As we discussed in class during our presentations, the portrayal of women in Ancient Greece mythology largely served to support the patriarchal society. Greek men drew upon many female figures from their myths to support the idea that women were “a plague on men” and should not be given positions of power. However, I find it interesting that, if looked at as a whole, it is not the myths themselves that portray women as the obviously inferior sex. Greek men seem to have chosen to focus on those portraying women in a negative or “dangerous” light in order to support their patriarchal society.
There are many prominent female mythological figures that could be strong role models for women. Athena was the goddess of intelligence and battle strategy, yet the Greeks seemingly ignored the fact that she was a woman—they reserved most, if not all, educational and militant pursuits for men. Other examples of strong females include Nike, goddess of victory, and Artemis, goddess of the hunt. Even Zeus feared the wrath of his wife, Hera, who would fly into a rage when she learned of his affairs—he even had to hide his illegitimate children from her!
However, most Greek males never tried to let women follow in the footsteps of these stronger role models. Instead, they focused on the strrories of Pandora, who made the worst mistake in mythological history when she let out evil into the world, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, who was often portrayed as devious and cunning (in other words, men were scared of her). The fact that Greeks disregarded the strengths of their own goddesses is strange to me. The patriarchal Greek society was one of the most advanced in the world. Imagine what they could have achieved if they had had the help of women.
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From the presentations in class, I realized how ironic ancient times were in the treatment of women. While I knew that women did not have many rights during these times and that many female divinities were celebrated in mythology, I had never connected these two thoughts-- the irony of women being so celebrated in mythology while simultaneously not even being allowed to leave the house without their husband. It's sad to think that such treatment of women was so routine that many women didn't even think twice about their subjugation. When the group mentioned in class that women literally became the property of their husbands at marriage, I was absolutely disgusted. Though the Greeks revolutionized government, they were certainly no role models in their treatment of women.
I love the point that you bring up, and how the negative ideals of women in Greek mythology differ from the ones of those in Christianity(the ones in most western countries today). While the stories of the Greeks present women as dangerous, but powerful, Christianity tends to portray women as subservient and secondary; other than Eve, most women in the Bible stand no real threat to anything and tend to only be side characters. Even though Greek goddesses tend to be more revered, they only have this power because they embrace certain ideals the Greeks had of women that overall made them subservient. As you pointed out, Athena was highly respected and ruled over both intelligence and battle strategy. But, she was also a virgin goddess who never had a relationship with a man. This is the same of other powerful and highly respected goddesses, such as Artemis (the goddess of the hunt and wilderness) and Hestia (home and the hearth).This made them "pure" and expectable in the eyes of Greek society, and therefore deserving of that power. Hera, the Queen of the gods, was always faithful to her husband Zeus; no matter how many other affairs he had (there were many to say the least), she would never cheat. Because she was subservient to her husband, she was deserving of her power. Other powerful goddesses got away with their sexuality for other reasons. Aphrodite was the goddess of beauty and love; she was more of a sex symbol than powerful, and therefore allowed to express her sexuality. Demeter was the goddess of the harvest and fertility, so her sexuality was more representative of plenty and prosperity, of large harvests and wealth. These same ruled did not apply to their male counterparts, who were able to do as they pleased with little to no repercussions, and with no underlining meanings needing to be attached to their actions.
I'm so glad you posted about this Lainey!
After my group did this presentation, I reflected back on it, and realized the strength within the degree of oppression the women experienced back in this time. I think you can always see the glass half full rather than half empty, and while unfortunately, I can't go back in time to portray a message to these women, they could have found power in this oppression.
As I said during the presentation, men used mythology as instructions on how to maintain women's dependence on men. I think the fact men put this much energy forth to keep them "maintained" provides the notion that they knew women were capable of so much more, possibly hindering the heroic, elite roles men were expected to perform. Women would not have been made the role of goddesses had someone not felt inclined to give them SOME sort of recognition. I personally value mental, emotional strength over physical and find it highly empowering to know Athena's title in mythology of such intellect and creativity amongst the further negativity of other goddesses. Moreso, I find it empowering Demeter was the goddess that had the responsbility of providing nourishment for the world but also the ability to let it starve (there's a reason it's called MOTHER nature ;).) I find it empowering that Pandora was the one to cause so much destruction as a "punishment" to men. If Zeus provided her as a punishment to ruin men's lives forever, THAT seems like a bigger struggle with independece on the male's part.
Overall, as we have stated many times in class, men and women have different strengths and weaknesses as do each individual in the genders thereof. Acceptance and humility are two important qualities a society must have in order to socially prosper, but unfortunately, they are two that the Greeks did not obtain.
**I do not say all this to put down men or gain power from any misfortune, but rather provide a more positive, empowering note from such a subjecting topic that can definitely be addressed related to today's society as well.
I agree that the treatment of women was terrible in Greece, more specifically Athens. I was appalled when I saw that before marriage a girl had to offer all of her toys up to Artemis, which showed how abrupt the tranisitiln from childhood to adulthood was for them. While researching, I was low key infuriated by every sentence that I read from my sources.
I totally agree with you that the depiction of women in ancient Greek mythology was in a very dark light. Take Helen of Troy for example, who was literally kidnapped by Paris and taken to Greece against her will; the myths surrounding the Trojan War put all of the blame on Helen as if Paris wasn't the one who kidnapped the married queen of Troy. Another example is Penelope in the Odyssey. Penelope is perhaps one of the few positively portrayed women in myths, all for keeping blind faith in Odysseus 20 years.
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