deserted by Jason and left
Finally, she admits to her nurse and confidante that she loves “the son of that Amazon mother” (Kline 264). Years before she demanded that Hippolytus be exiled because of this same love for him. Rather than dishonor herself, she has Theseus banish him. After much discussion with both her nurse Oenone and her lady-in-waiting Panope, Phaedra decides to confess her love to Hippolytus and suggest an alliance for the throne. Hippolytus is appalled by this confession and forgets his sword in his hurry to leave her presence.
Throughout all ancient Greek literature, there is one theme that consistently arises. This is the theme of women. In ancient Greek literature, women and depicted as cunning deceitful people and this implication is supported by characters such as Clytemnestra, who embodies all that is fraudulent and deceptive in the world. She loses our faith in women because of her ruthlessness in killing her husband Agamemnon and she is clearly feared by those under her. One example of this is the watchman whom she has posted on top of a building to look for the beacon signal.