...Women in the Ancient World From the very beginning of time, women have played a very significant role in development and advancement of life, serving as the companion for men as well as procreating with them to ensure the world would be inhabited and settled. In present-day society, we view women as essential to everyday life. Society sees and treats women as intelligent individuals who are equally efficient for most of the same work and intellectual skills as men. In most cases, we believe that women and men are equal, as women are able to legally run for and hold government offices, perform physical labor, work in medical professions, and basically anything they desire so long as, like anyone else, they attain the required certifications, education, etc. However, this outlook on women’s roles and abilities was not always shared among the social order. Throughout history, women’s roles in society, economy, government and culture have evolved and shifted dramatically. Throughout each culture and society in the ancient world, we find differences in the way women were treated, the responsibilities expected of them, and their learned place in the social order. Women featured in Homer’s The Iliad were some of some earliest examples of women being viewed with poor outlooks in the eyes of men in Greek culture. David Harvey claims that Aristotle had no doubt that women were inferior in this particular society (Harvey, 46). They were mainly viewed as prizes throughout Homer’s...
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...Long Essay #1 09 March 2016 Ambiguous Roles Throughout centuries women have tried to be equal to men, from their position in the workplace to voting rights, women have struggled to obtain the power that men withhold. In the ancient society, many would say that women had no power, but after reading The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey it revealed that the role of women is actually very diverse. In some readings, women play little to no role at all, but in others, women demonstrate their power and play vital roles. During this era, women endured many difficulties which had ultimately shaped them into a submissive figure. While women were not the most influential gods, nor the strongest or intelligent humans,...
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...Kendra Perkins Matt Fox Eng 112 14 December 2011 The Odyssey: Comparison of Genders in Greek Mythology The Odyssey by Homer may be seen by many as a heroic story of a man on his journey home; however, there is an underlying story of the trials in the roles of men and women and the relationships between them. Men and women are portrayed differently in Greece, as in other societies. Men are considered to be the more powerful of the two and are responsible for the protection of their home. Women, on the other hand, are thought to care for the children and are also responsible for the supervision of both the interior and exterior of the home while the men are away. As a man, Odysseus showed great leadership in the war at Troy and was considered the hero at the Trojan War. His wife Penelope, on the other hand, exemplified the role of a woman and leadership in her daily duties of caring for the home and all of their possessions within. In her attempts to do so, she was overcome by suitors and was unable to stop them from partaking of all of their meat and drinks. This essay will explain the underlying roles of men and women in ancient Greece as well as modern day. The beginning of the novel takes place in Ithaka at the home of Odysseus. Suitors have overrun his home in the pursuit of marrying his “widow” Penelope. Telemakhos, son of Odysseus, felt it was a shame that these men would come into their home and eat and drink their house empty. Athena, daughter of Zeus, came to Telemakhos...
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...inferior than men. In the classical play “Antigone” written by ancient Greek author Sophocles, it discusses and questions the role and importance of women during ancient Greek times. As the play follows the actions taken by the protagonist, Antigone, who transgression in order to bury her brother’s corpse. Sophocles portrays women’s role in society through being subservient, the status quote and as courageous. In the play the sister of Antigone, known as Ismene, is the essential figure in the portrayal of women as subservient to men. This is due to the fact that Ismene feels that she should not question nor disobey the edict imposed by Creon to deny the burial of Polynices. For instance, Ismene argues with Antigone and says “Rather, consider that we were born women, proving we should not fight with men, and that we are ruled by more powerful people and must obey them even in painful things.”(Lines 63, 15) This demonstrates that women knew that they needed to be subservient, and because they knew that they could not speak against men they subsequently advocated the thought that women did not play an important role, due to being weak. As a result women in ancient Greece were at the bottom of the social pyramid and not considered important Furthermore, Sophocles demonstrated the depiction of women weakness and inferiority through the status quo of Greek society. This is because the status quo during Ancient Greece was surrounded by the idea of the superiority of men. For example...
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...submission Feminism in Ancient Greek Culture from the Perspective of Lysistrata Lysistrata is portrayed as a hero by Aristophanes and just as Antigone had played a social role in politics, so is Lysistrata portrayed. Most ancient Greek writers were people who had established themselves in the society. They were people of class, and when they wrote about women, they mostly wrote about women from their own social class. Women were shown to participate only in the domestic roles of childbearing and that saw many women confined to their houses. They rarely ventured out of the proximity of their domestic dwellings, let alone participate in manly politics. Lysistrata, however, steps up and take up a political role, an unusual thing in ancient Greek. She empowers women and shows their ability to run the state. Lysistrata is thus shown to be a feminist hero boasting of women empowerment. Many Marxist thinkers would conclude that Lysistrata was nothing more about feminism bout about sex. The women of Greece attempt to end the war using their sexuality, an act that prevails as they see their men return home and agree to sign a peace treaty. There is, however, much more beyond sexuality as the play displays issues of gender, masculinity and femininity. In Lysistrata, the masculine authority that has always prevailed in Ancient Greek is challenged by the women of Greece. The main characters, Lysistrata, Myrrhina and kalonike are all given positive roles that depict women as heroes...
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...Assignment 2: Goddess Essay Hera Adam Smith 24th April 2012 Hera is undoubtedly one of the most complex goddesses portrayed throughout history. Unlike many other goddesses who have kept relatively stable images, Hera has been tossed out and about being perceived on entirely different ends of the spectrum as both the Great Mother Goddess and the nagging and jealous wife of Zeus. She is the perfect example of a matriarchal deity that was taken over and transformed by patriarchal culture. It was in “Old” Ancient Greece that Hera was the primary divinity of a matriarchal culture, until the “New” Ancient Greece was founded by the Indo-European Hellenes from the north. It was the Mediterranean pre-Hellenic Greeks that worshiped Hera, and their culture was based around women (Morgan, 2006). Hera was portrayed in the three stages that women experience: the maiden (youth without children or responsibility), the mother (women with children and families in the prime of their lives), and the crone (past mothers who live for themselves once again). There was actually a competitive festival that happened every four years (like a sort of female Olympics) in which women of all ages were divided into three age groups (representing the three stages of Hera) and participated in 160-yard races, bare-breasted and with their hair unbound. There were three winners (one for each age/life stage category) and each winner had the honour of placing a statuette of herself in Hera’s shrine, received...
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...Women had a minimal role in Greek society. How far do you agree? Discuss. As a woman living in the Classical Period of Greece, your life was controlled heavily by those around you. This is true, at least through the eyes of ancient male authors. Xenophon makes a statement in the Oeconomicus that embodies the entirety of the predominant male view on women’s place in society: ‘And since both the indoor and the outdoor tasks demand labour and attention, God from the first adapted the woman’s nature, I think, to the indoor and a man’s to the outdoor tasks and cares.’ (Xenophon, 1979; Sommerschield, 2015/16) These writings, however, are littered with the ancient stereotypes and fictions that populated the fringes of the male imagination when addressing the female role (Sommerschield, 2015/16). The culture of classical Grecian society was rife with...
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...Although women in Greece were typically disrespected, Homer integrates examples of women’s strength by incorporating clever and intelligent women in The Odyssey. In ancient Greece, the common belief was that under the law, women were completely under control of their husbands. This is evident because women who were the only child of their fathers wouldn’t inherit his property; but rather her husband. As a result, this became a defining stereotype that ruled over women in Greece. Also,because the Greek law requires women to be ruled by their husbands, the idea that women were unable to make their own decisions and were denied the basic rights that all men in Greece were granted is portrayed. Contrasting this common belief of Greek values;however, Penelope is illustrated as a powerful women by using her wits to trick the suitors. In The Odyssey, Penelope was able to hold off the suitors during her husband’s absence by unraveling the shroud she is weaving for Odysseus. While she claims she would eventually marry one of the suitors once she finished her loom, she prevents this by, “weaving at her great web-by night...she’d unravel all she’d done”(Homer 96). Throughout Penelope’s actions, the strength of women in ancient Greece is revealed because of her role in the household during Odysseus’...
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...Throughout the history of the world, art has its own history as well. The Ancient art period started before 500 B.C with its characteristics were about God, Goddess and Heroes. Women, in ancient Greek and Roman societies, did not have high status and they were considered as properties of men. During that time, woman was just being a wife and being a mother and stayed at home to take care of the house for her man. Women did not have any role in politics therefore they could not vote and they did not have any right for themselves. The roles of women could be learned by reviewing how female figures were created through the ancient Greek and Roman art works. Most of the female figures, in any art work during this period, were either goddess; such as statue of Athena goddess of wisdom,warfare and women's craft, or monsters; such as Sphixn in Greek mythology. Therefore, during the ancient...
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...The aim of this research is to understand women’s sports today, the relationship between sports the body and personal identity. There has been much attention given to the role of sports in the lives of men than to the importance of sports to women. The twentieth century saw a massive change in women’s involvement in sport and exercise. When women first began to take part in activities, they had nothing to wear. Clothing had been divided into menswear and womenswear. Men and women dressed appropriately for their sex. In ancient times and the late nineteenth and early twentieth century sport took place in the public sphere and in public women were expected to wear the fashion of the time. Women’s clothing for sport was by definition clothing for interaction with men....
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...Women in Greek Society Although modern historians focused on cultural advancements in Ancient Greece, the society remained traditional, in that males assumed a bigger role in most aspect. While men were able to get involved in politics, through a system called polis, women were only confined to oikos, in which they were expected to stay at home and watch their children. Although they had right to their property, this was only possible with the permission of the husband, whom they had to rely on heavily in order to carry out their restrictions, such as going outside. Also, older men married young females, which led the husbands to become overly controlling of their wives. Women and men were expected to live in this manner from early in life, which is shown by the fact that girls were heavily supervised while boys had relative freedom. However, although...
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...Zeph Geyer Ancient World History Rough Draft 11/8/2014 In most civilizations in the ancient world, there were vast differences between the lives of men and women. For example, women could not serve in the Roman Senate, own property in ancient Greece, or ask for divorce. All of these rules existed while men had the ability to do all of these things. The life of a woman in the ancient world was in no way equal to men in most societies. The Egyptians believed that joy and happiness were of the utmost importance in life, and regarded the home and family as a major source of happiness. This meant that the Egyptian’s thought better of women who did not work, and took care of the home and family. All other ancient civilizations had one thing in common. Mesopotamia, Rome, Greece, and Israel were all surrounded by other sets of people. This meant that these other civilizations had to be warlike societies, and this meant women would have less of a role because men believed women could not fight as well in battle. Egypt developed under unique circumstances. The Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea separated the Egyptians from everyone else in the ancient world. In other words, the Egyptians did not have a warlike society because training like that was unnecessary. Since there was no need for a warlike society in Egypt, women had a more established role in society. Women’s rights in Egypt were more equal to men than other civilizations because of the unique circumstances under which...
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...“ideal” women images have to be kept. Women are raised in a way to fill certain position where the society wants them to be and as a result, the opportunities are always limited for them and ideas of their importance in the society are diminishing. Even though women gained some independence, where women can work and take various position in society, the society’s idea of typical role of women never seem to change. Just a few decades ago, women, before their marriage they were taught how to be a good housewife. They didn’t have any opportunity to receive proper education. They became housewives after they were married and had no important role in the society as women. Women lived her whole life as a hard working housewife from the very ancient time. Back in the 16th or 17th century, the opportunities for women were very limited than today and the only thing that women could do were to become housewives. People were very conservative to the idea of the traditional role of a man and a woman. Women’s position in early society Women in ancient Rome The Romans believed that all women should be under the control of a guardian, who might be the father, husband, or a male relative, or someone appointed by the will of the father or husband, or by an official of the state. The only exceptions up until the time of Augustus were the six vestal virgins; after Augustus the rule was relaxed in cases of freeborn women who had had...
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...Question 1: Why is the Hammurabi Code considered to be so important? The Law Stele of Hammurabi or the Hammurabi code is perhaps one of the oldest, most comprehensive and influential codification of laws ever created in ancient times. The intricately chiselled basalt pillar (or Stele) upon which the codes are written is considered an historical work of art, history and literature which is now housed in the Louvre in Paris, France (André-Salvini, 2003). It towers over 7.5 feet tall and the text is chiselled into solid stone. King Hammurabi (c. 1792 – 1750 B.C.E.) commissioned its construction to create a sovereign authority of universal laws throughout the Babylonian empire and as a demonstration of his duty to the gods and the citizens (Roth, 1995). It is a collaboration of pre-existing laws gathered from around the Babylonian Empire. The Hammurabi code served as not only an educational tool to “enlighten the land [but also created legal precedent] to further the well-being of mankind” (Hammurabi, 1752 B.C.E). The sheer height and shape of the structure alone is a testament to his...
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...AHE 1108 History of sport Examine and discuss the role of women in sport in ancient Sparta By Srdjan Vulic Identification number: S4129049 Name of lecturer: Rob Hess and Matthew Klugman Name of tutor: Fiona McLachlan Tutorial group: 11.30pm, Tuesday, Semester 2, 2014 Date of submission: 3rd September 2014 Sparta was a city in Ancient Greece between 650 B.C and 362 B.C which was seen to have one of the strongest soldiers and women due to their early commencement of training in tough conditions to strengthen their bodies and to toughen them up. Men were always seen as the dominant species compared to women, they were seen to be stronger and had more dominance and respect in the Olympic Games and sport. Instead of encouraging women in Greece to participate in the Olympics they were instead dispirited and some laws were made to prevent them from participating. Spectators would rather watch men participate then women because they believed women were weak and were not as exhilarating to watch as men. Spartan women had more freedom and respect than many other Greek women, ‘Spartan women were allowed to be landholders and they were free to speak for themselves, unlike many other Greeks.’ Spartan women were ordered to do no less body building than the males, Lycurgus the lawgiver of Sparta believed ‘stronger children come from parents who are both strong.’ The women were trained the same way as the men, they would both be taught how to survive in tough conditions and they would be removed...
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