Greek mythology exhibits gods facing mortal problems. This makes these myths very relatable and applicable to one’s everyday life. Through reading Medusa, Icarus and Pandora’s myths, many valuable lessons and truths are learned. A philosophical lesson from Medusa’s myth is “beauty is only skin deep, whereas true beauty comes from one's self”. A thoughtful moral from Icarus’ myth is “don't push your luck, sometimes it's better to just follow the rules to avoid trouble”. Lastly the moral found in Pandora’s myth is “Curiosity sometimes kills the cat”. Medusa was a beautiful young priestess of Athena with immense responsibilities. However after falling in love with Poseidon, she rebelled against her vows to stay unmarried. This struck offence at the gods and she was scolded. Every lock of Medusa’s golden hair changed into venomous snakes and her once inspiring eyes turned into orbs. If anyone looked into her eyes, they would be turned into stone. This moral shows that even though Medusa used to look attractive, she was obliged …show more content…
The maze was located under the court of King Minos of Crete. In order for Minos’ Labyrinth to be kept a secret, Minos had Icarus and Daedalus trapped in his palace. With Daedalus’ craftsmanship skills, he created two set of wings using wax for Icarus and himself to escape. When they flew out together, Icarus forgot his dad’s warnings not to fly too high or low, but Icarus kept rising to the sky. The wax started to melt which made him fall into the sea and drown. This act shows us how pushing our luck can have us end up in the wrong place. Icarus was excited that he found a way to escape imprisonment although he was ignorant to his father’s warnings and took his luck too far. As a Chinese saying goes “A great fortune depends on luck, a small on on diligence”. If Icarus followed his father’s orders, he would’ve flown into safety instead of losing his
As one of the most well known ancient Roman love poets, Ovid has demonstrated bountiful talents within his writing. When reading myths from his book titled Metamorphoses, you gain an enlightening insight of how he viewed mythology. To Ovid, love was the origin of everything. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that most of his poems relate to the theme of love. However, not all poets are the same and every re-telling of a myth has its own unique perspective. In this paper I will compare and contrast the myth of Medea in Euripides Medea and Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 7. I will then explain how Ovid’s approach to love and loss correlate to his general approach to myth as a whole. I will support my belief with evidence from Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 14.
“The world is full of wonders, but nothing is more wonderful than man.” This quote shows that the Greeks valued themselves, but also their intellect in which they know that the world about them is great. The Greeks valued beauty, art, intellect, honor, and truth; the list is long. Some of these values are shown through the story of the Odyssey, which tells of the adventures of Odysseus and his family. In order to understand Greek values and how they are portrayed in Greek society, one must examine how some values are portrayed in the Odyssey: hospitality, intellect, and beauty.
The Odyssey, Phaedra and Things Fall Apart are works of art that have a common and important theme. These works have a single hero who is characterized by a personal strength, respect and highest moral obligations and ethics. As such, the theme of a hero is still attributable to the modern times because people value morality, ethics and individual strength. Another major theme is the burden that these heroes have to carry and in some cases, they have to take it without complaining to others of fate which has made them who they are. Those with strong principles in life will always stay heroes, even if they do not survive, their memory and legacy will be their mark to remember.
Medea is frequently associated with images of violence and rage. “She’s wild. Hate’s in her blood. /She feeds her rage…Stormclouds of anger.” These images suggest hatred, and anger, they are powerful and present a strong, illustration of Medea’s persona. Like nature, Medea is constructed as commanding and yet also unpredictable; this consequentially creates uncertainty as to what she shall do next and thus intrigues the audience with her character. Parallels between Medea and wild animals are often drawn in order to portray her as wild and untamed. “Bullglares, lions claws” and “you hellhound, you tigress,” these comments serve to highlight Medea’s animalistic side thus increasing her onstage presence and compelling persona. Medea’s two-fold personality is revealed through imagery of stone and harshness. She is both passionately emotional and coolly calculating, depending on which enhances her cause. “Cold as stone, cold eyes,” in 5th Century BC the eyes were considered of great importance, reflections of the soul, thus to have cold eyes is to have a cold soul. This notion is confronting to the audience and heightens Medea’s onstage presence.
In Greek mythology there are many life lessons to be learned. These are life skills. Such as, always listen to your parents, and always follow the directions you are given, being kind to everyone.
The story of Medusa and Perseus is known as one of the top thriller tales in Greek Mythology. To begin, Medusa is one of three sisters, Sthenno and Euryale. However, she is the only mortal one. Originally, Medusa had golden, long, beautiful hair. She was Athena’s Priestess and swore to a celibate life. Later on, Medusa met Poseidon, fell in love with him and completely forgot about her vows to Athena. The Goddess Athena was so infuriated that she turned Medusa into a hideous looking monster. Her golden locks became venomous snakes and her face became so grotesque that any God or immortal to look into her eyes would become a statue of stone. Athena did this so Medusa would not attract any man. The same came for her sisters because Poseidon
The relationship between gods and mortals in mythology has long been a complicated topic. The gods can be generous and supportive, and also devastating and destructive to any group of humans. Mortals must respect the powers above them that cannot be controlled. The gods rule over destiny, nature, and justice, and need to be recognized and worshipped for the powerful beings as they are. Regardless of one's actions, intentions, and thoughts, the gods in Greek myth have ultimate power and the final decision of justice over nature, mortals, and even each other.
Through these examples of hospitality, pride and fate, one can learn of many important Greek principles. Hospitality was an extreme point throughout the epic, it was greatly emphasized for many different reasons and gestures. Also, As a quality that was shown, pride was key to respect but could lead to problems too. Lastly, fate was in the power of the god, which is shown to be true, and not only on chance. These values that the Greeks present help maintain a social rule of the culture, and provide a basis for personal growth and morals.
The tragic play Medea is a struggle between reason and violence. Medea is deliberately portrayed as not a ‘normal woman’, but excessive in her passions. Medea is a torment to herself and to others; that is why Euripides shows her blazing her way through life leaving wreckage behind her. Euripides has presented Medea as a figure previously thought of exclusively as a male- hero. Her balance of character is a combination of the outstanding qualities of Achilles and Odysseus.
Medusa contains life-saving information for women that is sometimes needed in order to survive (Culpepper, p. 23). Culpepper then goes on to write about her own experience of “Experiencing [Her] Gorgon Self” when she was attacked in her home. Instead of allowing the attack to occur, the Gorgon within her took over with rage and fury to shove the man back outside (p. 23). After the attack, Culpepper knew that something else had embodied her during this moment. As she looks in the mirror, she knows what she sees: the Medusa!
This paper is to show that Heracles is the prime example of a hero’s journey through his actions and the struggles that he faced during his life until he was about to die but instead of death, his father, Zeus, saved him and he conquered the mortal realm, to become a god.
The myths which prove the contradictory behavior of the gods, acting as both benefactors and tormentors of man, can readily be explained when viewed in light of the prime directive for man, to worship the gods and not “overstep,” and the ensuing “Deus ex Mahina” which served to coerce man to fulfill his destiny as evidenced by the myths: “Pandora,” “Arachne, and “Odysseus.” Humankind and it’s range of vision over the gods beauty and power portrayed them to be benefactors but unseemingly it depicted their affliction towards humans.
In the plays Medea and Hippolytus, both by Euripides, the female psyche is a point of focus that is not explored in many other Greek tragedies. Through these plays, we can discover the way women were viewed in Ancient Greek society as well as their concerns. We can also pay attention to how women are portrayed differently between the two plays.In Medea and Hippolytus, the women we spend the most time with are Medea and Phaedra. These women have vastly different values, but the cunning and determination they use to get their ways are not as different as one may believe.
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.
Archetypal criticism is used in the continuous employment of the extended metaphor of medusa. In the myth, Medusa is generally portrayed as the incarnation of feminism, as the name Medusa is derived from the Greek word metis meaning feminine. Medusa’s hair could be parallel to the chain events of birth and death as snakes constantly shed and regrow skins. Although the hairs of snakes were meant to diminish her craved beauty and femininity, Medusa could have, in fact, become more womanly, because not only does the phallic snake represent the power of birth unique to women, it also epitomizes danger and intelligence implying that women too possess these qualities. In addition, although the protagonist isn’t prepossessing, it doesn’t alter the fact that the woman is still a dominating ...