Greek Mythology was my favorite class this semester because we went more in depth on the myths of the gods and heroes, and even delved into early Roman myth. I loved it because it demonstrated how aware the Greeks were of the natural phemonena in the world and made up etiological myths to explain why natural phemonmena happened.
My favorite myths were the myths about the heroes—Heracles, Oedipus, Theseus, Jason and the Argonauts, Achilles, and Odysseus. Many of the plot devices in these stories have served as inpsiration for most books and media throughout the ages. The heroes face trying tasks and in some of the myths we see them questioning the values of Greek society and the relationships they have made.
While the myths are interesting, there is a perspective that is always left out—the woman’s. This is most likely because the bards or singing poets and audiences were often male and wanted to hear about the exploits of great men. Women were just part of the package. Many myths detail male gods or mortal men having their way with women and making babies often without the consent of the woman. When Orestes kills his mother, Clytemmnestra and her love, Aegisthus in the epic Nostoi, he should be guility of kindred bloodshed.
However, the god Athena decides to hold a trial with the Furies, punishers of kindred bloodshed as the prosecutors and the god Apollo as the defense attorney. Athena ends up buying Apollo’s defense that women are empty jars to be filled with a man’s seed, and therefore are not involved in conceiving a child. Orestes is let go on murdering his mother because she is just an empty jar not a human whose egg was fertilized.
Women were also blamed for bad things in the world such as wars. In the epic cycle of the Trojan War, Helen is taken from her husband, Menelaus to Troy after she falls in love with the prince, Paris. When Menelaus gets her back he is angry with her for running off with Paris and starting the war, ignoring that Paris pursued her knowing she was married. Another instance is in the myth of Pandora, where she opens the box she is given and lets out all the negative things the world has to offer. She is blamed because her curiousity got the better of her.
This myth was used as a justification to mistrust women because women were only seen to cause problems for men, but men still had to get married if they wanted to be taken care of in their old age.
Powerful women in Greek Myth were seen as monsters that served to derail men’s quest for greatness. Gaia, the mother of all, gave birth to monster children and was angry at Zeus and the Olympians for overthrowing her children, the Titans.
The Greeks feared powerful women because once the Titans are defeated, she gives birth to Typhoeus a winged, half man, half serpent creature to destroy Zeus. In the myth of Oedipus, the Sphinx served to strike fear into men because she could ask them the riddle—what walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening, and if men got it wrong they would be devoured. Most often female monsters were multi-species and manipulative. The Sphinx was a half female, half cat, and half bird and manipulated men to their doom.
Greek Mythology is still an interesting subject to study, but one has to keep in mind that certain perspectives were not considered and certain people were portrayed through the lens of a rich, property owning, male, citizen. But that does not mean we should cast it aside as sexist or any other ist. Instead, we should still learn about Greek Myth for what it is and its significance, while being aware of its treatment of women.
