In Euripides’ play Hippolytus and the Homeric epic The Iliad, mortals are liable for their futures to some extent, while at the same time their futures become dictated by the gods. In the Iliad and Hippolytus, fate is seen as the unknown future, which causes characters like Agamemnon and Hippolytus not to think logistically or obey the gods, but rather egotistically put themselves first when making judgments. This causes the gods/goddesses to react in a frustrated manner and make the humans their victims by controlling their futures harshly. Humans become agitated with this mistreatment, but at the same time their actions have caused the maltreatment. Through his selfishness, Agamemnon, King of the Achaeans, creates a negative fate that causes …show more content…
Aphrodite was a very influential goddess and achieved whatever she desired. The rejection from Hippolytus was rather shocking. Aphrodite screamed in rage, “I treat well those who revere my power, but I trip up those who are proud towards me. For this principle holds among the race of the gods also: they enjoy being honored by mortals. I shall now show you the truth of these words: Theseus’ son, Hippolytus, the Amazon’s offspring, reared by pure Pittheus-he alone of the citizen of this land of Trozen says that I am by nature the most vile of divinities” (Euripides 94). The idea of a mortal not obeying Aphrodite was unheard of and outright appalling. The illogical thinking of Hippolytus caused him to create his future, becoming Aphrodite’s next victim. By Hippolytus thinking of himself first, Aphrodite saw it as a sign of disrespect. Therefore, Aphrodite caused Phaedra, Hippolytus’ stepmother, to fall in love with him as punishment (Euripides 94-95). The cruelty and wrongness of this situation caused Phaedra to feel miserable, leading her to her deathbed. Along with her body she left a suicide note, telling a completely different story than the truth. Theseus recites, “I will not longer keep this destructive, hard-to-express evil within the gates of my mouth. O city! Hippolytus dared to touch my …show more content…
Aphrodite’s resentment towards Hippolytus caused her to create his fate by making him a victim. Phaedra’s death was only the first step to truly make Hippolytus suffer. The awful note had left Hippolytus reputation in shambles as his own father had banished him from the town. Theseus screeches in terror, “How like you is what you’ve said! You will not die in this way, according to this law you’ve set up for yourself; for a quick death is easiest for an unfortunate man. No, an exile from your fatherland, you will wander over a foreign land and drag out a painful life” (Euripides 133). Theseus’ fury over the loss of his wife and what he thought was the distrust of his son caused for him to quickly and illogically decipher a punishment. This exile was considered the worst torture possible for the Greeks, which pleased Aphrodite because Hippolytus had become a true victim of her. The notion of being pushed away and unwanted causes people to feel desperate. This desperation causes people to want to hurt others as a way to express their emotions. Aphrodite needed to truly victimize Hippolytus in order to feel better about herself, despite the fact that others got hurt along the way. In the end Hippolytus’ choice, not to honor Aphrodite caused her to take his fate into her own hands and make him her
In the story, the supreme ruler of Athens, Thesius ends up marrying Hippolyta, the Queen of the Jungle. However, during the whole story, Hippolyta never throughly discusses her feelings and ideas about the marriage. She acts as if she has no choice but to marry Thesius. This can be proven by examining Hippolyta's position in the relationship between herself and Thesius. Hippolyta was captured by Thesius during battle and Thesius intimidates Hippolyta into marrying him since he is a supreme ruler and she was defeated by him. Thesius reveals that he capture Hippolyta in battle in the following quote, "I wood thee by my sword/ And won thy love doing thee injuries" (Act I, Pg 7). The above quote and the fact that Hippolyta never discusses her feelings about the wedding leads the re...
When reading the story of Hippolytus, it would be very easy to label him as an innocent victim. His step mother, Phaedra falls for him, while he promotes celibacy. Instead of being praised for this belief his step mother, who commits suicide was found with a note framing him, telling of his love for her. Upon reading the note, Theseus, his father banishes him and prays to Posiedon to kill him. As Hippolytus leaves, he prays to Zeus to strike him dead if he has sinned and then a wave controlled by Posiedon hits him, almost rendering him dead. Artemis then tells everyone of his innocence, but Hippolytus ends up dying anyway. This may seem like a very open and shut case for him being an innocent victim, but when you look at Hippolytus throughout the story, I tend to think that he wasn't as innocent as he was made out to be. Sure he never was infatuated with Phaedra, but he may have just been a victim of his own pride. Earlier in the story, he is warned to not just devote all his time to worshipping the goddess Artemis, but to...
Since Aphrodite had the magic girdle and was so beautiful, all of the gods fell in love with her. & nbsp;& nbsp;& nbsp;& nbsp;& nbsp; All of the goddesses were jealous of Aphrodite because all of the gods loved her instead of the other goddesses. Because of this, Zeus arranged a marriage for her with Hephaestus, the lame smith-god.5 Aphrodite didn't really mind this marriage arrangement. though, because she thought Hephaestus would never notice her having marital affairs. Hephaestus knew nothing of deception until, one night, he caught his wife and Ares, the god of war, making love at Ares' home. Hephaestus went back to his home very angry.7 Hephaestus was so angry that he decided to get revenge on Aphrodite by literally catching the while they were making love.
The Iliad and the Fate Of Patroclus Throughout The Iliad Of Homer, the constant theme of death is inherently. apparent. The snares are not. Each main character, either by a spear or merely a scratch from an arrow, was wounded or killed during the progression of the story. For Zeus' son, a king.
... she make an exception for Hippolytus. But by the end of the play she vows revenge against Aphrodite. “Cypris shall find the angry shafts she hurled against you for piety and innocence shall cost her dear. I’ll wait until she loves a mortal next time and with this hand-with these unerring arrows i’ll punish him.”
An interesting and important aspect of this Greek notion of fate is the utter helplessness of the human players. No matter the choice made by the people involved in this tragedy, the gods have determined it and it is going to come to pass. T...
Fate has a place in the Greek world but its place is not the same as it is in other scenarios or worlds. It is important to understand the word before we discuss it. Fate as far as Greek mythology goes is not just fate. By most standards fate means that things occur for an unknown reason that no one has any control over. However, in the world of Greek Mythology fate does not just happen. The gods engineer fate and they interfere to make things happen that might not otherwise have happened. Since the players do not always know of the gods' involvement, things may actually appear to be fate but in reality be engineered happenings.
In Herodotus’ story, the bones of tragic hero Orestes served as protection for the Tegeans. Fagle’s allusion is crucial to Sophocles’ depiction of redemption as a result tragedy, in Oedipus at Colonus. In Oedipus at Colonus, we finally witness the triumph of free will over fate. Due to free will, Oedipus is doomed to suffer, and because of his damnation, he learns to accept they ways of the gods and is thus blessed in death (Lines 424-433). We can therefore conclude that Oedipus’ desired free will to escape his fate, led him to redemption. Despite his redemption, fate continues to influence the lives of his children: Antigone and Ismene doomed to carry their father’s shame, and Polynices and Etiocles, doomed to kill each other. Overall, we notice that in Greek Culture, fate holds more power over free will, but it is only through free will that the Greeks through learning by suffering, and are thus blessed by their gods. In conclusion it is safe to say that though fate holds more influence over free will, both fate and free will are of equal value to the Ancient
The idea of fate has baffled mankind for centuries. Can humans control what happens to them, or is everyone placed in a predestined world designed by a higher power? The Epic of Gilgamesh and Oedipus The King highlight on the notion that no matter what, people cannot control what is destined to occur. Interestingly enough, many other distantly connected cultures had, and have similar gods or goddesses who play a role in the fate of individuals. Oedipus, King of Thebes, was told by the Oracle at Delphi that he would one day kill his father and marry his mother. Determined not to let this prophecy verify his fears, Oedipus does all in his power to prevent this from happening, yet fails. Similarly, Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, attempts to obtain immortality, but fails as well. Gilgamesh's and Oedipus's intense fear and ignorance cause them to try to interfere with their fates, leading to their failures and realization of the futility of trying to control destiny.
The idea of fate has existed for a long time and exists even today. Fate revolves around the idea that people's lives are predetermined and that no matter what is done it cannot be changed. With the gods it was used to explain events that seemed strange. Sophocles expands on this idea by introducing Oedipus' fate. The thought of fate is strong considering no matter how hard he struggles he still receives what was predetermined. As a baby he survived the elements on Mount Cithaeron. As Oedipus was destined to live, it shows the dominance of fate. Having fate play such a large part of the play is certainly an insight into the Greek's idea that fate controls us no matter how hard we struggle against it.
In the stories/plays and poems of Gilgamesh, Oedipus the King and Achilles in the Iliad, there are three main heroes who have their fate decided for them by the Gods. Each hero has had fate placed on them according to the god’s, however as fate is understood there is also the idea of free will. Gilgamesh is two-thirds god and one-third man, who feels as though he has no equal, Gilgamesh feels superior to all men until he meets Enkidu, a creation sent to stop Gilgamesh from his reckless and wild ways. Oedipus is the king of Thebes and his fate was prophecies by the blind soothsayer Tiresias in which he was to kill his father and marry his mother. In the poem the Iliad, Achilles was the hero that would win the war with Troy, the prophet Calchas predicted that Achilles would die at an early age. In all of the epics, each character had a destiny to full filled, blessed with extra ordinary powers and abilities, each had the a...
The Iliad and the Odyssey are two classic stories told by Homer. Within these two stories the roles of the gods are very important to the story line and how they affect the characters throughout. In the Iliad, more gods are involved with the characters whereas in the Odyssey there are only two major gods that affect two major characters. The roles of the gods in the Iliad are through two different stances of immortal versus immortal and mortal versus immortal. The roles of the gods in the Odyssey are through two major gods and they affect the plot as Poseidon versus Odysseus and Athena versus Telemachus.
Tragedy is like a roll of the dice. Although you may feel like you are in control, there is nothing you can do to control the outcome. Fate cannot be changed, and in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Oedipus Rex learns this the hard way when he tries his best to avoid and change the tragedy that was prophesied when he was born. Oedipus ends up living a life full of fear of a prophecy he cannot stop, however, he ends the play nobly and tries to fix the wrongs he had done by giving himself punishment by gouging his eyes out and exiling himself from his own kingdom, as well as ensuring that his daughters will not follow the same fate that he did.
After Oenome convinces Theseus that his son has been trying to steal the love of his wife, Hippolytus is banished by his father and Neptune is sent to kill him. At this point, Phaedra learns that Hippolytus was capable of loving someone, and the guilt that she feels is from her denying another woman the love of Hippolytus. She has caused the suffering of another woman, Aricia, and now she has also caused a father to banish and kill his own son. Finally, after the death of Oenome, Aricia, and Hippolytus, the power of her guilt has engulfed her and she can no longer live in the absence of truth or with the deeds she has done.
Can two things ever truly be exactly the same? When it comes to epic heroes, I’m not sure. In both the Iliad and the Odyssey, written by Homer and translated by Robert Fagles, the journey of two epic heroes are depicted for us. Achilles, hero of the book The Iliad, is fighting in the Trojan War. Odysseus, hero of the book The Odyssey, is simply fighting to get home. Although both the epic heroes are put through some of the same very tough and difficult situations, it doesn’t mean they are quite the same person. An analysis of The Iliad and The Odyssey will show three similarities and three differences between Achilles and Odysseus.