My life in the present and the past

My name is Katey Lee Crystal. I was born in Burbank, California in April of 1986. My parents Sharon and Harry met at work and are still together today, happily married for 26 years. I was raised in La Crescenta and all my life I thought anything outside California to be foreign. I was comfortable under the protection of my parents and a culture where my beliefs were affirmed and accepted.
All that is past possesses our present. In Classical Literature there are hundreds of stories that can easily be related to life today. By looking at ones’ own life many events can easily be compared to stories written thousands of years ago. This goes to show that humanity is a body of people with the same concerns and interests. Whether someone is living in 4 AD or 2007 AD, many ideologies in each society are the same because they are based upon ideas that have been built upon over thousands of years.
Growing up I read many stories about different places in the United States and the world at all times in human history. After reading many stories I began to see similarities to current events in the news as well as in my own life that sounded similar to stories of the past. When I got to college my whole world got thrown upside down. I met people from all parts of the country and couldn’t find another Californian no matter where I looked. These people had very different upbringings and I was able to connect more and more of the past with an array of stories I heard in the present.
When I visit the place of my roots it feels more and more foreign to me every time I return. People on the West Coast simply cannot see my desire to live in such a desolate place. I tell them they don’t know what they are missing and high tail my way back to Montana as fast as my 1992 S-10 Blazer or jet airplane can take me.
I feel like Bacchus. He tells everybody he is a god and many fail to believe him. He punishes the skeptics. Although people might denounce my lifestyle and believe the acts I find interesting hard to believe I will not go to great lengths to inflict pain on those who don’t understand. Bacchus or Dionysus is the god of wine and the promoter of civilization, a lawgiver, and lover of peace which are all things that I can apply to myself.
I am also similar to Athena because I’m a daddy’s girl. Athena was Zeus’s favorite child whom he gave birth to from his own head. My dad definitely gives me the benefit of the doubt whenever a dispute is at hand. Athena is the goddess of civilization, wisdom, weaving, crafts and the more disciplined side of war.
I am sure my mother feels like Demeter. Montana is Hades and I am Persephone. Demeter is the mother of Persephone and the story told of them is a story of their love which has been disrupted. After being swept off my feet by going to a foreign land, my mother became quite sad to lose her youngest daughter. My mother, like Demeter “pulled her vail over her face and sat in quiet sorrow…just pining for her daughter (Ruden 9). Her job of feeding and clothing me was over. However she still has the liberty to see me at certain points in the year just as Demeter gets to see Persephone two thirds of the year.
My decision to leave my mother was a choice I made, and I was not taken away against my will by the devil. I am just like Persephone who “still hoped to the tribes of gods again, and her dear mother, and this hope soothed her brave mind in anguish” (Ruden 4).
If I had to relate a story to my father it would be the rape of Europa. I was an unsuspecting junior in high school looking for colleges to attend. When Europa first gazed at Zeus disguised as a bull she thought “he is so shapely, so unthreatening…she is afraid to touch him…at a certain point Europa dares to sit down upon his back” (Ovid 72). I decided that I needed to get out of California so I applied to schools in a few states beside my own. I visited Montana and fell deeply in love. I came here and cannot go back no matter how I try. My father misses me so much just as Europa’s father ¬¬¬¬¬¬Agenor does in The Metamorphoses. There is nothing that will bring me back to California. Now that I am out in the world I see how great it is never to return-permanently.
After graduation I plan on becoming a teacher and a freelance writer on the side. By telling stories to the children I teach I’ll be able to make them brighter and more ambitious. They will see the world and talk about it in order to ensure that their own story and impact on the world be maintained. It is all a repetitious cycle in life. One is born and has life experiences while they are educated. Then they tell their life stories, die, and are remembered.
By documenting events in ones’ lifetime correlations with the past are much easier to recognize. George Steiner says that “men and women re-enact, more or less consciously, the major gestures, the exemplary symbolic motions, set before them by antique imaginings and formulations. Our realities, as it were, mime the canonic possibilities first expressed in classical art and feeling” (Steiner 108). As far as journalism goes I want people all over the country and possibly the world to read the stories I write and become inspired. After reading my work I hope people get out and try the things I’ve talked about. Hopefully after enjoying that experience that they might not have tried otherwise they will remember me forever as a muse.
As Diotima says in her speech in The Symposium, Homer, Hesiod, and the other good poets have left behind stories that make them immortal. When one writes down their beliefs they are ensuring their identity for the rest of time. Art is the most important way for events to be remembered forever.

all you need is love

The beatles are a renown band around then world. However some fail to see the conection of the Beatels to Antigone. Antigone was deeply attached to her family. Her mother, father, and two brothers were killed and Antigone didn't care what it took to defend her family. She was willing to die in order for her brother to maintain the respect he deserved. She did it for love.
In Lysistrata the women loved their husbands so much that they were willing to deny them sex. Some might think this was a harsh move but they did it in the name of love. By preventing war they would ensure their husbands lives therefore ensuring the longevity of their love.
In the Symposium Socrates claims that Diotima taught him all about love. In the Symposium the subject that is discussed throughout the whole book is love. Although each philosopher in the Symposium has a different origin of love and idea about love, all must agree that is one of the most important component of humanity.

manmade laws v. devine justice

In society today there are laws that people must follow. My question is whether or not these laws are necessary. For instance, in California there used to be a six month law which makes a 16-year-old that just got their license unable to drive with people in the car for six months to get comfortable with driving. Now a 16-year-old has to wait a year before they are able to drive with someone in the vehicle. In most other states this rule does not apply. In some states abortion is illegal. In some states gay marriage is legal. How does one state differ from another. These aren't devine laws but laws made up by old men in the United States. How do these men get the power to make the laws that citizens must follow. What would Creon say about these laws. More importantly, what would Antigone think? Would Antigone be willing to die in order to drive with friends in her car upon receiving her license? Would she be willing to die if she were denied the right to wed a woman?

"When I have fears that I may cease to be"

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high piled books, in charactry,
Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I many never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the fairy power
Of unreflecting love;-then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do I sink
-John Keats, "When I have fears that I may cease to be"

First of all this poem is a Shakespearean sonnet, inspired by Shakespeare which was inspired by Ovid. This poem is a desperate attempt by Keats to preserve his short life by recording it before its too late. He knows that everything wonderful in life is temporary. He believes in melancholy which is the idea that with happiness comes sadness. This poem was written in 1848 during the romantic period in Britain. Although it was written more than a hundred years ago one can still read it and realize how beautiful but temporary life is, and how important it is to record the beauty as well as the ugly parts of life that people in the future can look at in order to realize they must do the same. Recording life in order for the future to see what the past thought of as important is the best contribution one can give to society. Keats might have has the slightest clue that in 2007 people would continue to read his work in awe.

Crazed Revolutionaries

In Antigone Creon calls the girl a crazed revolutionary who has no place speaking against men. This is one of the first times the idea of women revolting against the rules of men has occurred in writing. To ensure justice of mankind woman throughout history have been awfully courageous. When history began to be written down, woman had little power in the world. Their soul purpose was to bear children and then feed and clothe their family. However as the world has progressed woman have become more and more important as a whole in their society. In Rwanda there was a huge genocide by the Hutu's against the Tutsi lasting 100 days where 500,000 Tutsi were slaughtered in attempt to kill a whole race of people. In the process seventy percent of the men were killed. Before the genocide occurred woman in Rwanda had few rights and responsibilities. Woman were not allowed to inherent land. Today this right is given to woman. Now woman hold public positions and are building roads to try to make their country better. Many women were raped by soldiers during the raids. In this process many of these woman acquired the aids epidemic. Many woman lost their children, parents, husbands, and families. After this huge tragedy many of these women are still in high spirits. They say that after the horrible event, at least they achieved more freedom then they had before. Just like Antigone, these women had to be very strong and go through rough times in order to make an impact on the world. It is amazing that in order for positive changes to be made in the world, great sacrifices must be made. The suffering of a few makes a difference to many. By reading accounts in history people can prevent themselves from making similar mistakes in the future.

the moral of the story is the story

The moral of the story is the story. So many people are worried about what art is that they deprive themselves of seeing the world in any other way but the norm. In the story Ulysses, James Joyce chronicles the day in the life of a few people in Dublin, Ireland. Joyce uses a stream-of-consciousness technique full of puns, parodies, and allusions ultimatley giving rich characterizations and broad humour to his work. When his work was initially published it was banned in Great Britain and the United States.
If one attempts to read Ulysses expecting it to have a structure similar to ordinary writing they are in for a surprise. The way Joyce writes makes the initial reading of this story quite difficult.
The point of the this blog is to show that although a piece of work might not be classified as 'sticking to the normal structure,' it still shows the audience something important. If the audience shuns a piece of work because it doesn't have to proper structure then they are depriving themselves of something fantastic and possibly life altering.

The Golden Ass

This story is set up in the same way as Ovid's Metamorphoses. Greek gods and Greek culture are incorporated into a lot of the stories in The Golden Ass. I found myself making connections between a lot of the stories I read which are translated from latin to english by translator Robert Graves. Unlike the Metamorphoses, the stories in the Golden Ass are seperated my chapters which are composed of around ten pages. There are frame narratives a lot in both stories. Both stories are filled with tragedy, comedy, love, and many transformations. Lucius, the author wrote this story in the year 160, 152 years after Ovid's masterpiece. Lucius of Patrae is the lead character and narrator throughout the story. The Greek text has been lost.

Redemption

After wonderful blue sunny days followed by wet cold evenings sitting on my friend Claire's porch followed by flurries in town as well as in the mountains-a delightful time at that, Ive come to the conclusion of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Some of my friends called me bold, others thought me crazy. Upon finishing the book I too have come to the conclusion that Zues is a man not to reckon with. He is a ravaging impulsive god that doesnt seem to care about the fate of his victims, young virgins. These girls as we all know, upon being raped are then changed into an animal or a type of plant. That's no way for a helpless young lady to spend the rest of her years, if not eternity on earth. And so many say that Zues's wife is a horrible woman. I would be angry too if I were her. I wouldn't stand for my husband to be out late all the time. But then again, things were different back then I suppose. The imagery in this book was amazing. I'm not sure if the translation had something to do with my infatuation with the book. There were so many names in the book that it is impossible for me to remember most of them. I plan on reading this book again and again.

Ceres

"The first to furrow earth with the curved plow,
the first to harvest wheat, the first ot feed
the world with food men cultivate in peace,
the first to bless the earth with laws- was Ceres,
all things are gifts she gave. I want to sing
of Ceres: may offering be worthy-
this goddess surely merits poetry."
Ovid's Metamorphoses p.160

These five lines from Ovid's Metamorphoses are my favorite because they describe the amazing woman that made and continues to make the world the wonderful,beautiful, amazing place it is today. Not only does Ovid describe the acts Ceres, or Demeter is responsible but he makes those actions sounds fascinating and wonderous.
When I read this part I had a big smile on my face. I made my friend Claire read the words because they were written so well. She liked those lines and they convinced her that reading this long book actually is worth it.

Alfred Lord Tennyson version of "the Rape of Europa"

"Or sweet Europa's mantle blew unclasp'd,
From off her shoulder backward borne:
From one hand droop'd a crocus: one hand grasp'd
The mild bull's golden horn."

I found this stanza at http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/palaceofart/19.html. This is what is said about the stanza by Tennyson on the website:

One can make several obvious points about this stanza, which presents Tennyson's rather mild version of the myth of Europa and the bull. First, it obviously offers an oddly tranquil, undisturbing version of the myth in which Zeus in the guise of an animal rapes Europa in both classical senses of the word, since rape meant both "to snatch or kidnap" (as in the Roman story of the rape of the Sabine women, when the founders of Rome kidnap and marry local women), and "to violate sexually." Second by not focusing on the story's obvious violence and bestiality, Tennyson can also make it his second example of erotic love (after Indian Cama). Finally, it represents an example in classical mythology of what will later become a central concern of the poet, especially in In Memoriam 95: the meeting of the divine and the human, the supernatural and the natural.

Images of the stories Mr. Sexson wants the class to focus on

The rape of Io(25) After Jove rapes her she is turned into a cow by jealous Juno.


Story of Syrinx(31), first instance of frame narrative


Europa(71), She is a beautiful girl taken into the sea by Jove against her will when she is misled to think he is a bull.


Arachne(177), She is turned into a spider


Pygmalion(335) After believing women to be whores he makes a statue of his ideal woman and falls in love with the lifeless figure. Venus grants him his wish of making the statue come to life.


Pythagoras(515) He is a blind man that has knowledge unknown to immortals. He believes that eating meat is bad because you could potentially be eating your kin considering souls travel from body to body, human and animal.

Alpheus

" ' "I was," she says, "one of the nymphs who live in the Achaean woods. I was intent on tracks and trails and setting hunting nets- no nymph had greater passion for such tasks. I never wanted to be known for beauty- I thought my courage was conspicuous but all my fame was or mere lovlieness...
One day...I made my way back from the forest...That day was hot-but twice as hot for me: the hunting had been hard, and I was weary, I came upon a stream. Unmurmuring and unperturbed it glided, crystalline- so clear down to the riverbed that one could count each pebble there. That stream was so transparent that it did not seem to flow...I bathed my feet, then I went in up to my knees. But now I wanted more cool water: I undid my dress...I strike those waters in a thousand ways, dividing, joining, splashing as I play" (170)

The story of the nymph Alpheus most resembles my life story. She is the nymph that enjoys recreation which is my greatest passion. While some see me as a pretty girl, sometimes I wish that my feminine image could be washed away, and in return be praised for the activities I partake in.
When i'm in the wilderness I often find myself describing crystalline water just as Alpheus does in her story. During the hot summer days while i'm out hiking or climbing I often find myself submerging my own body in bodies of water. The nymph does a great job of making the water sound tantalizing and inescapable.

BACCHAE

Dionysus (dye-oh-NYE-sus). Roman name Bacchus. See The Olympians for more information and another picture.
Dionysus was the god of wine, the son of Zeus and Semele, and the rescuer of Ariadne after she had been abandoned by Theseus. Dionysus also rescued his mother from the Underworld, after Zeus showed her his true nature as storm god and consumed her in lightning. It was Dionysus who granted Midas the power to turn whatever he touched into gold, then was kind enough to take the power back when it proved inconvenient.




In the story of Bacchae Dionysus wants everyone in the Greek city of Thebes to recognize him as god. He rightfully claims that he is the son of Zeua and Semele, who is the daughter of Cadmus, the founder and former ruler of Thebes. However Cadmus gave the rule of Thebes to his grandson Pentheus whose mother is Agave, Cadmus's daughter.
Dionysus grants delight of wine without pain to the rich and poor alike. All he wants is for the people of Thebes to recognize him as god. Pentheus refuses to do so believing that Dionysus is a hoax attempting to start a revolution.
The women go mad and are driven into the hills by Bacchus.
In the end Agave, driven by Bacchus, or Dionysus kills Pentheus after he is convinced by Dionysus to dress as a woman in attempt to spy on the women in the hills.
TRAGEDY: Agave and Cadmus are exiled from Thebes.

IRONY
When Pentheus is killed his body is spread all over the place. I was under the impression that every man is entitled to a proper burial after reading Antigone.

"no one should ever be above the law, neither in though nor action"(36), but it's clear here that Dionysus is going above the law. Mabey he is above the law because hes mortal.

Images from the story of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus

This story of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus is one of an ignorant boy scared of love. His temptress is a bit too much for him and although the boys believes he is alone Salmacis spies on him bathing. The way the boy is described is sensual and is a great image of a virgin boy not yet exposed to the tragedy that is life.

I chose this image that is found in book IV in Ovid's Metamorphses.
This image struck me because Salmacis cannot resist this boy she has been spying on. She tells him that he will be hers whether he likes it or not. Then she cries to the gods and they answer her plea by binding the two together so one cannot tell if the figure is male of female.

comedy

Comedy is the release of emotion that makes fun of sacred institutions. Comedy is shamless and important. Greek comedy deals with community, believeing the individual to be unimportant compared to the group they make up as a whole. Today comedy is different from the comedy written by Aristophanes which we call 'old comedy.' Old comedy is revolting, disgusting, hilarious, and deals with death and rebirth. New comedy accounts for 99% of comedy. It has a common plot where the boy wants a girl but cannot get her, but captures her heart in the end. Today it is rare to see old comedy. One example of old comedy in today's world is a recently-made movie called "Little Miss Sunshine."
Today I think comedy oversteps it's boundaries. Instead of being funny, it is instead crude, and often times goes too far. An example of this is the movie Borat. Sacha Cohen goes to great lengths throughout this movie to offend a number of people. Although I have not seen the movie, I refuse to do so because it sounds so degrading and senseless to me. There is a difference between humor and crap, and I believe that Borat is more along the lines of useless material that people waste their time viewing.
I'm sure many people enjoyed Borat but i'm simply not a fan.
I suppose that is another way to view comedy. It doesn't neccesarily need to accommodate everyone. Instead, certain groups can take the material they are presented with and view it from different aspects depending on their backgrounds and the culture they are emersed in. What one person finds hilarious another will find appalling.
In the comedy Zoolander, Ben Stiller plays a male model who is dumb as a brick. Through depicting the life of 'Derek Zoolander,' the audience gets to laugh at models who play a small role in society. Models are always in the back of the public eye and people secretely scorn them for failing to be the brightest crayons in the box. This movie makes it okay to laugh uncontrollably at the frail state male models are in at all times.

Victorian England

In the Victorian times throughout England women were finally given the chance to get outside of the home. Many women began to recieve equal educations to that of men. Some women became authors. With this new empowerment, women decided to refrain from marriage, but as Walter Besant says in The Queens Reign "women might postpone marriage but nature and instinctive yearing for love will prevail."

Sarah Stickney Ellis said that men close their ears to the voice of consciousness because they have too much pride. However in Victorian times it was a woman's job to place morals within her husband. Although the husband didn't realize it a lot of the decisions they made were made with their wives opinion in mind.

Coventry Patmore said that "if a man fails it is the womans fault." This applies to Lysistrata. Women have the obligation to keep their men in check. If woman don' do this then society as they know it will crumble.

Women in Victorian England were not as ruthless as the characters in Lysistrata. Many women published their names under that of a males. They were not using excessive sexual language. They were fighting for their rights in a subtle manner to change the way their society was moving in which mirrors that of the women in Athens.

Lysistrata

In this play Lysistrata is a woman living in Athens that is fed up with war because she never gets to see her husband. She also thinks war is unnecessary. She gets a group of women together to purpose a plan to deny the men of Athens sex. The women are very hesitant because they LOVE sex. Eventually she convinces these women though. The play is baudy and crude at times but great. I never knew that comedy like this existed in such ancient times. The translator Sarah Ruden went to great lengths to bring the same elements of Greek humor to this play.

In the end the women win when the men from Sparta, and Athens come together realizing that their differences aren't that great. The realize that both parties are tolerable, and that they actually enjoy the company of one another.

love is a puer which is an archetype of immortal youth. Love according to Agathon is the youngest god that was born to hate old age and will come nowhere near it. My question is where does Hermes fit it all of this because he is suppose to be the baby god. If he heard about love being the youngest I think he might throw a fit. Love makes his home in souls of men and gods wiht soft characters. Love is flowerly, fluent, and fragrant. Love promotes justice, moderation, bravery and wisdom and not even the great Apollo who invented archery, medicine, prophecy or the the Muses who invented music ignore the pleasure and power of love.
Diotima

Agathon
teaches Socrates about love. She assumes love is something between wisdom and beauty and ignorance and ugly, or betweenn man and god.
She believes that at Aphrodite's birth celebration Penia and Poros concieved love which was born to serve Aphrodite.

Diotima asks Socates a few questions about love.
What us is love to humans?
What is the point of loving beautiful things?
What does a man have when beautiful things have become his own?
At the end of these series of questions Diotima claims its not love humans and gods seek but the desire for happiness.

Immortailty: people really want good to be theirs forever
-preserve knowledge
-departing aging leaves behind something new
-Antigone acted for the sake of immortal virue and the glorious fame
Body/soul: No one can give birth to anything ugly or unharmonious
-beauty is in harmony with the divine
pregnant in soul (with wisdom and virtue)
makes co. with beautiful bodies>concieves birth to knowledge that has
been carried inside waiting to be released

(knowledge being shared)









Homer, Hesiod [Shakespeare] and other poets have envy and admiration for the offspring they left behind









"The love of the gods belongs to anyone who has given birth to virtue and nourished it, and if any human being could become immortal, it would be he."

In a story by Lord Byron from the romantic period of the 18th century Manfred is a man that believes himself better than the rest of society. He talks to the gods and has interactions with them like no other human being. He doesn't become immortal but comes very close. That is what this quote reminded me of.

Plato's Symposium

At a dinner hosted by Agathon Phaedrus wants to discuss the topic of love.
Phaedrus
begins by defining love whom he believes is the third god after chaos and earth. Love is better than public honor, kinship, wealth, and the best society would be run by one completely composed of lovers because no one would ever do anything shameful.
He discusses Alcestis who dies for her husband and was rewarded by the Gods by her soul being brought back from the dead proving that courage and love win over the highest honors of the gods.

Pausanias
the next man to give his opinions of love says that there are two types of love. Heavenly Aphrodite is also called Uranis, the motherless daughter of Uranus, god of heaven, and an older deity or goddess. This type of love is purely for males, and free from the lewdness of youth. This type of love is acted out by those more strong and intelligent.
Common Aphrodite is also called Pandemos. She is the daughter of Zeus and Dione and is a younger goddess than Heavenly Aphrodite. She strikes whenever she recieves a chance and is in it for the body more than the soul, usually being acted out by less intelligent partners.

According to Pausanius no love is more honorable of shameful than the other.

In Athens it is honorable to declare one's love rather than keep it a secret. Conquest is noble, while failure is shameful. Being in love with youth of a good family is a great accomplishment. It is shameful to yeild to quickly and for a man to be seduced by money or political power, which sounds just like a courtesan to me.
It is honorable if one puts himself at another's disposal to gain knowledge. It is also never shameful to be decieved in the act of love.
Eryximachus
Believes that once there was a type of man called androgynous which is a combination of man and woman, being an offspring of the moon because it shares in both. Male he claims are offspring of the sun while women are the offspring of the earth. The androgynous's were powerful with great ambitions that led them to attempt an ascent to heaven to attack the gods. Zeus cut all the Androgynous people in half making each half long with the other half in order to 'grow together.' Therefore love is born in every human being that wants to get back to their original nature. It is also a lesson for mankind to respect the gods unless we want to be split in half again.

Age & Youth and p. 242-3

George Steiner's Antigones p. 242-3.
Relations between generations are usually non-negotiable. Greek literature loves to
talk about complications of love and loathing, as well as imtimacy and enstrangement between old and young, parent and child. There is a lot of self-consciousness regarding kinship that determines social organization expressed through poetry which focuses on the power between father and son.

The most important aspects of Greek literature; political, moral, rhetorical practice are given imaginative formulation throughout every story.

On Wikipedia when I typed in "PRIAM" I found out that, similar to the story of Anitgone: "Hector is killed by Achilles, Achilles treats the body with disrespect and refuses to give it back. Zeus sends the god Hermes to escort King Priam, Hector’s father and the ruler of Troy, into the Achaean camp. Priam tearfully pleads with Achilles to take pity on a father bereft of his son and return Hector’s body. He invokes the memory of Achilles’ own father, Peleus. Deeply moved, Achilles finally relents and returns Hector’s corpse to the Trojans. Both sides agree to a temporary truce, and Hector receives a hero’s funeral. Achilles further goes on to give Priam leave to hold a proper funeral for Hector complete with funeral games. He promises that no Greek will engage in combat for 11 days, but on the 12th the war would resume."

How Greek sensibility knew and felt about life and death, the acceptance of tragic fate and the claims of mercy, uncertainties, the equivocations of intent and of mutual recognition which inhabit all speech between mortals is expressed in the Iliad originally. The reference to the rights of the dead which are central to Antigone is a central theme as well in Greek literature.

Antigone

The story of Antigone begins with the death of Antigone's two brothers. One of her brothers being loyal leads to his legitimate burial, but her other brother, a radical is forbidden to be buried. Antigone believes it is her duty to bury her brother even if it will cost her death.

Her sister, Ismene in attempt to fight Antigone's decision claims that being women they should obey the laws placed upon them by men who are stronger and know better.

When Antigone tells her sister that she will bury their brother with or without her help, Ismene says she will keep her secret a secret, but Antigone declines her offer telling her to proclaim it to the world, because the gods would approve which are the people that matter most. This suggestion is important because throughout the play the quarrel between men and women is constantly in the background.

Creon, the ruler of the Thebes is Antigone's uncle, and future father-in-law, since Antigone is suppose to marry Creon's son. In the beginning of the story, upon finding out about the burial against his wishes he is enraged when it is suggested that the god's might have had something to do with it because criminals are never honored by the gods.

When Creon finds out a woman was responsible for the act, and that she didn't deny a thing nor show fear he is appauled. He speaks with Antigone who denies she commited any crimes or injustice, because these laws were made by a man and not the gods. She then goes on to denounce Creon by saying she would rather die than live in misery by putting up with his laws and regulations.

Creon says "Don't forget: The mind that is most rigid Stumbles soonest"(lines 473-4) and for that, Anitgone is condemned to death

demeter

-MOTHER LOSES HER CHILD TO THE UNDERWORLD-
Demeter is the queen of seasons and their treasures, and also the loyal mother of Persephone who fights hard without persuasion to get her beloved daughter back when she is stolen by Hades, Zues's brother and taken to the underworld. No one can tell her anything that will keep her from retreiving her daughter from the underworld.

In the beginning of the story of Demeter, the writer proclaims he will sing, which is is an invocation of the muse. Without the muse, this story wouldn't be possible.

As the child was being kidnapped she yelled for the help of her father Zeus who was aware of the events taking place, but indifferent at the same time.

The child didn't give up hope of seeing the world above again, her Demeter was aware of her daughter's feelings, and therefore made the recovery of Persephone vital. She is so shattered by the loss of her daughter, so she leaves Mount Olympus and goes to grieve in the humans' cities and their rich fields.

With the absence of Persephone, Demeter takes a human child and watches over him making him devine by depriving him of food just as if he were a god's child. However a human woman spies on Demeter and without knowledge of her being a god, protests the acts and with that Demeter is enraged.

She sheds her rags and for a year makes the land horrible for mortals, which makes Zeus re-evaluate his decision to keep Persephone in the underworld.

In the end of the story, it is decided that Persephone will spend 2/3 of her year with her mother, and the other 1/3 with the devil, and after this "The whole wide earth was heaped wiht leaves and flowers"(line 472).
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I think this story shows that although women might be weaker than men (in mythology of course), women still play an important role on Mount Olympus in the decisions made for mortals below.