Consider the depiction of justice and mercy throughout the sections of the Qur’an found in the anthology.

What you see mentioned frequently is the idea that God is very forgiving. This is depicted as we see the various ways God allows people to atone for their ‘sins’. At one point in the narration, several methods of making amends for breaking an oath are mentioned; from feeding the poor to fasting for three days. What it seems like is that the narrative gives its followers as much options as possible to be devout. It also mentions that those who don’t believe are sent to follow other messengers, or other religions. The sense of justice seems to go along with the thought that as long as you follow the word of the Qur’an, you’re right, and if you don’t believe the word of ‘Him’, you will be punished.

How is the sanctity of marriage bond portrayed throughout the narrative?

From what I can tell, women carry much more of the burden in marriage than men do. From the beginning of the narrative you can tell men have a much more relaxed role in the relationship, as the king, Dasharatha, had multiple wives. Moreover, he had children with all of these wives, while they all had to remain faithful to him. Where the roles in marriage really caught my attention, however, when Rama said in Ayodhya 19-20, “I will gladly give away… Sita (his wife)… [for] my father’s command.” This may have been meant to display his loyalty for his father, but it reveals something more about the way marriages were set up in his time. Furthermore, he goes on in Ayodhya 24-25 to say to his mother, “… this is the eternal religion. To a woman her husband is verily god himself… if she does not serve her husband, [she] is deemed to be a sinner.” This paints a clear picture of how women had to respect the binding of marriage to their husbands, while the husbands enjoyed the comfort of whomever they pleased.

“Describe how Plato, Sappho, and/or Catullus conceive of love (and/or friendship). Compare their views on love with The Odyssey, Oedipus Rex, or Lysistrata.”

In Plato’s Symposium, there is a strong emphasis on the masculinity of males loving other males (as well as females loving males). On the other hand, in The Odyssey, masculinity is based much more heavily on where you come from and what you’ve accomplished. However, the reason for this, at least as explained by Phaedrus in Symposium, could be because there are two different kinds of love; “Common Aphrodite’s Love” and “Love of Heavenly Aphrodite.” Common love was more of a sexual attraction that enticed men into ‘loving’ someone, which we must hear and remember the amount of times Odysseus may have been unfaithful to his wife. Heavenly love would be more of a connection, or craving, on both a mental and physical level. It’s through Phaedrus’ speech that I make the assumption that if Odysseus were among the men at the drinking party, he would be considered a common man with a common type of love, despite how greatly he is seen in his own story.