Author: FIONA LIANG

Montaigne is a prominent writer during the French Renaissance and known for his work Essays. It captures some intellectual perspective of the world and shares some complex ideas about our identity. Montaigne goes over some different concepts in this book and one of the main ones is skepticism. He is known for the phrase, “What do I know?” which emphasizes his skepticism. One of his main beliefs is that humans are unable to obtain certainty. Montaigne shares that humans simply cannot put trust in our reasoning because thoughts are something that we cannot control as they just appear to us. Through this idea, he connects it to his skepticism on religion. He is skeptical considering the topic of religion but he shares that everyone needs to follow the same religious standards. In France, they should yield to the Catholic government. He states that everyone must be obedient to the ruler and stay in their place. Montaigne agrees with Plato that citizens needed to be ruled over so that they will follow the laws with no questions.

Christine de Pizan writes The Book of the City of Ladies to fight all the negative statements towards women at that time. In this book, she mentions numerous outstanding women to show their capabilities and power. One of the remarkable women she mentions is Orithyia, an Amazon queen, who claims many triumphs during her ruling. When two of her maidens, Menalippe and Hippolyta, are held captive by the Greeks she is determined to save them. In the end, Orithyia is able to come into terms with the Greeks and even forms a pact with them. By doing so, she has avoided unnecessary violence as well as creating new allies. Pizan includes Orithyia as an example that women can be peacemakers and builders of alliances. Pizan writes about Orithyia as someone who can form peace to show that this is only one thing that women can do, but that they are also capable of doing so much more. She wants to prove that women can achieve a lot more but have been held back by the men in their lives. Pizan hopes that her audience can see the value and worth in women and ignore all the ongoing negative stereotypes society has placed upon women. 

Although both Aeneas and Odysseus were prominent heroes in their own stories, they were quite different from one another. Aeneas had the goal of finding and creating a new home for his people after they left Troy. His determination and devotion were what kept him going and he never strayed away from his goal. He was a national hero who cared for the interests of other people and wanted the best for them. Aeneas was also an individual who obeyed the gods and followed the instructions they gave him without a single doubt. On the other hand, Odysseus was returning home from war with his men. It had been ten years since he started that journey and he had also lost all of his crew members during that time. This was all due to his selfishness as he was often tempted by his desires and decided to stray away from his goal. Based on this, we can see that Odysseus was a hero who only pursued his self-interests with no care for others. Although numerous gods helped him to get back home, Odysseus often disobeyed them. He even harmed Poseidon’s son Polyphemus at one point proving his disregard for others. 

Both characters had different features that pertained to their Greek or Roman culture. As a Greek hero, Odysseus was more self-involved and cared more for his fame and glory. He always placed his interests first and did not show as much care for others around him. As a Roman hero, Aeneas was very dedicated to his country and to help out others. He cared for others’ wellbeing and acted in ways that would benefit them. Aeneas and Odysseus both hold good representations of how heroes should be in their culture. 

Although the chorus might have been overshadowed by the other characters throughout the three plays, they were just as important. There were three different choruses in The Oresteia. The chorus in Agamemnon was a group of old men who did not go fight in the Trojan War. Their role in Agamemnon was quite essential as they filled in the audience on some missing information. In the beginning, the chorus discussed some details involving the Trojan War and they also expressed some of their own opinions of the events. The chorus also has the effect of influencing the audience to feel a certain emotion. For example, in Agamemnon, when Cassandra revealed the destructing events that will occur to her, the chorus expressed their pity. In The Libation Bearers, the chorus was a group of slave women and they held a more active role. They were the ones to encourage Electra and Orestes to avenge their father and were also the ones to tell the nurse to ask Aegisthus to arrive alone. Without their presence, the plot would not have taken such significant turns. In the last play, the chorus was the Furies and they had undergone an important change in character at the end of the play. The Furies had the initial role of punishing wrongdoers which was shown as they chased after Orestes for murdering his mother. This was to show that Orestes had to take responsibility for his actions. However, in the end, Orestes was proven innocent and to appease the Furies, Athena had to convince them to stay in Athens and to change their roles. Their new role consisted of bringing justice to the people and this ended their roles as vengeful individuals. Their roles were also essential as it showed how the legal system has continued smoothly with the presence of the Furies who became the Eumenides.