What say you, Hermia? Be advised, fair maid:
To you your father should be as a god,
One that composed your beauties, yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax,
By him imprinted and within his power
To leave the figure or disfigure it.
– William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. The young Athenian woman Hermia has been told by her father Egeus that she must marry Demetrius. In this passage the Duke Theseus, who is the authority in the city of Athens, upholds her father’s demand. Using a series of similes the Duke tells her that her father is "as a god" to her and she is to him "as a form of wax" to be shaped by him. Theseus is asserting a father’s complete power over his daughter and that she should obey him. As his daughter’s creator Egeus can do what he wishes with her, even "disfigure" her, according to Theseus.