Antigone

In the Greek play Antigone, the play ends with a great tragedy by the death of Antigone. The name Antigone means, “anti,” opposed to or in place of a mother, which is based from the root of “gone.” She is the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta; and Ismene is the sister of Antigone. Throughout the play I see Antigone as a grand hero. Surely people wouldn’t agree with her actions and personality during that period of time since everyone else follows the law, therefore they cannot understand Antigones actions. My opinion is that because of Antigone's mother’s death, Antigone starts acting like her own mother. She starts taking actions which her mother would make; she starts replacing her own mother. One of the actions that Antigone takes is that she decides to cover the body of her brother with dirt, even though she knows the consequences that will follow in the future. In the beginning, the king of Thebes Creon ordered that because Polynices was a traitor, he cannot be buried, “No, he must be left unburied, his corpse carrion for the birds and dogs to tear, an obscenity for the citizens to behold!" (664).

Any mother would cover her son, even if he had committed the worst crimes in the world. Her son’s wounds are her own, therefore it's her duty to give him a proper burial because it's the right and moral thing to do. That's exactly how Antigone reacted to the situation and just followed the actions that her mother would have taken. Antigone is described as a very low tempered and angry person, but wouldn't anyone feel the same way when their own brother dies and no one dares to give him his burial but instead they let him rotten on the dirt and let the bugs finish of rest of the flesh leaving nothing but bones? Antigone is fearless, "Die I must, I've known it all my life, how could I keep from knowing? Even without your death sentence rings in my ears" (670). I define a hero as a person who tries to do the right thing in a society, even if the person fails to do so. They have their goal set and even if they don't accomplish their goal, they will still be a hero for trying.

Boat of Cypress

The specific poetry, which I read, takes place on the river with a female on a Cypress boat drifting down the river. Her life is very dark, with her heart being restless as though in torment and with her heart being troubled. Feeling lonely with herself on the boat she drinks wine to ease her mind, and roams down the stream on the Cypress boat. Her sadness makes her think more of the things she doesn’t have; “Yes, I do have brothers, but brothers will not be my stay. I went and told them of my grief and met only with their rage.” She wants her brothers back desperately by telling them how she feels every day when waking up, but her cold hearted brothers don’t take in her pain and leave her with sorrow. Most brothers would be there to help their sister in situations like this, but in this case they don't.

My guess is that she is forced into marriage; therefore they put her on the boat to drift to her next future husband. I also believe that because of her age, she was forced into getting married more quickly than what our society today views as normal. I believe that the woman was placed into the perfect marriage. Because of this, I believe that her brothers didn't help her because they didn't want to interfere with the traditional customs. Forced marriage and arranged marriage are different, because in forced they have to get married if she likes it or not, but in arranged marriage her parents choose who they want her to marry. In a way, the woman still suffers with both type of marriages, however in the arranged marriage, the parents believe that they have the best say and the best opinion of who she should marry. In the forced, her personality, her beliefs, and her attitude don’t influence her parents or anyone else. Because of this, the woman on the boat starts wishing to fly away from the forced life, but flying is not an option in reality but only in imagination.

Rama and Sita

In the next sections that I read, during this time everyone was devoted to dharma; especially Rama, who was highly devoted to it. But the question I have is if Rama is truly devoted to dharma as he says he is? In the reading, Rama asks Hanuman to tell Sita that she needs to immediately come to Rama right after she is done taking a bath and adorning herself. While he says this, the scene switches to Sita, who at the moment is wearing a veil as part of tradition so that no one can see her face, only Rama. He feels so proud to have a wife like Sita that he says, “Neither houses nor clothes nor walls constitute a veil for a woman; her character alone is her veil, let her descend from the palanquin and walk up to me" (948). But suddenly Rama’s heart becomes full of conflict because he is so afraid of public ridicule. He continues that “I wish to let you know that all this was done not for your sake but for the sake of preserving my honor" (949).

While conflicting with his thoughts and feelings, he says, “Your body was touched by Ravana: how then can I, claiming to belong to a noble family, accept you?” Clearly to me, Rama isn't devoted to dharma as he says he is. He is putting a fake act on his face and in his heart for the sake of the people so that he can impress and look good in front of them. He even says that he can destroy all three worlds; with this talk he can make people fear him. Also, by talking with such emotion, by conflicting with his heart, and by second-guessing his affection for Sita, he makes people see him as authority and for that people will respect him.

Sita, Rama, and Laksmana

In the story of Ramayana (Aranya 44-45), Sita's husband Rama wonders in the wilderness in search for unusual deer that has caught everyone's attention. Meanwhile, Sita and Laksmana hear a crying voice that sounds like Rama. Sita is panic-stricken, while Laksmana is calm and relax. Sita asks Laksmana to go help Rama, but Rama has ordered Laksmana to protect Sita no matter what happens. Laksmana tells her that it’s the demon deer simulating the voice of Rama; however his serenity even more annoys Sita. She starts telling him how terrible enemy of Rama he is, how he is pretending to be Rama's brother, and how his motive is for doing so is either to get her or that he is Bharata's accomplice. Laksmana says that "It is not surprising that women should behave in this manner: for they are easily led away from dharma; they are fickle and sharp-tongued.”

This scene shows how men are dedicated to dharma, while women are easily led away from dharma; shows that men are more physically and mentally stronger when it comes to such situations, because they have more experience. Men will follow their righteous duty assigned and they won't disobey their master or friend. Soon enough, Laksmana leaves because he cannot endure anymore of the words said by Sita. By leaving he isn’t led away from dharma: "the gods are witness to what took place here, may those gods protect you.” This shows that Laksmana did no wrong, but followed his righteous duty. Sita's words were too powerful, therefore the gods will decide based on what they saw if he should get punished or not. He knows that it was a good enough reason to leave, and since the gods were witnesses of what happened they can’t blame him for what he did.

Sections 1-3 of "The Epic of Gilgamesh"

In the first three sections of "The Epic of Gilgamesh," a king called Gilgamesh rules the city of Uruk. Anu, the god of Uruk, makes Gilgamesh strong as a savage bull and with the body of one-third men and two-thirds god. He takes advantage of his power and becomes greedy: “No son is left with his father, for Gilgamesh takes them all; his lust leaves no virgin to her lover, neither the warrior's daughter not the wife of the noble” (4). Gilgamesh seems to look like any other ordinary man based on the pictures I've seen. Similar to modern time, people who are rich and powerful take advantage of something first before someone else gets to it; however, once someone has accomplished getting what he wants, he can then give it up to the rest of the people.

Soon Enkidu, the wild-man, is created in the untamed forest; he has bad manners, eats grass, and revolves around wild beasts. A woman meets him in the forest and soon enough she becomes naked and lies with him; she teaches him how the savage man acts and her woman's arts; from this she believes that the beasts will reject him. Afterwards, Enkidu goes to the city of Uruk and challenges Gilgamesh to a fight, but shortly he fails by the power of Gilgamesh and sooner or later they become best friends. Again this can relate to modern life, the change of manners by spending time with a person of a different race, of a different culture, and of a different religion. Even for wild animals, some can get caught and become attained; similar to spening time with another person; a person who you see as savage. Once they became friends, Gilgamesh starts to care more about the people of Uruk. Later, they agree to go on a journey to slay Humbaba, who is the protector of the trees of the forest. They want to bring back cedar to the people of Uruk. The cedar is a strong wood that is used to build heavy houses or towers.

Once they came back from the journey they became heroes and all the people in Uruk become cheerful. I feel bad that Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill Humbaba since he is no creature of evil; he doesn’t show any hatred. All he wants is peace and help to protect the forests. In our reality, this happens everywhere; the heroes commit an evil crime without the public’s knowledge but when they get back they become heroes. With the help of bringing back Humbaba’s head, people celebrated their accomplishments thinking that it was an epic battle.

Later on in the sections, Ishtar, a woman from Uruk, wants to marry Gilgamesh but shortly Gilgamesh rejects her proposal. She became insulted and decides to talk to her father Anu, who is the god of the heaven, in order to give her permission to release the Bull of Heaven to kill Gilgamesh. Once she has the permission, the Bull of Heaven goes into rage and kills hundreds of people with his snort, that cracks open a hole in the earth. The bull tries to kill Enkidu but luckily Gilgamesh attends the scene and slays the bull with a deadly blow between the horns. Enkidu dreams that the people of the heaven curse Gilgamesh and himself for slaying Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven.

Soon enough, Gilgamesh treats Enkidu as if he was a king; he lays him in his royal bed, shares stories of their adventures. Even after Enkidu passes, Gilgamesh orders a stone statue to be made with Enkidu’s name on it for remembrance. In the end, there are always consequences in all the actions people take. In this case, Enkidu gives his life away to help out the people of Uruk; by bringing back cedar and keeping Gilgamesh alive. Revenge, greed, and selfishness play a big role in first sections of the story because Enkidu would have not died if Ishtar did not go up to the god of heaven. For as long as I can remember, people have been similar. If someone cannot get what they want then they will make someone else’s life miserable in order to make themselves feel happy. I believe that life isn't fair but mostly it is the people who aren't fair. Why does one person's life have to be taken away when his actions helped out hundreds?