Women From Ramayana and Osiris, Term Paper

Women in Ancient Egypt). It's also enough to tell that in special cases woman was able to become a pharaoh. Love and affection were considered to be integral parts of human life as Egyptians were pleasure seeking during their life, believing it to be the major goal in human's life. The myth about Isis proves it as Isis was a loving wife and mother to her son Horus. She is very independent in her actions, she is able to survive after her husband's death and raise her child alone without any help from the side of people and gods. We see that she respects the traditions and family morals as even after the death of her husband Osiris she decided to become pregnant from the dead body of Osiris in order to fulfill her duty of a wife and of a future mother. Horus, her son had to revenge Set for the death of Osiris. She raised Horus along in the swaps of Niles delta hiding from Set. When Isis demanded the throne for her son from the gods, she was banned to participate in the trial. But nevertheless she showed great wisdom and cunning as she transformed into an old woman and bribed a boatman who had to take her to the island where gods tried Set. Isis told a fake story about shepherd's son who was robbed by a stranger and who was left without inheritance. Set got angry by the crime of a stranger told in the story and exclaimed that stranger had to be punished. But at the same time it meant that he involuntary confessed his guilt and the right of Horus to be the king. So we see that the classical image of Isis is the image of loving faithful wife and mother.

So as we can see there exists a direct unity of social norms of ancient Egypt and ancient India with the mythology of both countries. Myths in many ways idealized the position of women and postulated the way women had to behave either being a sister, daughter, mother or wife. Neither in myths of Isis and Osiris nor in "Ramayana" we see that women's virtues were obedience and subordination to man. Women in ancient world were rather independent and had equal social positions if compared to later historical epochs. It can be explained by the lack of hierarchy in existing religious beliefs as polytheism assumed equality of different gods and goddesses. Absence of hierarchy in religion prevented from reorganization of social life as there was no moral and religious background for strengthening patriarchal tradition. Besides, it's important to note that high child death rate which existed in every ancient society was one of the major reasons why women were treated favorably: they had to raise children. So we can conclude that equal position of men and women in ancient society was caused by high mutual dependence from various factors because of low social and economical development and dependence upon external factors.

References

Stearns, Peter N. World History in Brief (major patternms of change and continuity) 5th edition

Thompson, James C. Women in Ancient Egypt at http://www.womenintheancientworld.com/women_in_ancient_egypt.htm