Great... Another Essay

Hey guys! So this is an essay I had to write this week for my English class. It's really interesting. I thought you guys might want to read it. (Don't worry; it's not as long as the last one.)

Persephone and Demeter: Women and History

“The man is the head, but the woman is the neck, and she can turn the head any way she wants.” – My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Throughout history, women have influenced events. This is true even in Greek Mythology; women indirectly influenced the events in Greek Mythology. Athena, Aphrodite, and Demeter are examples of this. They, through cunning acts, changed history and gained power and control over many ideas, places, and things.

Women in Greek Mythology used their intellect to gain power and influence events. Athena gained power over the people of Athens. Athena and Poseidon were competing to be the patron god of Athens. They were asked to “offer a gift truly valuable for Athens.” (Greek Gods Myths) Athena, as the goddess of wisdom, gave the city of Athens an olive tree because of the many qualities it has and because it is very helpful. For example, the olive can be used for oil for lighting. Poseidon gave the city of Athens a salt water brook; the brook wasn’t very helpful since the people couldn’t drink from it or use it to water their fields. Because of the uselessness of the brook, the people of Athens picked Athena to be their patron goddess. Athena indirectly used her greater knowledge to her advantage and, because of her acts; she gained power, control, love, and sacrifices from the great people of Athens.

In Greek Mythology, women used manipulation to achieve their desires.  Aphrodite influences people to fall in love. Aphrodite was in a contest and Paris was deciding who was the prettiest of all the Goddesses. Aphrodite promised Paris that she would “make the king of Sparta's wife, the beautiful Helen, fall instantly in love with [him]!” (Aphrodite and the Trojan War) She would make Helen fall in love with him if only he would proclaim her the fairest of all the lands. Paris accepted and, as such as Aphrodite promised, Helen fell in love with Paris. Because of this little act of love, it caused the Trojan War that then lasted 10 years. Aphrodite acts caused a war that tore up the land. If Aphrodite never had made Helen fall in love with Paris, the Trojan War would have never happened. She changed history with just a little act of forced love.

Likewise, Demeter used determination to challenge Zeus’ authority. Persephone also had to deal with forced love by her father Zeus, but not by her mother Demeter. Demeter loved her daughter Persephone very much, but Zeus gave Persephone up to Hades. Now Hades loves Persephone, but Persephone didn't at first. Persephone was kept in the underworld against her will for quite a while until her mother found out what Zeus had done. “Demeter objected furiously to Zeus’s agreement that Hades could marry her daughter.” (C. Scott Littleton 602-603) Demeter then went and made Zeus change the deal with Hades about Persephone’s hand in marriage, but by then it was already too late. Persephone had partaken of food from the underworld; she was now forced to live there.

In the end, Zeus and Hades and Demeter came to an agreement: Persephone would spend 6 months down in the underworld and when spring came, she would live in the world of the living with her mother. Thus we have the seasons because Demeter gets so sad when her daughter isn’t around that the crops die and wither. With this arrangement, “Persephone is cut off from her old family, but newly empowered as Queen of the Dead.” (Richard Martin 47-48)

By Demeter’s persistence in getting Zeus to alter the deal with Hades, she saved her daughter from a terrible fate. Demeter accomplished this by making mankind starve by making their crops not grow. Zeus couldn’t stand by and watch mankind die, so he had to give in thus altering history for the better.

All these women’s acts influenced the events around them. Some were for good, others for bad, but they all did change history in one way or another. All women have this power to change events or circumstances if only they believed in themselves and never give up.