Blog 2, part 2

Child abuse is unique to our society because the Roman society had such strong loyalty to their country that there was no room to abuse their children. Children were brought up to learn how to be participating members of their society. There is no Roman record to show that children were abused in any way, mostly because children were not written about often enough to see if there were any abused in that time period. Today, with the overuse of drugs and alcohol and mental illness that seems to occur more often, children are more at risk of being abused today.

Obesity is unique to our society mostly because food today is abundant whereas in Roman times it was not, and being overweight in that time was a rare occurrence and even seen as a rich or royal because most did not have access to enough food and sedentary activity to even cause a possibility of being obese. In today’s society most Americans live a sedentary lifestyle and with easy access and processed foods we are never without food to worry about not having enough to eat, and therefore we put on weight easily which is how obesity is caused today.

Health care is unique to our society mostly because of the Roman’s lack of a health care system. Yes, they had “doctors” but without much of a medical advance in technology they didn’t have a health care system to have issues with like we do today.

“The fellow stands up against me, and bids me halt; obey I must. What else can you do when attacked by a madman stronger than yourself?” This directly relates to my challenge of violent crime. People are scared of crime and if someone tries to fight an individual they are going to be scared and do whatever the person says because they do not want to get hurt in the process such as what happens with Juvenal in his satire.

“Yet however reckless the fellow may be, however hot with wine and young blood, he gives a wide berth to one whose scarlet cloak and long retinue of attendants, with torches and brass lamps in their hands, bid him keep his distance.” This directly relates to my challenge of alcohol consumption. Here this character is “hot with wine” and scares all the people who wish him to stay away from them because they are scared of his drunkenness. People today feel the same way, because they do not like to be around those who are drunk and dangerous and cannot control themselves.

Blog 2, Part 1

            America faces many challenging social problems in this day and time. I personally think that the most five challenging are; child abuse, obesity, health care, violent crime, and unemployment. Child abuse is one of the most horrifying issues that is heard about in the news daily. It is something that needs to be stopped because these abused children tend to grow up into adults who have serious issues because of their childhood. Obesity is another issue that seems to only be getting worse. Obesity causes another large number of issues and is something that can be fixed. Health care is an expensive issue that with the right approach can also be fixed. Health care is expensive for the common people but the work that health care workers is also very timely and requires hard work and intelligence which needs to be compensated as well. Violent crime is seen and heard every day and can make our nation safer by tackling this issue. There is no need for America’s citizens to walk around feeling unsafe when we can take care of this issue. The last challenging problem is alcohol consumption. Not only does alcohol cause a large number of deaths by overconsumption and driving while drinking but it is also a cause of other issues such as other social problems like obesity and child abuse.  

Blog 1

In Greek literature the gods are a huge part in the lives of mere mortals. But, not all Greek literature relies on the gods for the involvement in their lives. In the cases of the Iliad, Oedipus, and Thucydides’ Plague each writing has a different scenario of how the gods are, or are not, involved, what caused the plague, and how the people reacted to it.

In Homer’s Iliad the plague was sent by Apollo to the Greek soldiers’ camp after Agamemnon and Achilles took two Trojan maidens. Chryseis’ father offered Agamemnon a large ransom if he were to return Chryseis back but Agamemnon denied it. At this time is when Chryses (Chryseis father) prayed to Apollo for help. Apollo saw the selfish actions of Agamemnon and Achilles and sent the plague to the people of Thebes for Chryses. In lines 13-15 of the Iliad Homer writes, “Agamemnon had dishonored Chryses, Apollo’s priest, so the god Struck the Greek camp with plague.” A seer tells Achilles that it was Apollo and Chryses who caused the plague to happen and Agamemnon gets incredibly upset and says that he will return Chryseis only if Achilles gives his maiden, Briseis, to him. Agamemnon and Achilles get into a fight but no one is hurt. As soon as Chryseis is returned to her father the plague is lifted. I think the problem with this plague is that Agamemnon and Achilles were too prideful to think about anyone but their own interests.

In Oedipus Rex the plague was sent by the gods to the people of Thebes. Sophocles writes lines 24-28 “For the city, as you yourself can see, is badly shaken already and from the waves can no longer lift her head above this bloody tossing; there is death in the fruitful buds from the earth and in the pasturing herds, and even in the childless births of women.”  The disease was preventing life from being created and from being sustained. The plague was sent because of Oedipus’ ignorance, anger, and hubris. Because Oedipus did not realize that he had committed a murder of the king the gods decided to punish the entire city of Thebes. It was made known to Oedipus that once the murderer was found the city would be saved. The people tried to please the gods by gathering around the kingdom and offered gifts to the gods for mercy to lift the plague.

In Thucydides’ Histories (of the Peloponnesian War) the cause of the plague was unknown. Thucydides says about the plague “All speculation as to its origin and its causes, if causes can be found adequate to produce so great a disturbance, I leave to other writers, whether lay or professional… there was no visible cause” (page 274). The people were dying. The doctors were dying because they were around so many affected by the plague. It affected so many because of its contagious nature that if you tried to help a sick person, you yourself would become sick as well. The people here are interesting because they accepted the plague as a part of life and tried to enjoy life as much as possible because who knows if they will make it to the next day alive.

It is interesting to see how times have changed through the writing. In the Iliad and Oedipus Rex both plagues were sent by gods as some form of punishment due to a crime committed by a mortal. But by the time Thucydides’ writing came around he wrote more factual and told history by facts and known causes. In Sophocles’ and Homer’s time everything that happened on Earth had a known cause – that usually came from a god interfering with life on Earth. The Iliad is written is dactylic hexameter while Oedipus Rex is written in free verse because it is written as a play. Thucydides’ writing is done in a simple historical analysis of the life of the people of Athens.