There has never been any doubt that Euripidies was interested in the nature, behavior, impact and social status of women. Aristophanes presented him as a notorious hater and slanderer of women. In our present century he is more often seen as one who excites pity for the sufferings inflicted on women by gods and men. He was highly unpopular in his time because of his radical views about the gods and the effect they had on ones destiny. He believed that things were not absolute, but relative. His ideas of women were also very different from the dramatists before him. In an essay by A.W. Gomme, he says, "no literature, no art of any country, in which women are more prominent, more important, more carefully studied, and with more interest, than in the tragedy, sculpture, and painting of fifth-century Athens." (Gomme). Euripides portrayed women in an important way, giving us a glimpse of their lives and their roles in Athenian culture. Euripides may indeed have invented women and reversed traditional representations of them, but ultimately he uses the female figures for patriarchy. His plays, such as Medea and Hippolytos, perform ideological work in subtle and complicated ways. Euripides brought a new era of drama to Greece, with his untraditional views of women, destiny and the importance of the gods (Kitto 19).
In his drama, Euripides endows his female characters with great understanding and allows them to give voice to important ideas; nonetheless, their experience is shaped to the end by male power. His plays establish two models of womanhood - sacrificial and vindictive - which speak to both women and men. On the one had, they set forth codes of behavior giving women in the audience reason to participate in the culture; on th...
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..., although highly unpopular at the time. He gave us the shape of society to study by, and women the drive to fight for more importance. Typical Athenian women we low on the economic, social and political totem pole, and yet Euripides shows women as prominent characters. Edwin Ardener refers to Athenian women as the "muted class", "muted simply because (women do) not form part of the dominant communicative system of the society" (Ardener 22). Even as we praise Euripides for his portrayal of women, we must realize that this portrayal is from a man's point of view. When we look at the dialogue of his more prominent characters, like Medea and Phaedra, we must remember that it is only what Euripides thought they would say in the situation. We do not have any drama from women of the time, so we assume what we know about Athenian women from this feminist male dramatist.
In The Bacchae, I believe that Euripides uses the relationship of male and female to explore the alluring concept of feminine empowerment in a patriarchal society and to demonstrate the cost this empowerment subsequently has on ordered civilization. In this paper, I will argue that Euripides uses the conflictual relation between the genders to criticize the role of women in Greek society while also showing the consequences of a total feminine revolt. Through developing this conflict, Euripides is demonstrating how the path to the most successful civilization is through a balance of masculine rationality and feminine emotional freedom. I will prove this by analyzing the positions of Pentheus, the Bacchants, and Dionysus throughout the play. The character Pentheus
Gender is made explicit as a theme throughout the Oresteia through a series of male-female conflicts and incorrectly gendered characters dominated by the figure of Clytemnestra, a woman out of place. This opposition of gender then engenders all the other oppositions of the trilogy; conflicts of oikos and polis, chthonic and Olympian, old and young can be assigned to female and male spheres respectively. In this essay I will look at how the polis examines itself in terms of gender by focusing on the Eumenides' exploration of the myth of matriarchy, issues of the conflict between oikos and polis and the use of speech within the polis. I will then look at how these themes are brought together in the trial and the play provides an image of resolution. Many of these issues are set up in the opening speech of the priestess Pythia as already resolved and are then reconfirmed by the trial itself and closing images order.
In conclusion, it becomes obvious by these three plays that for a woman to achieve kleos in ancient Greece, she usually had to become more man-like in her role. The murders committed by Electra and Medea, the bravery of Antigone—all three of these were fulfilled by what would have normally been considered a man’s role. A woman could rarely be considered a hero unless she became like a man in her actions. Otherwise, she would be only a simple woman.
If women were such beasts as Euripides stated then would women have managed to seize the Acropolis, and prevented the men from squandering them further on the war. Euripides might have referred to the vulgarity of the women’s thoughts and language:
There isn’t enough literature from this time period from the lower and middle classes of society, and the view of women we have comes from writings of the upper class males. As much of an enigma that the women of Athens were, it is clear that “women were for the most part legal nonentities,” (O’Neal 117) that were denied any association and participation in the intellectual life of their city. The women were not involved in getting an education, and never learned to read or write. O’Neal writes, “The principal spokesmen of fifth century Athens, Pericles and Thucydides, disdained Athenian women.” (O’Neal 117) Based on their writing, and on surmountable evidence, it can be assumed that women had only two roles in Athens - a wife, or a mother. A girl was ideally married at 14 or 15 years of age, and there was necessity that the bride was a virgin, otherwise she was shamed and sold into
In ancient Greece women were viewed as many things. They were not viewed as equivalent to males by any means. Women were portrayed usually as submissive domestic, and controlled. They played supporting or secondary roles in life to men, who tended to be demanding of their wives, but expected them to adhere to their wishes. In the tragedy Medea, written by Euripides, Medea plays the major role in this story, unlike most Greek stories with women playing only minor roles, but she also demonstrates many behavioral and psychological patterns unlike any other Greek women. In Euripides’ Medea the main character, Medea, Displays many traits that breakdown traditional Athenian misogyny by displaying her as proactive in taking her revenge, having cruel and savage passions, and being a very manipulative women.
Euripides, one of Ancient Greece’s most famous playwrights, could be considered as one of the earliest supporters of women’s rights. With plays such as Alcestis and Medea, he clearly puts an emphasis on the condition of women, and even integrates them in the Chorus of the latter play, a feat that was not often done in Ancient Greece. Throughout the years, it has been argued that the two central characters in each of those plays offer conflicting representations of women in those times, and I can safely say that I agree with that argument. I will expand on my view by pointing out an important similarity between Alcestis and Medea, followed by a key difference, and will finish it off by contrasting them with the Ancient Greek depiction of an “ideal woman.”
In the story of Medea, the author, Euripides, addresses the topics of foreignism and female roles in the ancient Greek society. In the play, Medea, a foreign born woman, marries Jason, a Greek man, and moves to Greece to be with him after leaving her homeland with death and devastation. Then, when their marriage fails, Medea lashes out against Jason, causing her own exile and murdering her children, to which she has no love connection, and Jason’s new wife in the process. The main character, Medea, confirms many of the alleged Greek prejudices against foreigners and creates some prejudices of her own in return. Medea’s foreign roots and misconceptions, as well as her familial and societal atrocities,
Consider Pentheus’ rejection to “put on a woman's outfit,” because he claims that putting on a woman's outfit is “disgusting” (Bacchae 828/36). Pentheus’ rejection of putting on a woman’s outfit stems from his desire to be known as masculine and strong, which is the opposite of how he views women: feminine and weak. Pentheus also desires to be “able to sneak through the city without being seen” when he finally succumbs and wears a women’s outfit (Bacchae 840). This desire suggests that Pentheus views the women who don’t belong out in the city and rather belong in the household. This stark difference in how Pentheus views each gender, instills the audience with an expectation of women’s femininity and submissiveness to men. Euripides perhaps instills this false expectation to shock the audience when the women behave in a masculine and strong manner, such as ripping Pentheus limb from limb. Therefore, a mood of seriousness develops through the audience’s expectations flipped expectations and unfamiliarity with the gruesome death of Pentheus. This sudden change of mood also shifts the focus of the audience from viewing the play trying to comprehend what they just
In Greek society, the role of women was considered to be insignificant compared to the Greek men. The women had very few rights, no room to voice personal opinions, and a very bleak future with few options for a better life. According to Moses Hades, professor of Greek studies, women in ancient Greek plays are known to be the main characters and take the role of the villain, victim, or the heroine. In Euripides’ play Medea, Medea, the main character, plays all these roles. She represents the heroine by helping her husband secure the Golden Fleece prior to their marriage, and then portrays the victim by being betrayed by her husband, and finally the villain by murdering her loved ones. Therefore, Euripides follows the standard format for a Greek tragedy.
As a ruler of the state one must be viewed as masculine and in control, however there are many examples in Euripides writing that leads one to believe deep inside he is not who he claims to be. One way in which this is evident during the play is that Pentheus is constantly negating his own viewpoints on masculinity and his outlook of women outwardly. However there are many actions he might not openly say that may lead one to believe he is confused about his gender identity. In the beginning of the play Pentheus criticizes the feminine appearance of Cadmus and Dionysus, however he finds himself dressed as a women and enjoyed it. Pentheus initially has a deep hatred for the women who abandoned their homes for the mountains to commit what he thinks are vile sex acts. Yet as the play progresses he becomes extremely curious about what the women on the mountainside are doing under Dionysus’ order and when the opportunity presents itself to spy on the women he is ecstatic. Pentheus makes it seem as if he needs to witness these women, not for the sake of the state, but for his personal voyeurism. His obsession with the women’s hidden behavior may reflect not sexual interest, but a desire to know more comprehensively a group with which he identifies himself as, but the social norms in society have restricted him from expressing. Between his
Charlotte Bronte once said, “Women are supposed to be very calm generally, but women feel just as men feel. They need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do. They suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow minded in their more privileged fellow creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags” (Bronte). In the play Medea, Euripides diverged from the traditional role of Greek women through Medea’s characteristics and response to her plight. In delineating the role of women, Medea was unlike any other Greek character. Medea was portrayed as capable and resilient woman who would refuse to back down no matter the obstacles. Nevertheless, women in the Greek culture had very few rights. Housework and bearing children were their main obligations. They were basically no better than slaves. In the ancient Greek society, Medea would not fit well among fellow Greek women. Her role as a woman in the play was downtrodden. However, her determination and courage caused people to fear her. She was a woman who turned her back on her family and killed her own brother in order to help her husband.
Medea and Lysistrata are two Greek literatures that depict the power which women are driven to achieve in an aim to defy gender inequality. In The Medea, Medea is battling against her husband Jason whom she hates. On the other hand, in Aristophanes' Lysistrata, the protagonist Lysistrata plotted to convince and organize the female gender to protest against the stubbornness of men. In terms of defining the purpose of these two literatures, it is apparent that Euripedes and Aristophanes created characters that demonstrate resistance against the domination of men in the society.
Women’s lives are represented by the roles they either choose or have imposed on them. This is evident in the play Medea by Euripides through the characters of Medea and the nurse. During the time period which Medea is set women have very limited social power and no political power at all, although a women’s maternal and domestic power was respected in the privacy of the home, “Our lives depend on how his lordship feels”. The limited power these women were given is different to modern society yet roles are still imposed on women to conform and be a dutiful wife.
... takes matters into her own hands and doesn’t wait for a man to handle things for her. Also, her internal conflict that is visible throughout the entire play signify that she actually thinks for herself, and is strong enough to need to make serious decisions on her own, regardless of her gender. All of this goes back on the traditional Greek society, and helps make Medea into a play that is ahead of its time. With Euripides challenging the notion of misogyny, he creates Medea to show how powerful and dangerous a woman can be in a story, even though it was never heard of in the modern eras.