To what extent is gender conflict a major theme of Aeschylus' Oresteia Essay

To what extent is gender conflict a major theme of Aeschylus' Oresteia - Essay Example The identification of the role of gender in the work of Greek classics could be particularly useful. In accordance with Zeitlin (1996, p. 9) ‘gender can always be used as a coded sign to stand for some more abstract category in organizing a specific world view and the means to its maintenance or transformation’. From another point of view, it is stated that for Greek classics ‘Gender is a primary articulator of the social order, of history, and especially of the history of welfare’ (Porter, 1986m, 232 in Rich et al., 1993, p.110). It should be noticed that gender in Greek philology is not used only as a representation of social and cultural ethics – through metaphors; instead, it is used in order to highlight the differences in the responses of individuals to various social and political challenges. In this context, gender has to be combined with other concepts – as freedom, politics, family and so on – in order to support the developmen t of credible assumptions regarding the aspects of life of people of a particular historical period. Aeschylus’ Oresteia can be characterized as a rather innovative work – in terms of the social issues developed. For this reason, Porter (2005) supported that ‘although Aeschylus Oresteia moves toward resolution on many fronts, there are significant counterpoints to these positive progressions; human stature and initiative decline over the course of the trilogy’ (Porter, 2005, p. 301). It is not made clear whether the role of gender for this differentiation in the responses of the dramatis personae is decisive; it seems that gender influences at a first level the reactions to specific events – developed throughout the Oresteia – however, it is not clear whether these reactions are depended only on gender or whether there are other factors also influencing the

Ethical Viewpoints Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethical Viewpoints - Essay Example According to Dr. Tod Mikuriva , a former national administrator of the U.S. governments marijuana research programs, "After dealing with about 10,000 patents in the last 15 years, Id say about 200 different medical conditions respond favorably to cannabis". Of those diseases that responded favorably to marijuana treatment was Alzheimers disease, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, arthritis, depression among the 200 diseases that it can possibly treat. Just recently, Uruguay legalized not only the distribution and selling of marijuana but also the growing of it. As expected, controversy arose from it but the move made other countries receptive to the debate of legalizing marijuana and away from the usual hardline stance of banning it. The debate may still be long and bitter but the mere fact that it is being debated indicates an openness of accepting marijuana as harmless and medically helpful that could be a good source of revenue for the government. The draconian measures imposed against the distribution and use of marijuana is not only pointless but economically costly as well. The most stringent law nor the broader use of the state’s police power have not deterred people from its used and this only manifests that the escalation of control and police enforcement is a wrong response and therefore pointless. It only pushed the industry into the black market which begets another set of problems. Worst, the medical benefit of the regulated use of marijuana is foregone by banning it as illegal. It only makes cartels rich just like what happened to alcohol when it was banned. It was the mafia who got rich. It is also economically costly because maintaining law enforcers to go after marijuana distributors and users needs funding which will be taken out from tax payers. In addition, there is also an opportunity cost associated in banning marijuana. The taxes that should have been collected in regulating marijuana was lost becau se