Geryll Anthony Agno

FIL 401
Midterm Exam
Sa anong paraan magkakatulad o magkakaiba ang mga epiko mula sa ibat
ibang rehiyon ng Pilipinas?
We know that the Philippines is made up of thousands of islands,
hundreds of local languages and dialects with their own accompanying
culture. It is no surprise that with all these different cultures comes
numerous stories of mythology, creation, heroism, grandeurs,
struggles, romance, mysticism, and more. Some of these stories are
small ones that are meant to tell to the children of the people in that
specific culture but some are quite long and complex that it contains
the peoples ways and culture, and is usually used to pass said culture
to the next generationone kind of these stories are epics.
In almost every local culture, or region, in the Philippines have
their own epic. However, some are more memorable than the others.
In class, we talked about four of the most memorable, most talkedabout, and most studied epics in Philippine literatureBantugen which
came from Muslim Mindanao, Aliguyon which came from the Ifugaos in
the Cordilleras, Agyu which came from the Manabos in Mindanao which
existed with the Moros, and Labaw Donggon which came from the
Visayan Island of Panay.
These epics have their fair share of similarities and differences,
of which usually defines that region where the epic originated from.
These ranges from the setting of the story, to the culture of the people
in the story which is represented by things like the clothes, the
weapon, their religion, and economy, to themes present in the story, to
the actual protagonists and antagonists.
Let us start with the setting of the stories. The epic Bantugen is
set in a place where there are lakes and other bodies of water. In
history, civilizations that were located beside huge bodies of water
tended to become more successful and wealthier than those that were
not. This is a reason why the people in Bantugen are wealthier than
their counterparts in other epics, for example, Aliguyon. Aliguyons
setting is in mountains where they have to struggle for basic
necessities like water. Even if they did not have the same luxuries that
Bantugens characters have, that did not stop them from establishing
their own community.

Setting, or the place where it is located, can then dictate the

culture of a community. In Agyu, which is set in a place where there is
another huge tribe nearby, their culture was heavily directed towards
their love for their land and their tribe because of the continuous threat
of being attacked by the other tribe. Yes, they fight, but only to defend
what they believe is rightfully theirs. While in Labaw Donggon, which is
set in a place where there is a presence of multiple ruling kingdoms,
their culture focuses more on being able to show that they are better
than the others kingdoms, thus, proves it by showing they are better
fighters.
There are a lot of themes that are present in the stories that
intersect even though they have generally different cultures. One
example is the value of family which is present for each of these four
epics. In Bantugen, this was shown when the king forgave Bantugen, a
part of his family, even if Bantugen did something he did not like. In
Aliguyon, this was shown when Aliguyon wanted to finish the rivalry of
his father with someone else. Even though part of that was influenced
by his own desires, it was still for his father. In Agyu, it was shown
when the child of Agyu let himself fight the enemies so that his family
can escape safetly. And in Labaw Donggon, it was shown when Labaw
Donggons sons went to him to save him and defeat his enemy for him.
There are more similarities and differences between these epics
but these are just a few examples how the epics represent the region it
came from. Muslims in Mindanao were wealthy and quite progressive.
However, Ifugaos had to struggle and be creative, which led them to
create the famous Banaue Rice Terraces. The Manobos were always
fighting to defend their lands just like Agyu and his people while the
people of Panay had to fight amongst themselves just to prove who is
better.

Anu-anong katangian ng bayani ang ipinamamalas sa mga epiko? Sang-ayon

k aba sa kanilang kabayanihan? Bakit o bakit hindi?
In an epic, there will always be a hero that possesses specific
characteristicslike powers, weaknesses, and what they value the
mostand will go through a certain struggle which will prove the
weakness, will show his strengths by overcoming these struggles on
his way to get what he values the most.
Of all the heroes in the epics, my favorite, and the one that I
most agree with is Agyu. He is the hero who showed that
characteristics of a fair and just, and brilliant rulereven though he

was not always one. Agyu is the only hero in amongst the four that
showed anti-imperialistic views. He focused in that aspect for the sake
of his family and his people and not just something that would only
benefit himself like glory or a wife. Agyu showed great leadership when
he was able to create a utopia within the community he built from
scratch. He showed great intellect when he let his capable child fight
for the whole family instead of them being stuck there with him. He
showed he is able to acknowledge greatness of others by passing down
the title of leader to the hands of his capable son.
In contrast, the hero that I mostly do not agree of even being
called a hero is Aliguyon. His major strength is making decisions
without thinking it through as shown when he just decided to declare
war to the son of his fathers rival, which I would call more of a
weakness than a strength. To be fair, he is actually a capable fighter
that was just matched to an equally capable one. His desires are the
epitome of selfishness. He wants a wife, and all the glory that comes
with winning a duel against a great warrior. He wanted a wife that was
a part of an already powerful family so that he can make a bigger
family, which then increases his power in the community. If I am going
to have to say something that I appreciated from his character is that
he seemed to be able to take his courting of his desired wife with much
focus and elegance, just that.
In my opinion, selfishness should never be a quality that we
associate our heroes with. Personally, mew growing up, I looked up into
any kind of hero as a role model, as someone who I want to be. Do we
want our children, their children, and many more generations in
lineage to be selfish? Hopefully your answers is the same as mine. This
is where Agyus qualities shines the most. The difference between the
characteristics of the two is like night and day. If I am going to want to
myself or my children to get the characteristics and values of a certain
hero, it would be Agyu and the decision would not even be close.

Paghambingin ang kalagayan ng kababaihan sa lipunan ayon sa mga epiko.

Paano ito nagiging makabuluhan sa panahon natin ngayon?

Throughout history, women have generally always had the worse

end of the bargain in terms equality in the societywhich brought the
birth of the sexism against women. However, unlike history, these
epics showed great variety of positions in where women are placed
between them. Obviously, there are still examples where the women

have it really bad, but it is not the most prevalent one. It was shown in
a lot of ways, across all the epics, that women have it better in the
stories than women in the history of humanity, especially compared to
the women who were living during which these epics were developed.
For example, in Agyu, their women could be warriors and fight
for their land just like their male counterparts if they wanted to. Agyus
tribe does not prevent women from fighting for their freedom. I can
assume that this was heavily influenced by their love for their tribe and
their lands that they thought that it could only help their cause if the
women also helped defend themselves against their aggressors.
In Aliguyon, women even showed greater importance in their
society. They are a people of warthat is not debatable. It is necessary
that we know that context to fully understand their importance when I
say that they are more involved in the war than in any culture you can
think of. This was shown during the fight of Aliguyon and
Pumbakhayon. No, they are not directly participating in the war but
they are the ones doing the necessary things on the side to help win
the warthey cheer their warriors up, they heal them of their wounds,
they feed them food necessary for the energy they need to bring in the
war, and more. Them not being part of the war does not make them
weak though, they are fully capable of defending themselves if need
be.
They are not just important in war, but also to how their society
works. The mothers are the ones who decide who their children will
marry, a complete opposite to what most cultures do, which the father
is deciding.
In Labaw Donggon, based on my understanding of the story, it is
a mixture of both the good and the bad for the women. I consider the
women just like trophy wives for the males, especially for Labaw
Donggon but they hold a specific role for their society. It is kind of
mystical but women represents realms in there which is a very big part
to play. The women basically represented the realms of the land, the
underworld, and the heaven, however they interpreted those.
The only epic that I consider shows the stereotypical conditions
of women in history is Bantugen. They are kept in towers within the
kingdom so that they can be kept safe from people they do not want
their females to be interacting with. They want to keep them safe
because they want them in pristine condition when they marry them
into the families of another powerful family to make alliances with
them which would then, in turn, keep the power in the society to the

monarchial families that rule it. One thing they can do and do well is to
heal their people with rituals that only they perform but thats about it.
The women of Bantugen have it the worst compared to the women of
the others epics.
How is this related to our society nowadays? Well, before that, I
can say that the women in the epics had it way better than the women,
say, in the 20th century. However, compared to the women today, it
was not as great. It is true there are still inequality between the
genders, especially with the rise of the QLGBT community, but it has
never been better than how it is today. They have pretty much the
same rights now as the men in the society (Note: this is only true to
the society that I know off, American and Filipino, and cannot speak for
other societies).
This shows that even though it is not perfect yet, we can work for
it to become better and better as time passes. I will try to do whatever
I can to achieve this dream of mine and billions of others around the
world for the better life of my future daughters, granddaughters, and
everyone under them.