Literature- can someone reword these three short answers?

1. How does Aeneas’ detachment differ from Rama’s?

Ravana, the king of Lanka kidnaps Sita, the wife of the Kings son, Rama. Rama knows that he has become absorbed in his misery and loneliness and he cannot concentrate on what he should be doing to reclaim his wife. He detaches himself from his beloved wife and switches his focus to a completely new, selfish path. Rama, decides to concentrate on his own dharma, meaning his Virtue, righteousness, and social duty in accord with the cosmic order. He comes to a conlusion that his status of king is more important to him than his retrieving of his wife. He is well aware that he is in love and this decision was not easy for him to make. Rama detaches himself from his love to Dido and moves towards his personal duty of reaching his potential as king.

After the Trojan War, Aeneas, a Trojan hero, is given the task to lead his people to find a place to settle. They went through a series of journeys and finally arrived in Carthage. Aeneas met the founder and queen of Carthage, Dido, and instantly fell in love with the current city she was constructing. Cupid, disguised himself as Aeneas’ son and influences Dido to fall in love with Aeneas. She stopped everything she was doing to focus all her attention on her new love, Aeneas. This love affair threatened to distract Aeneas from obtaining his destiny, Italy, but Aeneas knew there was no room for sexual engagement in his world and he had to keep female sexuality at a distance, he had to conquer Italy! Aeneas detached himself from love to follow his dream of finding Rome, Italy. The G-d Mercury was sent to inform Aeneas to depart so he can claim Italy. Aeneas leaves Carthage and Dido to sail off to Italy. Dido eventually kills herself. The detachment of Rama and Aeneas share similarities but they are different as well. Both Rama and Aeneas leave their “lovers” to obtain a goal and dream of their own. Rama abandons Sita in order to fulfill his dharma as king, and Aeneas leaves Dido to find Italy. Rama knows that he is in love with Sita but understands that his position as king surpasses that love and therefore has to leave her. As oppose to Aeneas who always had a dream of finding Rome. He did not have to think hard about his decision, he knew all along that finding Rome was the most important thing to him.

1. How does Euripides portray the relationship between the human and the divine?

In the Bacchae, Euripides portrays the relationship between the king of Thebes, Pentheus (the human) , and the Greek G-d, Dionysus(the divine).

The divine, more specifically, Dinoysus is in complete control over human beings. Pentheus refuses to worship and accept Dionysus even though he is the known G-d. He is constantly insulting Dionysus’s birth and his powers. As Pentheus goes on in life he believes that he is controlling his own actions when really there was a G-d behind the scenes planning out his death. Pentheus acted as a puppet with Dionysus being his puppeteer.

Dionysus has a group of people who worship him, known as the “Maenads”, these people are women who run in the wild and sing and dance in animal skins. When Dionysus is violated he is able to turn these joyus women into enraged and violent human beings. This again portrays the idea of the G-ds having complete control over the mortals.

We see the untrustworthy relationship between Dionysus and Pentheus. Pentheus had most of his trust in himself and even though he did not believe in Dionysus he still trusted him a little bit. Dionysus convinces Pentheus to dress up as a member of the Bacchus in order to figure out a military strategy and see what type of sexual activity the women are doing. Pentheus goes out on a tree to spy on the women, and suddenly Dionysus allows him to get ripped from limb to limb. Clearly, Dionysus has betrayed Pentheus’ trust here and showed his great amount of power over him. In summation, one must understand that he can do whatever he wants but in the end, G-d is the Almighty powerful one who can betray a human at any time. The Bacchae sets a reminder that gods have their own will to which we are molded. Pentheus did not follow this reminder, he would not accept Dionysus as G-d with complete power. Dionysus is a G-d that wants us to realize the power we have inside us, are we gonna live a life as life or death? The first step we need to accept is that we have him in us. Human justice is portrayed as his or her own upbringing and selfishness, while divine justice is complete truth, actual justice. Most importantly, the divine has control over the human fate and destiny.

1. If Virgil and Aeschylus had a conversation about women, how would it go based on the Aeneid and Agamemnon?

Agamemnon is away fighting in the Trojan war and leaves his wife, Clytemnestra behind. Aeschylus writes, “A lady’s male strength of heart in its high confidence ordains.” (Aeschylus 5). Clytemnestra is portrayed as acting like a strong and fervent man while she governs her husband, Agamemnon’s territory. Clytemnestra makes it clear that she is still suffering due to the loss of her daughter, Iphigenia, who was killed by Agamemnon Clytemnestra kills her husband in avenge for her daughters death. Even though she committed such a horrific crime, Aeschylus forces his audience to sympathize with her. The audience feels as if Clytemnestra was justified in the execution of her husband, because she caused ten years of grief to her by taking the life of the daughter she adored. The reason we sympathize with her so much is because the audience understands how it logically makes sense for a mother to want to do such a thing. Aeschylus exposes her as a tragic character who does not seem insane to us.

Virgil has a completely different view on women, more specifically, Dido. At first, Virgil depicts Dido, the queen of Carthage as a skilled and magnificent figure. Then as soon as Aeneas comes, Dido is portrayed as instable, love-struck, emotional, and a threat to society. Virgil lived in the Roman society where there was inequality of the sexes. He emphasized that women have the ability to bring the collapse to themselves and others around them. Virgil describes women as being dangerous and monstrous, “First she looks human-a fair breasted girl down to the groin; but then below, a monster, creature of the sea” (Virgil 81). Aeneas had to abide by the duty of man and avoid getting entangled with Dido for his own well being. Dido became so emotionally absorbed with Aeneas that when he departed she went to the extreme and committed suicide. Again, portraying women in an extremely negative way.