Antigone revolts and says that she must uphold divine law rather than Creon’s tyrannical human law. When Antigone’s brothers Eteocles and Polyneices fight for the throne of Thebes and ultimately kill one another, the new king, Creon, orders that only Eteocles, whom he considers to have been the rightful king, be buried with honor. They can be widowed and enslaved as well as a consequence of war.įinally, in a famous tragedy by Sophocles, Antigone fights for human decency in the face of autocracy. They suffer first by bearing children and then by seeing them sent out as soldiers. Lysistrata, the leader of the striking women, explains that women suffer doubly in war, even though they have no say in the decision to enter warfare. Under such dire pressure, their husbands quickly give in and peace is negotiated with Sparta. In a more humorous way, in “Lysistrata,” the playwright Aristophanes imagines the women of Athens protesting the destructive Peloponnesian War by going on a sex strike. Medea loves her children, but like a man, her pride comes first.” Comedy and tragedy According to Haley, Medea “resists the cultural norms that inscribe child-bearing as the only raison d'être of female existence. Medea is not willing to give Jason the freedom to start a relationship with another woman, and she negotiates asylum on her own terms with the king of Athens. Haley sees Medea’s actions as a way to assert her individuality in the face of Greek societal expectations. Classical scholar and Black feminist intellectual Shelley Haley stresses that Medea is proud, a characteristic that is viewed as typically masculine in Greek culture. Medea, as a foreign princess in the Greek city of Corinth, a powerful sorceress, and a Black individual, is marginalized in multiple ways. Painting on a bowl of Medea fleeing in a chariot pulled by dragons. Medea makes her husband, Jason, pay the ultimate price for deserting her – she kills their children. She seizes power in his kingdom of Mycenae while Agamemnon is still at war, and when he returns, she murders him in cold blood. Clytemnestra punishes her husband, Agamemnon, for sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia at the beginning of the Trojan War. … In fact, it is the unquestionable mess that women make of power that justifies their exclusion from it in real life.”īeard uses the stories of Clytemnestra and Medea, among others, to illustrate her point. They take it illegitimately, in a way that leads to the fracture of the state, to death and destruction. Therefore, Beard explains, “ are, for the most part, portrayed as abusers rather than users of power. She argues that the Western definition of power applies intrinsically to males. Greek culture, however, was suspicious of strong-willed women and portrayed them as villains.Ĭlassical scholar Mary Beard explains that women are characterized in this way by male writers to justify women’s exclusion from power. From Le Musée absolu, Phaidon, via Wikimedia Commons Mortal women Mural with Hades abducting Persephone in a chariot. As the king of the gods, Zeus is forever afraid of his wife Hera, who exacts vengeance for all his transgressions, especially his innumerable affairs. But history repeats itself, and the new leader of the gods again fears that his wife may plot to overthrow him. Rhea then hides her child, the god Zeus, who grows up and throws his father down into the depths of the Underworld. She gives Kronos a stone wrapped in a blanket to trick him into thinking that he is going to devour this baby as well. Once Kronos comes to power, however, he becomes afraid of being dethroned by his children, so he swallows all the babies his wife Rhea gives birth to. She orders her son Kronos to castrate his father and take his throne. Gaia, the Earth goddess, rebels against her husband Ouranos, the Sky, who smothers her and refuses to let her children be free. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madridįemale rebellion is at the heart of the Greek story about the creation of the world. A painting by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes. Save this file so you can complete the lesson at any time, even if you don’t have Internet access.The god Saturn devouring his child. You can now download the short version of the lesson as a free PDF file. With the help of rounded lines draw the arms that fit snugly to the torso.ĭraw some straight lines to depict the clothes.įor each snake draw the eye and the thin tongue. Instead of the legs, draw the small tail that is turned to the side. Sketch out three snakes at the top of the head. Using smooth, curved lines draw two snakes on each side. Depict a smooth rounded line and add two lines at the top to draw the pointed outline.ĭraw the eyes in the form of two ovals, add the eyelashes, and depict the mouth.
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