How do you feel about what happened to hester prynne

the exact role and status of women in the roman world, and indeed in most ancient societies, has often been obscured by the biases of both ancient male writers and 19-20th century ce male scholars, a situation only relatively recently redressed by modern scholarship which has sought to more objectively assess women's status, rights, duties, representation in the arts, and daily lives; and all this from almost exclusively male source material dealing with a male-dominated roman world.

women in mythology

unlike some other ancient cultures such as the greeks who had formed a creation myth where woman was a creature secondary to man and, more specifically, in the form of pandora, a bringer of unhappiness and vices, the romans had a more neutral approach where humanity, and not specifically the male, was created by the gods from earth and water. ovid's metamorphoses, for example, does not specify whether the first human was a man or a woman. at least in a physical sense then men and women were not regarded as belonging to a different species as in the greek world, a view often reiterated in roman medical treatises.

the iconic cartoon that you are talking about is probably a man standing on top of a country with his legs spread wide. 

this cartoon suggests that europeans are powerful enough to subdue an entire continent. this was a satirical image that was drawn during the time of the colonization of the british empire in africa.

this image was inspired by the plans of the british empire to create telegraph lines all over africa promoting the further spread of its colonies through faster communication. the picture depicts the colonial mentality of the british empire in general as well as the struggle of africans to claim their own land. hope this ! (: