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Mythology and its effect on modern culture
Mythology and its effect on modern culture
Mythology and its effect on modern culture
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The depiction of the Greek and roman myths are given unique insights from different authors. The Hymn to Demeter and Ovid's Metamorphosis provide and insight to Demeter's love for her daughter, Persephone, and explores its affect on the surrounding environments. The theme of separation and isolation is present in both of these myths, however, in Ovid's Metamorphosis, he symbolizes the environment in important events, has characters playing different roles, and empowers female deities.
In the Hymn to Demeter, the rape of Persephone starts with her picking flowers and she comes across the hundred headed narcissus which "Gaia made grow as a trick for the blushing maiden" (HHDem. 8-9). This trick is set into motion by Zeus, but since Gaia plays the role of protecting the youngest generation, this is a foreshadowing that Persephone's ordeal will be for a good cause. Hades moves in to take Persephone when the grounds gapes open and she begins to cry aloud. Demeter hears her daughters screams but she is powerless against Hades, hence the separation of distance between them. The grief stricken Demeter goes through an experience which plays out the role of a symbolic death. this is because the relationship between the mother and daughter ends at a wedding.
Demeter shows the theme of isolation when she disguises herself as an old woman of no childbearing and lives among the mortals, shunning herself from the gods and turning her grief into anger against Zeus. So when she arrives at Elusis, she take upon the duty of raising the child of Keleus and Meraneria, Demophoön. The part of the myth show Demeter's anger when she attempts to make Demophoön into a god. It symbolizes the fact the she is replacing a female child with a males, meaning...
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... challenged by the Pierides, to Minerva. The story is told by a woman to a goddess, about another goddess. So the reason for Ovid's empowerment of women may be for Calliope to satisfy a great, powerful audience, the Pierides and Minerva.
Briefly speaking, the Hymn to Demeter is similar in playing out the theme of separation and isolation by depicting Persephone picking flowers in and isolated space. In Ovid's version, the empowerment of women plays an important role by the story being told by a woman, Venus being the mastermind, and Ceres being a strong confident woman and taking swift action. Also, the roles of the gods are switched with the nymphs, and the symbolist use of the environment is seen in the abduction of Proserpine.
Works Cited
Homer. The Homeric Hymns. Newburyport: R. Pullins, 1995. Print.
Ovid. Metamorphosis. St Ives Plc: Clays, 1986. Print.
Demeter the daughter of Cronus and Rhea was the goddess of harvest and fertility. The poet, Edith Hamilton, reveals the sorrow of a mother who has lost a child in the mythical "Demeter." The speaker laments on the consequences the natural cycles will receive due to this suffering Demeter is experiencing. Edith uses imagery of dry land and loss to express the agony a mother endures when losing a child. Furthermore, the speaker uses allusion to explain the consequences the society is suffering.
Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus can be argued that it is related loosely to Rita Dove's The Darker Face of the Earth. This comparative and contrasting characteristics that can be seen within both plays make the reader/audience more aware of imagery, the major characters, plot, attitudes towards women, and themes that are presented from two very different standpoints. The authors Sophocles and Dove both have a specific goal in mind when writing the two plays. In this paper I will take a closer look of the two, comparing and contrasting the plays with the various elements mentioned previously.
The Role of Women in Greek Mythology In learning about the feminist movement, we studied the three articles, discussed and reviewed the different authors perspectives on the topic, and learned how important the role of woman in Greek mythology is. In presenting the feminist theory to the class, we analyzed the three articles, Women in Ancient Greece; Women in Antiquity: New Assessments; and Women in Greek Myth, and discussed how although the three articles provided different views on Feminism in mythology, they all essentially are aiming to teach the same basic concept. In order to understand the feminist theory, we have to understand the notion that although myths are invented and that they involve fantasy, the concept of mythology does not necessarily imply that there is no truth of history in them. Some of the humans may have lived while some of the events may have taken place. Most importantly, the social customs and the way of life depicted in the myths are a valuable representation of Greek society.
In two amazing poems, both poets make allusions to the myth of Persephone. The myth of Persephone tells of her kidnap by Hades, the God of the Underworld. She is then fated to spend one-third of the year in the underworld as Hades’ bride because she consumed pomegranate seeds. This myth appears frequently as a metaphor not only in “The Pomegranate” and “The Bistro Styx,” but in many others as well. In both poems, the myth of Persephone is used to symbolize the mother-daughter relationships.
Hades fell in love with Demeter’s daughter, Persephone. Persephone loved to live about in the fields that her mother made. Hades wanted Persephone as his bride. Zeus, the father of Persephone, did not deny but warned that Demeter would be furious. He captured her and forced her to stay in the underworld. To capture her, he arose from the depth with a chariot of horses. He stole her from the flowery field and took her to a dungeon of darkness. Persephone gained the name “core”. This was symbolizing her loss of girlhood. Demeter went looking for her daughter. She could not find her, and she almost came to the extent of barring the whole earth of the vegetation. Zeus could not let this happen, so he sent for Persephone to be received. Persephone would not eat, but Hades would not let her leave until she ate at least one thing. Hades gave her a forbidden fruit. Any fruit that was to be eaten in the underworld, the eater of that fruit must stay in the underworld. Her eating the fruit meant she had to stay in the underworld forever. A compromise was made between Demeter and Hades. Four months of the year Persephone had to stay with Hades and be the queen of the underworld. During this time the Greeks entered a cold and barren time called winter. The other eight months, Persephone spent her year with Demeter. During this time crops and vegetation would be abundant (Peterson and Dunworth 143). These were the times of spring and summer. When it was time for Persephone to rule the underworld, she was in charge of watching the special prisoners. The prisoners were the defeated titans (Calame, 266).
While reading the works of Hesiod, it is impossible not to notice the way that women are characterized and discussed. In his two major poems, the Theogony and Works and Days, he makes no attempt to make his contempt and abhorrence of the female sex a secret. In Works and Days, Hesiod includes the story of Pandora – a woman created by the Greek gods meant as a punishment for the human race – in his discourse to his brother, Perses. The Theogony – through an account of the creation of the universe and the origins of all the gods – presents depictions of women as monstrous and wicked. The negative and misogynist views of women exhibited in Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days give insight into the similar views of women that existed in ancient
‘Demeter’ is a poem about the story of Demeter. "Demeter was the goddess of harvest and Persephone was the goddess of springtime. Hades, the lord of the underworld, kidnapped Persephone. Hades fell in love with Persephone and asked Zeus to help him kidnap her so she could become his bride. The crops started to wilt and humans couldn't grow crops anymore. However Zeus told Hermes to bring back Persephone and to make sure she didn't eat any food from the Underworld. Hermes fetched Persephone. But before she left, Hades convinced her to eat 6 pomegranate seeds. Hermes made a compromise and said Persephone had to stay in the Underworld as Hades wife for six months. That's why there are seasons. In the fall and winter, Persephone goes down into the Underworld and Demeter mourns. In the summer and spring, she comes back and Demeter rejoices. " (1)
Throughout a person’s life, one goes through the process of rebellion. In the play Medea, a work in translation by Euripides, mythology is symbolic of rebellion. This statement will be proven through the analysis of mythology as fully symbolic of suppression. It will also be proven through an analysis of the world around the character Medea and analysis of Medea’s actions.
Being described as “like four goddesses” while Demeter herself is divine and yet, unrecognisable as such seems to hark back to their youth and beauty as a divine gift, while Demeter, in her grief, appears to lose divine status (Hymn to Demeter,108, 94-95, 108). Her grief is almost transformative, the lines “men nor… women recognised her when they looked” characterises grief as something that has made Demeter look human (Hymn to Demeter, 94-95). In travelling from Mount Olympus to earth, an action fuelled by her grief, she becomes a metaphor for a step-down in status from deity to mortal (Hymn to Demeter, 92-93). This reflects the implications of women losing their status as mothers and membership to a family in ancient Greece, when they either cannot bear children, or lose their children.
...ow Greek civilization was founded by women; they were the ones who gave birth to the heroes. Similarly, The Odyssey is a story created by women. The plot revolves around the actions of women. Athena orchestrates all the events. The seductresses, such as Circe, the sirens, and Calypso, attempt to stop Odysseus from reaching home. The helpmeets, such as Nausicaa, Arete, and Athena, aid Odysseus in his homecoming. The wise and virtuous Penelope is the object of Odysseus’ quest. Unlike Helen who forsakes her husband, Penelope remains faithful. Unlike Clytemnestra who assassinates her husband, Penelope patiently waits for Odysseus. She becomes a model of female patience and of female intelligence. Her craftiness is the only one which can match up to Odysseus’. The Odyssey presents a wide array of women and demonstrates the influence that women have in the life of a hero.
In The Odyssey Book 5, Calypso explicitly likens herself to Demeter. She complains that while the male gods themselves are allowed to have mortal lovers, they hate seeing Goddesses like her and Demeter have affairs with mortals(Odyssey 5.128-60). However, Demeter in the Hymn to Demeter in fact more closely resembles Penelope than she resembles Calypso because both Penelope and Demeter love their family members and choose to challenge the authority in order to achieve family reunion, while Calypso submits to Zeus’s will and finally gives up having a family.
Numerous lively heroes ventured into Persephone’s clutches with the hopes of beating death, yet she explains that despite their god-like strength they too will die. Two such heroes were Theseus and Pirithous. When Theseus and Pirithous attempted to kidnap the Queen of the Underworld she enticed them to sit in the chair of forgetfulness where their flesh fused to the cushions and refused to relinquish them (Taylor 268). Persephone appears many times to offer food, drink, or rest to weary heroes in the underworld in order to trap them there forever in the same manner that Hades tricked her (Taylor, 268). Because of Persephone and Hades’ antics many people hated them as gods, but Persephone’s cruelty serves as a reminder that while death is necessary it is not always kind. In the same manner that Persephone accepted her fate, mortals must also accept their own imminent
In a society in which social position was vital for having a successful family, the Greek and Roman families internally struggled with one another. This constant conflict stems from the father’s desire for control and the society’s high placement of power. In the Greek myth Demeter and Persephone, Zeus’s interest for his selfish gains prompts him to “ ( give ) Persephone to the Lord of Dead to become his queen “ ( Rosenberg Demeter 96). Zeus does not ask Persephone nor Demeter, his beloved wife, presenting that he does not show any opinions on their feelings. Although Zeus in reality just wanted to have a powerful family with the addition of Hades, his love for power overrode his love for his family and created a tension between the other members and him. In another Greek myth, Jason and the Golden Fleece, shows man’s love for supremacy through ...
What makes the depiction between Athena and Aphrodite interesting is the different ways they are portrayed even sharing the similarity of being born strictly from male only. Athena from the all-powerful king of the gods Zeus and Aphrodite from Ouronos. Though they were both born from man alone, the content of these births caused Athena to be expressed in a more dignified, respected, and superior way. Hesiod’s recount of the births of Athena and Aphrodite in his Theogony reveals the source of Athena’s superiority. According to the Theogony, Ouranos’ genitals are thrown into the sea where they mix with the sea foam to result in Aphrodite (Hesiod 180-192). Aphrodite is said to be called, by Hesiod, “Philommedes, fond of a man’s genitals” ( Hesiod, 200-201). In contrast, Hesiod writes that Athena is born from Zeus’ head (Hesiod 924) after Zeus consumes her mother Metis, the goddess whose name means wisdom, for fear of her giving birth to someone who was destined to be his match in wisdom (Hesiod 894-900).
Much like Proserpina who represents the springtime, Perdita exemplifies the natural growth and prosperity that accompanies the season. When Antigonus agrees to take up Perdita and leave her to chance, he understands that she is nature’s child since “Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens / To be thy nurses. Wolves and bears, they say, / Casting their savageness aside, have done / Like offices of pity” (II.iii.185-8). Nature then raises the infant as her own when Perdita takes on natural attributes uncommon among humankind. Before Antigonus abandons the infant Perdita in accordance with Leontes’ orders, he addresses the babe, “Blossom, speed thee well” (III.iii.45), as though Perdita resembles a flower in full bloom.