Ancient Greek Traditions - Essay Example

Ancient Greek Traditions The importance of family and adherence to religious belief has been a major theme of literature since well before the advent of Christianity. The ancient Greeks, with their pantheon of gods, had deep religious convictions that reinforced many values we continue to hold sacred today, such as honor and loyalty to family and loved ones. Throughout the plays of the ancient Greeks, one can find a strong element of the importance of family in the lives of these people in which all members played a crucial role. While the stories presented are typically centered around male characters, female characters are able to take on central roles as well and are frequently seen in positions of authority or importance even within the stories of the heroes. These themes, the importance of family and a different role for women than the traditional values of the Victorian age, can be traced through the works of three of the most popular Greek authors, Sophocles, Euripedes and Homer. In Oedipus the King by Sophocles, the action opens as Oedipus is approached by plague-stricken masses asking help from him as king. When he sees his people gathered around him as if he were a god, his response to them is paternalistic and godlike. His pride in his role is evident in the words he speaks in which he seems to be almost condescending to them for appealing to other forces than himself in their burning of incense to cloud the air. Throughout the remainder of the action, Oedipus’ personality clearly reflects a continued pride and a determination to maintain his family relationship within his nuclear unit as well as throughout his kingdom. A great deal of his story is actually predicated on an attempt to save his family. When Oedipus learned of his own prediction that he was doomed to kill his father and marry his mother, he was determined to avoid this fate by taking his future in his own hands. He left his homeland in Corinth for the further realm of Thebes. However, when he is able to solve the riddle of the Sphinx, a task that had not been accomplishable by anyone else, his natural pride in his own abilities rose to a new level. This pride is reinforced by the fact that he then became the king of Thebes and married Jocasta, the widowed queen of Thebes. Unfortunately, as it is discovered toward the end of the play, this widowed queen was the wife of the man Oedipus killed on the road, who turned out to be his own father. This made his wife his mother and himself the vile criminal he was seeking. After the disgrace he had brought upon his family, both the kingdom and his nuclear group, Oedipus could no longer survive with himself, gouged out his eyes and ran off into the desert. Another shining example of this type of writing can be found in Sophocles’ play Antigone. This play tells the story of Oedipus’ daughter and opens shortly after the death of her two brothers, who have killed each other in a battle to see who would be king of Thebes. While one brother was buried with all honors, the other was left to rot in the sun under punishment of King Creon if any should attempt burial procedures. Antigone, outraged at the dishonor shown her family regardless of the outside circumstances, also expresses her deep-seated belief that it is against the wishes of the gods to leave any of their subjects unburied. Meanwhile, King Creon, her uncle, has gone against the rules of family by issuing the order regarding the brothers’ remains as a means of showing his extreme loyalty to the state and demonstrating his suitability to be king. This conflict between King Creon showing loyalty to the state and Antigone showing loyalty to family ultimately ends with support for the concept that family and adherence to the rules of the gods are most important in life. This is shown in Antigone’s marginal victory over Creon in death. Antigone enters the first scene of the play already in a rage after learning that the new king, Creon, has forbidden to allow one of her brothers to be buried, introducing the central conflict of the play immediately. She decides to go against the king’s orders, arguing that burying the dead is the right thing to do. Her pride in family makes it impossible for her to drop the issue and her stubborn determination to abide by what she feels is right makes it impossible for her to approach the issue in any way other than head-on. It is clear she’s outraged that the king would tell her what to do when she is talking to her sister at the very beginning of the play: “Dishonours which better fit our enemies / are now being piled up on the ones we love” (Antigone 12-13). She cannot believe someone would order her to go against the mandates of her community-held religious convictions or prevent her from performing the duties of family toward the dead. Instead of adhering to the orders of the king, she brazenly goes out to give her brother the last rites necessary for his spirit to find its way to the next world and is caught in the act by the king’s soldiers. In the end, it doesn’t matter to Creon if her ideas were founded on trying to please the gods; she is put to death for her stubborn insistence on doing what she has determined is right in relation to her brothers regardless of what her uncle has decided. In acting on her beliefs, she openly defied Creon and proudly admits that she is a traitor when she is caught: “I did not think / anything which you proclaimed strong enough / to let a mortal override the gods / and their unwritten and unchanging laws” (Antigone 510-513) she says spitefully to the king in response to why she disobeyed his law. Euripedes also places a female character in a central role in his play Medea. In this play, the character Medea, a descendent of the sun god Helios, forsakes her father, her country and her heritage in order to marry Jason. After she has given him two sons, Jason decides he would rather be married to the princess Glauce, daughter of Creon, a fitting fate for a woman who refuses to honor family in this culture. Although she has been banished from the kingdom by Creon so that she might do no further harm to his daughter, Medea is able to convince him to allow her to stay just one more day and sends her sons to the new bride with poisonous gifts that kill her. Then Medea kills her own two sons in order that no one else might harm them and whisks their bodies off “to Hera’s domain” so that the father will not even have the comfort of seeing them properly attended to. In ancient days, the only true way to enact full revenge upon a man was to find a way to completely destroy his house. That meant eliminating any chance that his name would be carried forward, as it would be in the names of his sons. Therefore, to bring about revenge upon Jason to the magnitude he deserved, it was necessary for Medea to murder his sons, as well. “Never shall he see again alive the children I bore to him, nor from his new bride shall he beget issue, for she must die a hideous death, slain by my drugs.” It is only through the deaths of both of his sons as well as his bride that Medea can guarantee that Jason’s house ends with him, as is right and just for the actions he’s taken in removing her from her father’s home, utilizing her talents to accomplish his great deeds and then dishonoring her in such a way. Yet it is not an answer that she particularly relishes despite her conviction to carry out the action. “I shudder at the deed I must do next; for I will slay the children I have borne; there is none shall take them from my toils, and when I have utterly confounded Jason’s house I will leave the land.” In this, she illustrates that her decision to murder her sons is not only founded on the concept that she wishes to exact complete revenge upon Jason, but also to be sure that no one else gains control over her through them or gains control over their comfort and safety apart from her. Only by killing them can she be sure that they will come to no harm at the hands of her enemies just as only by killing them can she be sure of her revenge upon Jason. Since she must adopt the customs and traditions of the people with whom she has found a home, Medea has decided to make sure that she is remembered as a woman of strength and knowledge rather than a woman disgraced: “Let no one deem me a poor weak woman who sits with folded hands, but of another mould, dangerous to foes and well-disposed to friends; for they win the fairest fame who live then, life like me.” Family also plays a central role in Homers epic poem, the Odyssey, as almost every action throughout the story supports the idea of a strong, well-balanced, loyal and dedicated family. There are many examples of good families that prosper, enabling their associated kingdoms to also prosper, and examples of bad families in which the kingdom languishes, struggling in contention and strife. In particular, the relationships held between fathers and sons stands out as being of special importance. Through the family relationships he depicts, Homer portrays the idea of continuity between generations as traits of the fathers are carried forward and reflected or as they are rejected and refused in the sons. By tracing the relationships between fathers and sons as they relate to Odysseus and Telemachus and each other, Homer shows not only how the strength of family can overcome seemingly insurmountable outcomes, but also how the continuity of traits and characteristics between generations can help a family succeed or bring it to ruin. Odysseus and Telemachus have an absent relationship despite the fact that they are father and son, yet the traits of the father can still be recognized in the activities and thoughts of the son. Because Odysseus embodies the values of hospitality, good manners, loyalty, intelligence and patience, the reader should be able to see these traits in his son. However, having not had his father’s influence, Telemachus instead demonstrates an inability to manage his houseguests and an awkwardness in cultured manners when he arrives in Pylos at the beginning of the tale, aspects of his character that take the goddess Athena by surprise when she decides to send him on a hero’s quest. His contacts with first Nestor and then Menelaus provide him with the examples he needs of a healthy father/son relationship as well as the example these leaders set in being a “father figure” to their kingdoms, which leads both the society and the family to thrive and grow. Accepted into Nestor’s household and given Peisistratus as a friend of equal rank to accompany him and help ease him through missteps in manners, helps ease his way into the palace of Menelaus, further bolstering his confidence. This journey undertaken by Telemachus is very similar in form as the journey undertaken by Odysseus later in the story, with the purpose of giving him the heroic experience he needs to stand by his father’s side when they are finally reunited. Becoming a replica of his father, Telemachus is now prepared to stand by his father’s side in outwitting and outfighting the unwanted suitors, helping to bring about the peace and prosperity Ithaca has longed for and demonstrating how continuity between the generations has led to success. In all of these classics, family emerges as the ultimate priority among the ancient Greeks. It was the way in which rewards were won as well as terrible punishments enacted. While Sophocles focused on the relationship of the family as it extended inward to the individual as well as outward to the greater community, the health of the community as a result of the health of the family is only hinted at in Homer’s plays and isn’t even brought forward in the play by Euripedes. However, even in the plays of Sophocles, it is family that takes the center seat. Also, although women in all three plays are seen to have a great deal of strength, courage and intelligence on their own, only Sophocles and Euripedes enables the woman to take center stage. For all of these plays, this is a significant difference from the traditional western beliefs coming out of the middle and Victorian ages, yet suggests a society in which all members of the community were expected to play an important part as women were honored and respected as a binding force within the family unit. Works Cited Euripedes. The Medea. 431 BC. Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. E.V. Rieu. New York: Penguin Books, 1946. Sophocles. Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra. Oxford World’s Classics. Ed. Edith Hall. Oxford University Press, 1998. Read More