In ancient Greece there was once a matriarchal society. We know this because it is evident in the literature that has passed into our hands and from the religions of these ancient peoples. While this evidence is before us the reason for the change to a patriarchal society is not so evident. Very li...

Heroes If a hero is properly defined as somebody who does something dangerous to help somebody else, then the heroes of Greek mythology do not qualify. They were a pretty selfish and arrogant bunch, --in other words, not exactly role models for the younger generation of today. The funny thing a...

"The Eumenides" was, overall, one of the most interesting and intriguing stories I have read in a literature class. Most stories are hard to grasp and don't make much sense in modern-day times. "The Euminides," however, caught my attention and never let go. It tells the story of Orestes, who kill...

The Treatment of Women by Men in Homer's The Odyssey Women in Homer's The Odyssey are judged mainly by looks. If important men and gods consider a woman beautiful, or if her son is a hero or important king the woman is successful. The way women in The Odyssey are treated is based on appe...

When the ancient Greek craftsmen and builders toiled away in 550 BC, they knew that their labors would not be in vain; they knew that they would be blessed. To the early Greeks, the legends of the Greek gods were more than legends; they were beliefs that most Greeks shared. Greek mythology is a myst...

Tragedies have inspired innumerable numbers of people throughout the ages to make themselves better and more like the tragic heroes they read about, yet they have also brought various questions to mind. Different critics will argue what exactly causes the outcome of the tragedy. Some say that the ch...

Odysseus is trapped on Kalypso's island being punished for not thanking the gods for his victory. Odysseus has been away from home for about twenty years now. Zeus called a meeting for the gods to decide that Odysseus is now allowed to return to Ithaca. Athena, the gray-eyes goddess, disguised ...

An oracle prophesied to Laius, the king of Thebes, that his child by Queen Jocasta would kill him and marry her (Storr, trans 1912). People of that time deeply believed in oracles and so when Oedipus was born, the king bound his feet and was left to die in a mountain. But a shepherd found the ...

Homer began his song revealing to his audience that Hades had permission from Zeus to abduct Persephone, daughter of Zeus and Demeter. One day, a glorious narcissus sent by Earth to lure Persephone to her abduction while she was playing and gathering flowers with the daughters of Oceanus. With cur...

Odyssey: The Journey of a Hero The Hero's Journey is never an easy one. This particular journey, as detailed in Homer's The Odyssey, is one of struggle, loss, heartache, pain, growth and triumph. It is comprised of many steps that Odysseus has to overcome and battle through in order ...

Demeter and Persephone: Relationship Between Parent and Child In the Story of Demeter and Persephone we learn about the relationship between parents and their children. More importantly, this relationship is a mother daughter relationship and has Ideas that Greek culture might have practiced. In thi...

Because Oedipus knows nothing about the past of Thebes, he is not an assassin. Oedipus committed murder but unknowingly of who King Laius was. Oedipus' honor was his claim against the murder. Had it been the other way around and Oedipus had lost the battle, King Laius' alibi would ha...

The subject of mythology deals mainly with the notion of battle, or good versus evil. In this struggle many individuals are singled out for either the evil they cause, or from the good they bring to people. When you mention heroes in mythology, there are two distinct names that a majority of people ...

For centuries, the struggle between fate and the freedom of the human will has been a point of discontent among many scholars in the area of philosophy and Greek literature. In the works of men like Homer, Euripides, and Sophocles there is an emphasis on the role of prophetic beings and the inabilit...

Greek Literature: Oedipus the King Background: Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, angered Apollo by killing the God's favorite snake. As punishment, the descendants of Cadmus lived under a curse prophesized to each generation by Apollo's oracle. According to the prophecy, if Laius, king of Th...

Greek Literature: Oedipus the King Background: Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, angered Apollo by killing the God's favorite snake. As punishment, the descendants of Cadmus lived under a curse prophesized to each generation by Apollo's oracle. According to the prophecy, if Laius, king of Th...

Greek Literature: Oedipus the King Background: Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, angered Apollo by killing the God's favorite snake. As punishment, the descendants of Cadmus lived under a curse prophesized to each generation by Apollo's oracle. According to the prophecy, if Laius, king of Th...

In the epic poem, The Iliad, Homer describes a social occasion in which character's values, the values of that character's culture and the themes those values develop can be derived. The funeral games, held by Achilles in honor of his late friend Patroclus, is a perfect example of such an occasio...

Use of Irony in "Oedipus Rex" Many sources tell us that Sophocles wrote more then one hundred plays, but only seven of them have survived the centuries in their entirety. Certainly the best known of his surviving plays is "Oedipus Rex." The plot of the play hinges on the element of irony. I...

Achilles Achilles was one of the many, numerous heroes of the great Trojan War. He has a great story that goes along with his adventures. A man who wrote poems about wars named Homer tells his story in the Iliad. He was a great warrior of the Trojan War because of what his parents did to him whe...

When discussing the relationship of ancient gods and humans, one must first explore the nature of the divine and human behavior. A unique attribute of ancient mythological literature is the application of anthropomorphism in regards to the divinity. The human-like characteristics given to each etern...

When you think of Greek Mythology, you think of Zeus, probably, or Hercules (which is Roman). Well, there is A LOT more to it than just him. I mean a lot, a lot. There are dozens upon dozens of gods. But not all of them are worth mentioning, but most are. Because I can't make this very lo...

Heroism plays a huge role in The Odyssey. Odysseus' son, Telemachus, has some big footsteps to follow, and in order to do this he must learn the ways of a hero in order to become one. Telemachus' journey through out the book represents his growth and maturity as a person. Telemachus ...

When one thinks of a god, an almost immediate association with powers and miracles comes to mind. Gods are portrayed as almighty beings who contribute to historical events ranging from uncontrollable earthly forces to the outcome of a treacherous battle. We know much today of legends and myths becau...

Most people today view fairy tales as stories to tell our children, but in the early days this was not the case. In the 17th century, fairy tales were considered offensive to women because of their details of death and sexual encounters. Many people, however, believed these details were the rea...