Women of Different Eras

Shops was a woman of Ancient Greece that history sees as a mystery. Her life is a mystery because not much is known about her or her poems that she wrote because only bits and pieces are left of her works. During this period, women were not known to be well educated individuals like Shops, only men. Women were to be caretakers of the house and bear the man’s children. Shops went “against the grain” and made a name for herself as a well-known lyric poetess, which means her poetry was made Into songs and played with a musical Instrument called a lyre.

Furthermore, Shops poems were connected to emotions and feelings from her heart when she wrote. It did not matter If she wrote her poems to a woman or a man. Society took this and ran with her emotions and labeled Shops as a lesbian. Society is still the same then as it is now, speculating that a person is gay or lesbian because they only have “girlfriends”. It is still called stereotyping. It was not taken into consideration that Shops was married and had a daughter. Also no evidence was presented to prove this allegation.

On the other hand, Muralist did not have such a time being stereotyped because he was not labeled like Shops. Like Shops, Muralist was a mystery because her real name was not known. During the Hein Period, “real names of noblewomen were not usually known; Muralist Skibob was actually the author’s nickname in court circles In The Tale of Genii” (Anta, 2008, Para. 7). Women of the Hein period also had a social position to uphold for the sake of family, something In Ancient Greece would not even been heard. A woman would not be seen outside the house or for that matter even give her point of view on a situation.

Noblewomen from Japan and women from Ancient Greece had another difference in their time periods. Ancient Greece women did not have law that required them to have their face covered if they were not in the presence of their own family. The noblewomen were to be a mystery to the men they were to marry, even if it was an arranged marriage between the fathers of the families. In Ancient Greece the fathers also arranged their daughter’s weddings to an ideal suitor. Another similarity that both eras have is polygamy for the men in their marriages. The men of Japan had many wives and their wives would live with her parents.

In Ancient Greece the men also had many wives, but would ravel from house to house to be with the different wives. Mural was considered the first famous novelist In Japan. Like Shops she wrote with her heart her stories In her novel “The Tale of Cancel”. It took Mural several years to finish her masterpiece. An educated woman in Japan was believed to be studied and knew Japan prose which is a form of writing they were also more popular with the women of the courts than the men. Even though Shops and Muralist were from different time periods, both ladies were successful authors of poems and novels.