Similarities Between Tarquin The Proud And The Rape Of Lucretia

A narrative’s climax often tells as much about its author and their societal context as it does about the characters or individuals depicted therein. This could be said of many narratives, including both the Athenian tragedian Euripides’ Medea as well as Roman historian Livy’s Tarquin the Proud and the Rape of Lucretia, the exceedingly divergent climaxes of which reflect not only the divergent goals of their authors in writing them, but also the differing societal contexts which shaped those goals and depictions. In these two narratives, each author depicts widely differing women forced into resolving their own internal and external conflicts which, however different, are both born out of the nature of their social visibility (or lack thereof)

In the presented passage from Medea, the titular character faces exile from Corinth over its ruler Creon’s fear of her anger towards her husband and her abilities as a sorceress. Having betrayed her home and country in her adventures with her philandering husband Jason, however, she is without a place to go. In a public accusal of her husband, Medea summarizes the nature of her, and many women’s, plight in their society clearly and succinctly, saying that, “Of all creatures that feel and think, we women are the unhappiest species” (Euripides 41). She goes on to state the chief causes of this unhappiness to the people of Corinth, depicting a life of domestic imprisonment for women as well as the dangers and lack of fulfillment inherent therein. She first notes the financial and bodily tributes paid to husbands by their wives, reminding the people of Corinth that, “we must pay a great dowry to a husband who will be a tyrant of our bodies” (Euripides 41) and, in doing so, highlights the self-sacrifice inherent to a woman’s marriage. She notes further that

As Livy wrote this narrative as an origin story for the Roman republic hundreds of years later, Lucretia’s rape acts not only within the context of the narrative as a call to action for the oppressed Romans, but also a warning against absolute monarchical power. In Livy’s narrative, the act of subjecting oneself to a monarch is akin to submitting to one’s own sexual assault. Though unprotected in a manner different from Medea, the danger posed to Lucretia and other Roman women by monarchical power leaves them in a similar lack of social protection which ultimately leads to the climaxes of their