To what extent does Ischomachus' conversation with Socrates give a different picture of an Athenian marriage from the law court speeches you have studied? Ischomachus' conversation with Socrates portrays the image of a perfect wife and how his perfect wife supposedly acts. However, as this essay will prove, this is not the case with all Athenian marriages shown with evidence from the other court cases. This will be done through various methods; by discussing the nature of the evidence, the circumstances of an Athenian marriage, the role of wives, the communication between husband and wife and wives' freedom and protection. It will come to a conclusion deciding whether or not Ischomachus' conversation with Socrates gives a different picture of an Athenian marriage from the other law court speeches.
But in Glück’s poem, this brings to mind the Salem witch trials or Joan of Arc burning at the stake. Gretel is in darkness, but the witch is lit forever in our minds by fire. Women are tortured as witches, and the child who grows into a woman is forever tortured by that memory. Orange blossoms are the traditional flower of weddings, but in Mock Orange the sickly-sweet flower is a symbol of sex as an imposed rite. That is also the theme in A Myth of Devotion.
Each role adds a different element and is essential to the telling of the story. Mothers portrayed in this poem are seen as givers of “pity and sorrow” rather than true supporters of their sons and husbands when in war. “She is too wise, /too clear-eyed, sees alternatives too well, /Penelope, Ikarious daughter--/that young bride whom we left behind” (Homer 199 519-22). In this scene Odysseus sees the soul of Agamemnon in Hedes the underworld; Agamemnon was murdered by his own wife Clytemnestra. He tries to warn Odysseus, he says women are no longer faithful.
Pearl is a sort of living version of her mother’s scarlet letter. Like the letter, she is something that stands out in society by being an uncommon child. Yet, even as a reminder of Hester’s sin, Pearl is more than a mere punishment to her mother: she is also a blessing. She represents not only sin, but also the vital spirit of that sin. Thus, Pearl’s existence gives her mother reason to live, bolstering her spirits when she is tempted to give up; acting as a hero who constantly saves her mother from the tortures of Puritan society.
The knight’s tale, an alliterative romance and one of the better-known Arthurian stories, and the wife’s tale, the best-known of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, give insight into the specific roles of women in the late Middle Ages. The two tales want the reader to determine and recognize that the women are mostly portrayed as manipulative seductresses. Many times a woman is blamed for a man’s fall from goodness to evil. Other times, the plots include women who meet the expectations of what some during the times believed women should be—more reflective to the bible, loyal to their husbands, pure, sweet, and helpless. In the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Lady Bertilak, the main female character and the most important characters in this medieval poem, is prompted by her husband to discover if Sir Gawain is pure or not.
Having a good idea of the Odyssey myth, when hearing the story, the Greek audience will already know that Penelope is a faithful wife. She loves Odysseus will all her heart and cries every night for his safe return. They will know that she is a ‘faithful woman’, which to some men at the time may seem as an oxymoron, because the majority of the women who are represented in plays are often, like Clytemnestra, evil and devious. I think that Greek audiences may be suspicious of Penelope for this fact and they may feel that her intentions are not all that they seem. She may be putting on a façade of love for her husband out of detest for the Suitors that are after her hand in marriage.
The Significance of Eurikleria, Arete and Penelope I believe Odysseus faces two types of women, honorable and dangerous. Figuring out which women are honorable and dishonorable and which are dangerous and deadly is Odysseus’s challenge throughout the story. Eurikleria, Arete and Penelope demonstrate hospitality and morals befitting honorable women, especially when we compare them to the women Odysseus has encountered for the last ten years like Klypso, Kirke and the slave women in his own house. Eurikleria, Arete and Penelope ultimately renew his confident faith in spite of Agamemnon’s warning not to trust or confide in any woman. If we focus on the honorable women in the story and their significance to Odysseus, we must start by first
This “metafictional parody is… used to seriously rework a literary model… to call attention to its conventions and limitations by putting it in a new, contemporary context” (Staels 2009, 101) that is achieved “through the technique of self-conscious mythologizing and demythologizing” through the use of a contemporary Penelope (Staels 2009, 103). The use of Penelope as a “retrospective” narrator allows the construction of “a personal variant of the same story” told by Homer in Odyssey (Staels 2009, 103). Penelope’s ability to speak from the underworld in Penelopiad gives her a form of “critical omniscience” that gives her a sense of freedom with no obligation to the roles she held in her life, but her guilt still haunts her (Ryan 2011). Before the “rise of feminist criticism in the last decades of the twentieth century” The Odyssey had a strong connection with the “feminine” with “Athena as its presiding deity” (Suzuki 2007, 263). Despite the vast criticism in how Homer portrays women in his epic poems, there are a significant number of literary critics including Andrew Dalby that suggest both the Illiad and the Odyssey were written by a woman (Suzuki 2007, 263).
Although women occupied an entirely different position in society compared to men, they too held a certain sphere of influence and power; they simply exerted it in ways that were distinct from men’s strategies. By examining the character of Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, one can see just how women exerted their power and influence in The Odyssey and to what ends. Penelope uses clever cunning and sexual charm to toy with men’s emotions and to meet her own needs while she is waiting for her husband to return from battle. The types of strategies and her relative success in using them will be examined in this essay. Athena is the daughter of Zeus who helped Odysseus throughout his quests.
And last, the language of different scenarios, i.e. battles vs. joyous occasions, lends itself to glorifying deadly and gruesome struggles. Homer has a unique way of devising the plot, giving mixed signals and paradoxes, but it all just gives to the realism of this amazing piece of literature. Odysseus’ faithfulness for his wife is questionable. In the first book, you find that he is sleeping with a woman named Kalypso, a sea nymph.