Rodmilla's dream is for Marguerite to marry the Crown Prince Henry. She is cruel, arrogant, spoiled, and bad-tempered. The roles are played by Anjelica Huston (Rodmilla) and Megan Doddsīaroness Rodmilla de Ghent is Cinderella's evil stepmother in the film and Marguerite de Ghent is Danielle's not so ugly step-sister. Our values have changed, and the stories we tell should be changing as well.Rodmilla and Marguerite Rodmilla and Marguerite are the primary antagonists of the 1998 film Ever After. But we don't live in the 19th century in Germany anymore. "Don't get me wrong," she said "the old-time stories are sacred to me in a way. But as society continues to reckon with its treatment and portrayals of women, Disney has started to rehabilitate many of its wicked-stepmother figures (or skip them entirely) in films such "Moana," "Frozen" and the gloriously messy "Maleficent," which paints the titular faerie as a caring but misunderstood figure. Of course, the Grimm brothers' fairy tales became wildly popular and served as the basis for many Disney films, from "Snow White" to "Tangled." These movies, as well as those inspired by the 19th-century Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, have given us some of the most iconic villains ever put to screen - Ursula the sea witch from "The Little Mermaid," Maleficent from "Sleeping Beauty" and the Evil Queen from Snow White. Did Elizabeth Taylor really have violet eyes? Did the Amazon female warriors from Greek mythology really exist? Where does the concept of time travel come from? "They changed a lot of the mothers and mothers-in-law to stepmothers," Tatar explained, in an effort to preserve the "sanctity of motherhood." When Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm set about collecting and streamlining German fairy tales in the early 19th century, they were mildly scandalized by how many of them contained evil mothers. ![]() And in parts of Europe, she became a jealous sister or mother-in-law. In some regions of Africa and Asia, for example, the stepmother took the form of a wicked second wife who tortured the virtuous first wife. Often, though, specifics changed to meet the social norms of the place. ![]() In cultures across the world, tales of toxic female rivalry abound. Though Livia may be the original wicked stepmother, she was far from the only one. Related: Were any 'witches' burned at Salem? Into the woods At the time, Rome's self-image was ensconced in a deep-seated sense of "patriarchal insecurity." Powerful women were not looked upon favorably - a trend that seeps through to the present day. "The way that he writes is really influenced by the way Roman society perceives itself," Greenfield said. (This image would be immortalized much, much later in Robert Graves' 1934 novel " I, Claudius (opens in new tab).") 14, Livia became a scheming, ruthless and power-hungry puppet master who would stop at nothing to secure her son's place on the throne. In Tacitus' version of Roman history, which was written decades after Augustus' death in A.D. Thus, Livia may have become a scapegoat for critiques of her husband and son.īut the man responsible for cementing Livia's role as an evil step(grand)mother was the historian Tacitus, who lived circa A.D. "One of the ways you could criticize a man is to criticize the women he was attached to," Peta Greenfield, a historian of ancient Rome at the University of Sydney in Australia, told Live Science. ![]() But there were other, more subtle ways to express one's displeasure about a political decision, and suspicion likely landed on Livia because of her gender. In ancient Rome, politics reigned supreme it was bad form to openly criticize those in power, particularly the emperor. All of this seemed suspicious to some Roman citizens, even given the fact that, without the aid of modern medicine, people were more likely to die young at the time. Eventually, Livia's son Tiberius, rather than a direct descendant from Augustus' bloodline, donned the purple. ![]() Rumors of foul play soon began circulating, and the fires of gossip flared up again years later when Agrippa Postumus, Augustus' grandson and another potential heir to the throne, was banished and murdered. One of them was set to succeed Augustus as emperor, but there was a problem: They both died. Augustus had married off his daughter from a previous marriage, who had given birth to two sons: Gaius Caesar and Lucius Caesar. Livia was the second wife of Emperor Caesar Augustus, who ascended to power after Julius Caesar met the wrong end of several knives in 44 B.C.Īccording to Italian historian Augusto Fraschetti (opens in new tab), by the time Livia and Augustus married, she was already mother to a son named Tiberius. One possible origin of the evil stepmother trope dates back to ancient Rome, and to one iconic figure in particular: Livia Drusilla, the first Roman empress.
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