Essay Database

In the Ancient World, women were not portrayed as they are today in modern literary works; women usually played controversial roles where their actions ranged from killing their own family to destroying their own town. Women in ancient Greek plays and Roman stories did not posses the social standing that we naturally think of today, many times their only power was to strike back when they were hurt. Medea, Phaedra, and Dido, admirable or dangerous, …

…Aeneas. In these three works, Medea, Hippolytus, and Aeneid, the female roles defiantly had an agenda. The women were all overwhelmed by "love" and were blinded by it. Medea, Phadrea, and Dido committed unthinkable crimes in an attempt to cast revenge on the object of their affection. In the end, none of them possessed the man they were longing for, they only ended up hurting themselves and those that supposedly meant the most to them.