Three Greek Heroines: Antigone, Medea, and Electra Term Paper
Three Greek Heroines: Antigone, Medea, and Electra
A comparison and contrast of Medea from Euripides' play "Medea", Antigone from Sophocles' play "Antigone", and Electra from Sophocles' play "Electra".
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| 1,618 words
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| 2013
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on Dec 01, 2014
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From the Paper:
"In historic Greece, the characteristics of a hero were for the most part left only for men to achieve. Heroes were viewed as those who were kind to friends, vicious to enemies, and being great with the ladies did not hurt. They were also the men who routinely risked their lives every single day, fighting for their country and people. Women, however, rarely accomplished anything, the rough definition of a good woman was to be obedient to her husband, and loyal to her family.Basically, anything else was inconvenient to their spouses. Three women stand out in Ancient Greece by defying the norm of women in their day and age. Medea the crazed, Antigone the brave, and Electra the smart. All of their stories focus on the revenge that they inflict upon people who have done them wrong. They all fight for what they believe in, some more recklessly than others, but with all their highs and lows, these three women are all classified as epic heroines."In Euripides' play "Medea" the main character is a powerful woman named, what do know, Medea. She is violent, spiteful, gory and for lack of a better adjective- crazy. This play makes Medea out to be the protagonist, but based on her actions she should be considered evil. Obviously the author was very good at making people react sympathetically towards his leading lady. Medea gave up everything she had to be with Jason, the man she loved. This involved leaving her family, and killing off her brother just to be with him. If the story ended there, this would be an odd little love story, but this is a Greek tragedy we are talking about here. Betrayed by her husband, Medea used revenge to punish him for his actions. As a woman who had been cheated on, we the readers forgive her for all of the cruel things she does while she deals with her pain. All wishing we too could seek revenge on the people who have scorned us in the past, maybe not to her degree, but a little bad luck their way would not hurt. Medea shares the qualities of a traditional male as well as a traditional female. She is strong and critical which are traits normally associated with the men in Greek society, but at the same time she is also crazed with emotion, like a woman."
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Three Greek Heroines: Antigone, Medea, and Electra (2014, December 01)
Retrieved December 10, 2023, from https://www.academon.com/term-paper/three-greek-heroines-antigone-medea-and-electra-154076/
MLA Format
"Three Greek Heroines: Antigone, Medea, and Electra" 01 December 2014.
Web. 10 December. 2023. <https://www.academon.com/term-paper/three-greek-heroines-antigone-medea-and-electra-154076/>