and Medea, the ancient Greek playwrights Aeschylus,

Sophocles, and Euripides offer four distinctly different

views of the roles which women played in Greek society.

While women definitely played a role which was subservient

to the one played by men, it is obvious from these

characters that women were seen by the ancient Greeks as

capable of being strong, intelligent, resourceful, loyal,

and heroic. These characters also show the modern reader

that women represented something powerful to this society

which was to be feared and, hopefully, kept under control.

Clytemnestra and Medea personify all of the negative

qualities attributed to women by the ancient Greeks.

Medea, despite her despicable crime, is actually presented

in a more favorable light then Clytemnestra; however, both

women are presented as victims of their pride which seems

to be the worst sin as far as the Greeks were concerned.

Jocasta and Antigone represent the positive virtues

of loyalty and devotion to the gods. Jocasta is the weaker

of the two, and, frankly, Antigone is almost too good to

be true in her example of heroic virtue and devotion to

She is almost too good to be true in her positive

Greek audiences saw in the evil characters of Medea and

release. Her reluctance to die at once makes her seem more

years to get revenge for the murder of their child. She is

To do this, she murdered her own brother and cutting off

cast off one wife in favor of Creonis daughter) these

retribution comes from their own hands, but those around

gether the four present an intriguing picture

extraordinary characteristics. Her main concern seems to

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1533
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)