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War and its effects on society
An essay on the role of war in society
The relationship between war and gender
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In 415 B.C.E., the Greek playwright Euripides created The Trojan Women, a play that is arguably one of the best studies of the horrific aspects of war ever written. In her analysis of the play, Professor C.A.E. Luschnig maintains, "[Euripides] has made the Trojan War stand for every war… For war is society's great tragedy: victory is an illusion" (8). While the negative elements of war portrayed by Euripides can be found in all wars and even war’s victors must suffer their defeats, there is an even greater tragedy to society than war itself. War is but one result of the inherent evil nature of men and women and that evil nature, not war, is society’s greatest tragedy.
The Trojan women of the play were Hecuba, the wife of the late King of Troy; Kassandra, Hecuba's virgin daughter; and Andromache, wife of the slain Hector and mother of Astyanax. Other vanquished women of Troy compose the chorus. The young child Astyanax was also from Troy. He represents the innocent victims of war. Also from Troy at the time of the play was Helen, the daughter of Zeus and Leda. She is central to the play and was the cause of the Trojan War, but was not a Trojan. The Greeks in the play are Talthybios, herald and friend to the commander of the Greek army, Agamemnon. In addition, Melelaos is the brother of Agamemnon and was the husband of Helen before she left Greece to be with Hecuba’s son. Agamemnon does not appear in the play but is central to the story. Gods in the play are Poseidon, the god of the sea, and Athena, the goddess of wisdom and justice. Because the Greeks have offended both gods by their actions, the gods conspire to punish the Greeks.
The play focuses on the aftermath of the Trojan War and the time leading up to the departure of th...
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... the combatants for each war must be made with historical perspective and will always be debated. It is certain, however, that a war fought to depose a madman bent on the annihilation of a race of people is more justifiable than a war fought to take revenge on a wayward wife and her new homeland. The desire to commit genocide is not the product of war but the result of the evil that reside in every man and woman. That evil is society’s greatest tragedy. War is simply a byproduct of that evil.
Works Cited
Curriculum Vitae: C.A.E. Luschnig." Letters, Arts & Social Sciences. Web. 10 Apr. 2012.
Euripides. The Trojan Women. Trans. Diskin Clay. Newburyport, MA: Focus Classical Library, 2005. Print.
Luschnig, C.A.E. "Euripides' "Trojan Women:" All Is Vanity." The Classical World 65.1 (1971): 8-12. Print.
Goldwyn, Adam J. "A Literary History of the Trojan War from Antiquity to the Middle Ages." Order No. 3426747 City University of New York, 2010. Ann Arbor: ProQuest. Web. 13 ‘May 2014.
Yet, despite the fact that no two women in this epic are alike, each—through her vices or virtues—helps to delineate the role of the ideal woman. Below, we will show the importance of Circe, Calypso, Nausicaa, Clytaemestra, and Penelope in terms of the movement of the narrative and in defining social roles for the Ancient Greeks. Before we delve into the traits of individual characters, it is important to understand certain assumptions about women that prevailed in the Homeric Age. By modern standards, the Ancient Greeks would be considered a rabidly misogynistic culture. Indeed, the notoriously sour Boetian playwright Hesiod-- who wrote about fifty years before Homer-- proclaimed "Zeus who thunders on high made women to be evil to mortal men, with a nature to do evil (Theogony 600).
After putting up with Hera for years, Athena is ready to put an end to this confrontation. That being so, she accepts the statue and places it in the center of Troy. Later that night, some of the Greeks emerged from the inside of the Trojan Horse and opened the gates for those remaining on the outside. Within an hour, the city of Troy, in its entirety, went up in flames. However, Hera has forgotten that Athena is, by nature, an excellent war strategist. Being so, she recognized Hera’s true intentions with the Trojan Horse. Nevertheless, she allowed the city of Troy and its inhabitants to be sacrificed as a pawn in the war against Hera. With the destruction of Troy, Athena knew that Hera would no longer have any leverage over her. On the other hand, Athena had many things which would give her an advantage over Hera.
This war involves a human side, including the admission of fear and scenes of domestic life, not in a sentimentalized version. This more complete and responsible depiction shows that there's not one single center to the war, just as there's not one single god for the Greeks.
Few veterans speak about their experiences in the war, nature withers in pain as its children were murdered on its surfaces and survivors or family members bare a hole in their chests. As I walk against the rubble, I start to think about the actions taken against the accomplices of hate, and actions taken as global society. We came in unity to form a resolution, in which we vowed to never allow anyone to commit a crime against humanity again. That vow flew away with the wind. For a moment in history, we as the human race sat down in a convention to write a doctrine of sorts. Then we turned around and went back to our countries and let hypocrisy run high. In the United States, we let blood of our citizen’s flow onto the streets because of their color. In Rwanda, many eyes were shut because their ethnicities didn’t quite match. That hate didn’t disappear it just morphed into different aggressors in a new eras with a new pool of
The Greek gods were not only intimately involved in the action of the Trojan War, they were also the impetus for the war. Although the overt cause of the war was Paris' abduction of Helen, this act was the result of quarrelling goddesses. The Trojan prince Paris was forced to choose the fairest amongst the goddesses Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena. Each goddess attempted to sway Paris with offerings, and Aphrodite's temptation was Helen; this leads to the war and the immortal alliances that overshadow its mortal activities. The story that the poem implicitly addresses is of the Achaen king Agamemnon and his daughter Iphigenia. The Achaen forces have gathered at Aulis before mounting their attack on Troy when one of Artemis' stags is killed; this, coupled with Agamemnon's boasting of the act, is why "Artemis is offended" (51). In retaliation, the goddess imprisons the troops at Aulis by preventing the wind from powering their fleet. In order to appease the goddess and begin the war, Agamemnon sacrifices his own daughter Iphigenia as "the child" who will become "the victim of Aulis." Although Artemis intervenes and makes Iphigenia one of her priestesses, only the goddess knows that Iphigenia escaped death.
One can hardly deny that in Euripides’ plays women are often portrayed as weak, uncertain, and torn between what they must do and what they can bring themselves to do. Other women appear to be the root of grave evils, or simply perpetrators of heinous crimes. In a day when analysis of characters and plot had yet to be invented, it is easy to see why he might have been thought to be very much against women. However, when looking back with current understanding of what Euripides was doing at the time, armed with knowledge of plot devices and Socratic philosophy, this argument simply does not hold up. In fact, a very strong argument can be made to the opposite, that Euripides was in fact very much in support of women’s rights, and thought they were treated unfairly.
story of the Achaeans and their fight against the Trojans in a microcosm of the
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.”
There is a copious amount of major characters in the story. Some of them include Odysseus, the main character, who is a soldier and returns home after a twenty-year absence. Some of his family includes Laertes, his father, Penelope, his wife, and Telemachus, his son. There are many gods that Odysseus must battle on his journey home, including Zeus, who is said to be father of all gods, and Poseidon, the god of the ocean who punishes Odysseus and his crew by giving them a very difficult trip home after they blind his son, Polyphemus, or the Cyclops by blinding him after stabbing him in the eye. Another major character is Calypso, a sea goddess who is in love with Odysseus.
In today’s society, women have overcome many hardships to become able to vote, able to run for public office, and even able to hold high business positions. Some people believe that such accomplishments are because of literary examples that have, over the years, lead women to believe in themselves, motivate them-selves, and stand up for themselves. In Aeschylus’ infamous Greek tragedy, The Oresteia, Clytaemestra, the leading woman, overcomes the Greek society’s slighting attitude towards women, grasping the most powerful position attain-able in Argos. Even after gaining power, Clytaemestra clutches this leadership desperately, unrelenting in her hopes to keep it forever. Although Clytaemestra uses intellect, inner strength, and self-motivation to capture power, she does it evasively and by hurting others. Therefore, Clytaemestra is not a respectable woman role model.
...causes pain and suffering to all who endure it, those both on the front and at home. However, there are circumstances and situations in which war can be used as a last resort. Many people believe that there is no such thing as a “just war”. After all, what is just about the bloodshed of people? However, the just war theory does not aim to promote war but to regulate it. In a perfect world, war would not exist and political disputes could be resolved through peaceful measures. But, as long as humans have the desire for larger land and more wealth, many will turn to war as a means to gain these material things. It is the just war theory that allows for some sort of ethical code to govern the hell that is called war. The just war theory is a temporary solution for the time being. It is only when the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.
Euripides. Odysseus at Troy: Ajax, Hecuba, and Trojan Women. Ed. Stephen Esposito. Newburyport: Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Co., 2010.
One significant woman role during this poem is women characters Chryseis and Briseis as war prizes. These women have a role where they have little control over their destiny, and this destiny, actually causes a lot of disruption between Achilles and Agamemnon. Chryseis and Briseis are both women characters who play the role of seized maidens who are looked at as loot of