Women in the Ancient World: Witches, Wives, And Whores
One of the paradoxes of the ancient and medieval world is that although women were often discriminated against and treated as second class citizens (or not allowed to be citizens at all); they had an extremely central role in literature of the period. Women fulfilled a symbolic function in literature, representing foreignness, danger, and sexuality. Occasionally, when women's virtue surpassed that of men, this was used to goad men to behave in a more moral fashion. But the standards of behavior, conduct, and common humanity were seldom the same for both sexes. Women were usually seen as innately 'worse' than men and thus had to be 'better than men' to earn praise.
The fears of men are perhaps most starkly embodied in the character of the Greek dramatist Euripides' Medea. Not only is Medea a spurned wife: she is also a foreigner and a witch. Her husband Jason may be king, but he is no match for his wife's supernatural powers. When he attempts to cast her off, instead of going quietly, she kills his prospective bride by giving the woman a magical dress that burns her to death. She the murders the small children she had with Jason (whom she would have been forced to abandon after the divorce). Medea is a she-wolf, a monster -- and yet -- as the chorus intones -- she is also somewhat sympathetic, even though her actions are ultimately repudiated. Jason's plight is every man's fear, namely that he cannot get rid of the woman he no longer loves. Yet if it had not been for Medea's sacrifice and her willingness to betray her country and her father for her love of Jason, Jason would never have been able to have won the Golden Fleece and become king. Medea gave up everything for Jason -- her family and her nationality -- and he refused to honor this fact.
This idea that women embody behavioral extremes is also seen in...
Women throughout Chinese history have experienced the oppression their tradition and culture exert as well as the power only members of their sex can attain in their chosen domains. Although readers have been exposed to historical anecdotes relating foot binding and Man's superiority to women, there are also many stories relating their freedom and tenacity, whether they are wives, concubines, courtesans or prostitutes. The history of Chinese women is not
Women of Ancient Greece: The Plays of Euripides The plays of Euripides reveal how poorly women were viewed in ancient Greece. From Medea to Sthenoboea to Phaedra, Euripides' women cover a wide range of forms: the vengeful, jilted lover; the plotting wife; the incestuous, lustful mother. As Chong-Gossard points out, Euripides does not shy away from "tapping into men's anxieties and frightening them with Medeas and Phaedras...women keeping silent about their
Women in Ancient Tragedy and Comedy Both the drama of Euripides' "Medea" and the comedy of Aristophanes' "Lysistrata" seem unique upon a level of even surface characterization, to even the most casual students of Classical Greek drama and culture. Both in are female-dominated plays that were produced by male-dominated societies and written by men. Both the drama and the comedy features strong women as their central protagonists, whom are depicted under
I do not use a pattern to design these sacred baskets. My grandmother and my mother taught me the skills to construct them, how to doubleweave a flexible basket-within-a-basket with a single common rim, for example, but the actual design comes from listening to the cane itself. It speaks to me as it moves through my hands. It tells me what it wants to be, how it wants to be
Witchcraft in the 16th & 17 Centuries: Response to Literature At first glance, a logical 21st Century explanation for the "witch craze" (also known as a witch-hunt) during the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe was based largely upon human ignorance. That is to say, the belief that a sub-culture of the general population performed witchcraft (and other magic-related phenomena), and ate the flesh of children, helped the unenlightened explain the
It gave her otherwise plain face a broken excitement and blue- blade threat like the keloid scar of the razored man who sometimes played checkers with her grandmother." (52-53) This birthmark is a mark of evil for some critics while others associate it with Sula's sensuality. But the fact remains that such a mark combined with a disturbingly defiant behavior turned Sula into a dark figure, not worthy of reader's
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