Women of Ancient Literature

                                 Women of Ancient Literature

Ok so the question I have to answer for you guys is... Do you think women are portrayed in a positive way in these ancient stories? Well I sat and thought about it for an awhile and decided that I can't make a decision based on the little chunks of these great stories that we have read. So I went and did some research. I am going to base my opinion on the roles of the three main women in these three stories. They are Helen of Troy, Elissar (Dido) of Carthage, and Andromache the wife of Hektor.

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.

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.

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.