War From Above vs. War From Below

The idea of "below versus above" is an interesting concept. In The Iliad, (the main) women are goddesses. In pictures we have seen, most of them are depicted or drawn sexually and wrote out to be manipulative. In Mother Courage and Her Children, women are treated more brutally. Courage struggles for money and struggles to keep her family a priority, her daughter is a mute, not able to speak for herself and is raped in the novel, and this play is seen as "war from below".

Although the terms are classified more commonly with class rather than gender, I believe we can see them from both ways. While in The Iliad, because women are placed in a higher power, they are more demanding, mischievous and manipulative. The way they are drawn out/portrayed are as sexual symbols and threats to men. Whereas in plays and/or novels, such as Mother Courage and Her Children, women from a more belittled background are depicted as crazy or selfish.

Men, in both works used as examples, are more passionate and driven in their duties and are determined and feared and loved by others. They are strong-willed and seen as idols. Although the goddesses in The Iliad are depicted as stronger women, and in special cases seen with a heavier pull with decisions (Hera over Zeus), it still does not diminish the fact that they must be drawn out to be a sex symbol in order to be seen as significant to the reader(s).

Theater vs Literature

In Mother Courage and Her Children there is a scene where Courage and is warning off the commanders from her eldest son. In theater we see the humor of the scene and we do not fail to laugh, though when I read the scene, I felt almost sorry for Courage.

I feel she is an internally conflicted person and, especially because she is in a dire state of money, people are quick to label her as an ironically, mentally "ill" character - or crazy - because, not the sole fact, that she is a woman. In other works (A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams), it is easy to see the woman as "crazy" than to think she may actually have something internally wrong with her. I also feel that courage has a deeper struggle than what readers want to believe, or what the author leads readers to see.

The live version of the play is already distracting enough. There are scenes happening at the same time and the audience is faced with decided which act to pay attention to. Detail can be missed in the play, where as while reading it, you are able to refer back to the text if you misinterpreted something or missed a slight detail.

Honor or (too much) Pride?

Honor is a powerful role in The Iliad, though, in some parts of the Epic, it can be mistaken for pride.

Through the poem we are well aware of the power-hold these men have on moral women, and it can easily play a role in any big-headedness these men may contain. In the poem it is repeatedly stated that the warriors refuse to give up on the war, no matter how severe their losses are, because their honor must remain intact.

I believe the word "honor", is used for the lack of the term "pride".

Pride seems to be a better fit for this novel, or poem, based on the sole fact that they are fully aware of the, for the lack of a better term, idolization by other women in the poem. The way women are expected to be treated play a very large role in their pride, or as the author seems to pout it, honor.

It may also be seen as a tactic/reason to be in the war in the first place. Honor/Pride gives them a purpose and reason to pursue the women in this poem and therefore eggs them on even more.

The reason for the continuation of the war seems to be the fact that these warriors hold too much honor, more than what is bestowed on them, in order to feed their self-esteem.

Introduction

Hello to the public!

I will be using this blog to connect Sexuality and Gender (inequality) to the times of The Iliad.

I first found my interests in Gender/Sexuality during my junior year of high school. I was enrolled in a Women Studies class and left the class with a more specific interest and a more accepting/open mind than my previous years. I was educated in not only the field in which focused on the inequality of women, but also the different struggles different ethnic/social groups of women faced. We not only focused on Women inequality, but also focused on the troubles LGBTQ+ members faced throughout the years, even to this day.

While reading The Iliad and researching the time in which it was written, plenty of questions began to surface.

In the 1920's we were introduced to Flappers, whom were women who rebelled against the idea of being the "ideal" woman. Were there women in the times of Homer who were independent? Who refused to be looked at/talked to the way their society taught them was acceptable?

There was a time in which homosexuality was not frowned upon. There were various occasions homosexual acts were indulged in. Was homosexuality frowned upon in the times of The Iliad? If not, what changed throughout the years to result in Sexuality being such a controversial topic? Why is it no longer considered a "norm"?

These are only some of the questions that have popped into mind while reading The Iliad. Only a preview of what the blog will consist of.