Sohrab and Rostam

Sohrab and Rostam tells the reader a good deal about the history or Iranian culture. When Tahmine meets Rostam she immediately informs him that she would like him to be the father of her baby. Rostam obliges and they purposefully conceive their baby (Sohrab) on the night they meet. All that Rostam knows of Tahmine is the initial beauty that he sees in her, and that she claims she is the Shah’s daughter. In another culture Rostam might reject her advances and accuse her of being a temptress, but through his Iranian heritage Rostam tells her that their child will be great and gives her a jewel for the child complete with instructions, be it a boy or a girl.

In the culture of Iran, Turan, and Semengan it seems that they are taught to seize what they want. Tahmine wants to give birth to Rostam’s baby, so she goes to him and seizes the opportunity. Later in the story when Sohrab has grown, he wants to be with his father and decides that he will seize the crown of Iran and instill his father in the position. He amasses an entire army from Turan, and is willing to move great forces in order to do so. He gives no thought to what the current Shah of Iran will think, or of what the people of either Iran or Turan will think. 

Lysistrata

     Lysistrata is an incredibly self-empowered woman. She is very strong willed and manages to will the women of her society into organizing a reform movement against the male domination, she views as tearing Greece apart. She uses her powers of persuasion and her analytical view of society in order to formulate a plan to advance gender equality and end the male dominated war that is tearing Greece apart.

     Lysistrata devised her plan over many nights and took great detail in planning it, but the other women still shuddered at the thought of going   through with the steps she had devised. It was only by Lysistrata's passion and persuasion that they fully bought into the idea and followed her every command. Through her com position, she became the most powerful person in Greece. She gained control of the military and the fate of the war and peace of Greece, as a coalition of states as well as having the power to manage the entire male population. Were Lysistrata weak minded or of any less merit than the incredible amount she possesses, her entire plan would have fallen short of accomplishing her goal before it had even really begun. Her women troops would have divided and would have immediately returned to their dismal subservient status, if not an even more subservient one.