The Aeneid By Virgil, The Oresteia, And Sappho By Sappho

Rationality affects the way we behave, but emotions change our behavior and drive us to behave the way we do. People are driven by emotions, yet we can not allow them to be the only thing that controls our actions and behaviors. Rationality helps control our emotions and prevents them from getting too out of hand. There are three texts from seminar that demonstrate this idea of emotional power: The Aeneid by Virgil, The Oresteia by Aeschylus, and Sappho by Sappho. In The Aeneid, the text discusses Aeneas’ journey to Italy and the many encounters he had. It was in this text that the females displayed emotional power. The Oresteia is a play about murder, revenge, and justice within the royal family of Argos. Emotion is what drives this play†¦show more content†¦Rational, only in appearance, Dido tells her sister, Anna, to go build her a â€Å"pyre in secret, deep inside our courtyard under the open sky† to â€Å"obliterate every trace of the man† (144; lin es 618, 623). Anna does as her sister tells her to and is deceived by what the pyre was really meant for. Dido attempts to rid herself of her emotions by burning every trace of Aeneas, yet her emotions eventually take over. With her heart torn apart, Dido commits suicide. Dido’s sister on the other hand is hurt but still emotionally stable. Anna is stunned, grieving, and hurt by the actions of her sister. She states, â€Å"how very cruel†¦ You have destroyed your life, my sister, mine too† (151; lines 847, 848). Despite playing a part in her sister’s death, Anna remains levelheaded and requests help to â€Å"bathe [Dido’s] wounds in water† and hopes that if a â€Å"lingering breath still hovers† that she should â€Å"catch it on [her] lips† (151; lines 851, 852). Similar to The Aeneid, The Oresteia also demonstrates characters caving into their emotions. Clytemnestra, the Queen of Argos, lacks the power to prevent her daughter be ing used as a sacrificial lamb to the gods. The misery she felt when her husband, Agamemnon, sacrificed their daughter was immense. So immense that it led her to murder, for she thought that