Ancient Greece has long been considered to be among the most influential societies in today's life. Ancient Greece is an inspiration to the world in various areas which include government, architecture, art, theatre, and philosophy. The aspect of theatre greatly flourished in Greece, especially in Athens between 550 BC and 220 BC. At the beginning of the theatrical performances was the festival performed as part of Dionysus which was for the gods. The plot of the play was developed from the Greek mythology which is a common theme till today. Most of the plays and movies that are performed in Greek are directed towards mythology in Greek with every part of a performance having a particular meaning and importance. Love is also another principle that was cultivated in Greek through theatre performances whereby the comedy by ancient Greeks led to inspiration of the current generational, modern, situational and romantic comedy.
Some comedies were performed to blend various elements such as sexual props, costumes, gags, pranks, and drunkenness. The impact of satyr is evident in a burlesque genre which entails obvious risqué parodies of famous ballets, operas, and plays. Ancient Greek is among the democratic societies that have significant influence in the present-day governments. Even though the idea of democracy in Greek tends to differ from the practices of the modern day, the opinions formed the foundation for today's democratic government. Before the invention of democracy, citizens did not have a right or guidelines on who is considered as a citizen. Democracy provided the right to vote and the ability to hold the office to the public who were mainly landowners. Today democracy can be accessed by everyone and is well organized in a hierarchy while deriving its fundamental principles from Greek democracy. This paper looks into two literary texts which have made a significant influence on the ancient Greek in aspects such as justice, gender, and social order. The first case reviews the case of Aeschylus’s Oresteia while the second instance is about Aristophanes’ Lysistrata
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Aeschylus’s Oresteia
Aeschylus puts justice and gender about each other. In his trilogy, the Greek society is seen as a patriarch. According to culture, the oldest male takes up the highest role in the household which is composed of twofold with the father being the head while the extended family encompasses the wife and children. The head of the household is the only one who has authority to look for justice because he acquires jurisdiction from his lineage through inheritance. Nevertheless, Greek does the opposite of this whereby Clytemnestra kills Agamemnon because she exercises destructive justice and gets into the cycle. This begins when Clytemnestra invites Agamemnon to her house deceitfully without showing any intentions of violence.
From the warm statement that she used to invite Agamemnon, she takes the opportunity of practicing destructive justice, therefore, breaking the circle of violence (West, 1999). Her destructiveness is seen to be intrinsic in the part where she welcomes Agamemnon who was with Cassandra and then tells him to go inside as she is left outside talking to Cassandra. This excerpt indicated that Clytemnestra believes she is the head of the household because she has the power to determine who is legally welcome (West, 1999). The destructive nature of Clytemnestra could not be readily evident because of her generosity and calmness in this scene. However, the passage indicates that she is the head while Cassandra is the extended family and therefore an aspect of Clytemnestra's destructiveness as she enslaves Cassandra.
Democracy is seen to emerge in Athens whereby it gives unprecedented power to its citizens. Among the new skills was the ability of legislation which came along with its problems. The first thing is that citizens need to agree on the and unjust and then abide by the law through the implementation of the unjust to reconcile their guilt with the public via trial and finally administer the appropriate penalty. The Greeks made attempts to establish a governmental system that would bring a middle ground between despotism and anarchy. Aeschylus, therefore, implies the ability of democracy to bring union between gods and man that could neither be achieved by despotism and anarchy (West, 1999). Further, it was through the union that justice could be found with the ancient laws being overturned. With the new social order, man rejoiced in the unprecedented honor, prosperity, and equality.
The love songs of Sappho
Sappho is one of the greatest writers who traces her origin in old Greece. She, therefore, pins out some of the most prevalent issues in the community. The poet mainly bases her work on some of the most common social themes such as love, yearning, heartbreak, among others. It is through these themes that she effectively communicates of the roles played by different people in the society (Sappho & Roche, 1998). The poems mainly focus on femininity and the responsibilities associated with the gender in child upbringing, and homemaking. Like in Aeschylus’s Oresteia’s work, the author bases her arguments on the Greek society.
Taking an example of the poem, “Apropos Her Brother’s Mistress”, the poet reflects on a story about a man who left his family and traveled to a different region. Women have the power to control their homes as well as the community. The story reflects on how women have the power to overcome men through their beauty (Sappho & Roche, 1998). There is also a special connection between peace and women which is presupposed at least partially in some international and local interventions by women groups in politics. Women are, therefore, taking advantage of the fact that they are among the main participants in most social activities which shows that women are of significant impact in conflict solving, peacemaking and seeking justice for the people and should, therefore, be listened to more than any other population.
Women movements often claim their position by standing with the fact that women occupy the most significant part of conflict casualties either directly or indirectly. Gender bias in both military and political aspects fails to represent the interests of women sufficiently (Sappho & Roche, 1998). Victimization without representation is unreasonable and even though they tend to add a different dimension to the line of argument, including women could lead to peace and promote balance to favor conflict resolution and ensure that there are fewer hostilities to women in the future (Sappho & Roche, 1998). In the background, however, there is frequently lurks the uncritical acceptance of the suggestion of a greater impulse of male aggression which was applied previously in justifying the exclusion of women from conflictual and competitive areas such as the forum, marketplace, and battlefields.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there is excellent evidence that the inclusion of women in politics is achieved from a democratic state. The leading debate is that feminists argue that though there has been no obtaining ground yet, which has been implemented or understood by most of the population groups globally even in the developed countries, it could be interesting to resort to a shared myth for a start. Leaders should emulate the examples and lessons taught by the two texts to bring change in their nations regarding democracy, justice, and social order.
References
West, L. (1999). Greek Lyric Poetry: The Poems and Fragments of the Greek Iambic, Elegiac, and Melic Poets (Excluding Pindar and Bacchylides) Down to 450 BC (Oxford World's Classics). New York. Oxford University Press
Sappho & Roche, P. (1998). The Love Songs of Sappho (Literary Classics) . New York. Prometheus Books
