Women From Ramayana and Osiris,

Women from Ramayana and Osiris, ISIS and Horus

The Ramayana, famous epic story of Ancient Indian literature gives a lot of interesting and important historical details about society of ancient India as it describes the nature of relations between men and women, parents and children and narrates the history of Indian mythology. Through the nature of relations between king Dasharatha and his 4 wives we can observe a lot of important historical details about family ethics in prehistoric Indian society. In fact, we see that women occupied an equal position in the family, nearly equal to men. Indian goddess were in charge of prosperity and fertility (for example Sita). Besides, it's a well-known fact that in Indian culture words that define power and strength are feminine.

The respect of women also existed on mythic level: it's enough to remind that Ravana and his tribe were killed because he kidnapped Sita, Rama's wife. Another important aspect of women's role in Indian society is that women and men built their family and their relations only on the base of love and mutual respect rather than on obedience to the choice made by their parents. Ramayana's Rama and Sita prove it, as their union was based only on mutual love. The devoutness of Sita to her husband Rama is worth admiration as she insisted on following her husband when he went to exile. Sita had the sense of commitment and she was very responsible in family duties, but at the same time she had the sense of dignity and had never behaved like an obedient servant to Rama. The years of exile only molded her personality and tempered her will. We observe such qualities in her behavior through her independence, self-determination and confidence. Even after being accuse in treachery she has enough will to resist Rama and defend her loyalty and innocence. Image of Sita is associated with active woman who struggles for her happiness, who is able to defend her honor and stand all trials in order to prove her purity. Even later when Sita wet to exile, as Rama continued to be doubtful in her purity she behaved very deserving and alone raised two sons. Image of Sita is an embodiment of ideal wife in Indian culture, as she possessed the qualities Indians want to see in their wives: loyalty, devoutness and strong morals and will power.

Another example of women's equality in Indian society from Ramayana is behavior of Queen Keikey, wife of king Dasharatha. She had a right to ask the king to fulfill her two orders as he gave an oath when they married. The order of Queen Keikey was to send Rama to exile, so that her son Bharatac could become ? king. Dasharatha could do nothing and had to obey to this awful order which contradicted existing traditions and customs, as only the oldest son of the king could inherit the throne. It also proves that in ancient Indian society there existed some attributes of feminism.

The myth about Osiris Isis and their son Horus describes the role of women in Ancient Egypt. It is well-known that Egyptians treated women better than any of other civilization of the ancient world (according to Thompson, James C. 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.