Women of Ancient Literature
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| Helen of Troy |
Ok I am going to start with the story
of Helen of Troy. Now in the small story we read which is the story of the
Trojan War is Helen is married to King Menelaus and she is deeply in love with
him, but is confused by the gods and falls in love with Paris from Troy. The
Goddess Aphrodite as a bribe supposedly gives her to Paris. So she runs away
with Paris to Troy, which makes Menelaus very mad and thus starts the Trojan
War. So from this point of view she seems like a relatively horrible person, I
mean she starts a war that’s pretty bad! But actually she is a really strong
person. She is the daughter of Zeus, her mother was taken advantage of by Zeus
when he was in the form of a swan, her mother also that night slept with her
husband (the king). So her sister was born "normally" but Helen was
born from an egg. All she was wanted for was her beauty. No one really loved
her when she was old enough to marry! I think this shows how strong women can
be and how sallow men can often times be.
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| Andromache the wife of Hektor |
Now Dido of Carthage is a very
strong woman. She used to be the ruler of Tyre with her husband after her
father had passed away. But her brother killed her husband for the power and
lied to Dido saying that his death was an accident. But the ghost of Sychaeus
told her what her brother had done and that she needed to leave the
country. He also told her where the Tyre treasure was hidden, so she and her
men tricked her brother into thinking so was going to talk to other kings
about trading and she left with the treasure. She then ran into Carthage
and some how gained power. So this woman is obviously very wise and strong
to take on what she had to do in order to survive.
Now I didn't do any research on Andromache because
I didn't feel that I needed to she obviously means the world to Hektor by the
speech Hektor gives before he goes of into the Trojan War. She isn't a piece of
property Hektor owns he is honestly the love of his life and would do anything
for her.
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| Elissar (Dido) of Carthage |
I think all these women play
great roles in all these stories. Yes they have their bad stop in plays and
show that they can do wrong but so do the men in these stories. These women are
one of the key compontets to these amazing pieces of literature! They may not
be the lead roles or make the action in the plays but they are the drive behind
what men do what they do no matter if it’s good or bad.
