Myth as (Roman) History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Myth as (Roman) History - Essay Example With a tendency to illustrate stories in terms of black and white, good and evil, exemplary and deplorable, myths manage to capture the basic ideologies of a given culture and paint a picture of what everyday life might have been like within that culture. The way in which the myths changed over time reflect changes in the ideologies of the people telling the stories, editing and changing to suit new or emerging concepts as a result of trade, enlightenment or other factors. To illustrate how changing myths reflect a changing culture while also providing clues to that culture, it is helpful to examine several similar myths that have been preserved for a specific ideological concept. For this study, the concept of rape will be examined through the stories of the Sabine Women, the rape of Lucretia and the rape of Europa to indicate the attitudes of the ancient Romans and Greeks regarding women and feminine issues. The origins of Rome are included in the story of the rape of the Sabine women. According to early accounts, the new Romans were aware that while they had the strength to withstand invasions, they did not have the women necessary to continue their lines into the next generation but offers for marriage sent out to neighboring nations were refused. To overcome this barrier, Romulus and the other Roman men invited several neighboring nations to join them in one of the larger celebrations of Neptune and, when everyone had been gathered, the women were snatched by the Romans while their families and other men were pushed out of the city. Livy (1st cent.) calmly explained how the youths of the city grabbed the girls that were nearest to hand, but that some had already been reserved for the senators and relates how their grief was assuaged by the assurances of Romulus that they would be given full rights of marriage and that the children that would be the inevitable result of the mass rape would reconcile them to their husbands.