Analysis Of The Hymn To Demeter And Oresteia

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Ten missed phone calls from your mother. The first thoughts running through almost anyone’s mind: panic and fright. These are thoughts that many people have because mothers can be scary. Women in general can be scary; they are seen as more emotional, caring, and passionate than men. Most mothers are seen as great role models because of this. The fact that they only want their children to grow up happy and healthy is a good thing. In society, this is seen as normal female behavior and is expected. However, because of this behavior, Greek society believed that women, especially mothers, were not fit to be rulers or to have strong power because of their emotional instability, their passion, and their deceitfulness. The Hymn to Demeter and Oresteia, …show more content…

Both mothers were deceitful, cunning and used disguises. Demeter disguised herself as an old woman to get a replacement child. Clytemnestra disguised herself as an obedient and loving wife to make sure that no one knew what she was actually plotting. Both women also lose their daughters because of other gods. Artemis demanded Agamemnon’s daughter as a sacrifice because Agamemnon offended her. Similarly in the Hymn to Demeter, Hades wanted a wife and picked Persephone. Interestingly, marriage is depicted as death in this hymn. Demeter acted as if Persephone’s marriage was a death sentence, which can lead back to the assumption that women should be submissive and not in leadership roles. This is because the wife is usually taking care of the husband by making sure he is happy. Their purpose is to make sure the husbands are content with the marriage. So, the wives lose their sense of being since they are forced to consider their husbands at all times. Being in a relationship assumes that the women will be submissive and obedient, which are not qualities of a ruler. A ruler should be independent and dominant. Therefore, Demeter assumed that Persephone’s life was over because she had to take care of Hades. It was similar to death because Demeter would never get to see her daughter again. Additionally, both females caused chaos throughout the land because of their emotional …show more content…

The authors portray them as unstable and grieving mothers that cannot handle ruling. This is shown with the chaos that they both created. However, the only difference that exists is that Demeter was shown more forgiveness than Clytemnestra. This is because Demeter has more power than a mere mortal. The gods were afraid of Demeter’s power; she was going to drive both mankind and mortals out of existence. On the other hand, Clytemnestra can do no harm to the gods so she was punished by fate with her own son. These women were examples as to why Greek society believed that women should not be

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