Women in Greek Mythology - Essay Example

Data Women in Greek Mythology Women in Greek Mythology Greek mythology is often calleda historical mythology describing men and women, historical events and social changes affected ancient societies. For the most part it is not the participation of gods, talking animals or magic that makes Greek myth mythical; rather, it is the participation of men and women who lived the times before recorded history began and beyond reliable oral tradition. Greek mythology reflects century old wisdom and literary traditions, philosophy and theology which ruled ancient societies. Greek mythology is a man's mythology, describing a world from a man's point of view. Thesis In Greek mythology women are depicted from two different social and moral perspectives, loving mothers and wives vs hatred and revengeful females. In Greek mythology, women are seldom considered in isolation from men, though critics consider important exceptions below, and they seldom have scope for action on their own initiative. According to Dillon (2002): Numerous oppositions in the ways in which Women were categorised, often determined by their role in society, and also their ethnic origin, are reflected in the various dichotomies of citizen wife/foreign woman, slave/free, prostitute/wife, girl/woman, and woman priest/woman sorcerer, to name some, all of which could overlap, and influenced how, why, when and where they gave expression to their religious beliefs (5). Mostly, females are either (a) children, (b) nubile maidens or (c) married. What is absent from this female career structure is any stage between initiation and marriage - the stage which allows the male to become a warrior, prove himself and discover himself: men marry later than women (Dillon 2002). Widows are mostly ignored and single women cannot be allowed to exist, except for goddesses like Circe and Kalypso in the Odyssey. For instance, "Hera is most typically a goddess of women, and it is for that reason that she is on occasion worshipped as Maid, Wife, and Widow, the last title giving no little trouble to interpreters of her myths in classical times, seeing that her husband was immortal" (Rose 1991, 103). In Greek mythology, womanhood is depicted through religious ritual and values followed by women characters. It is not surprising that religious dogmas became the code of behavior for women who needed strong arguments to prove their decisions. Gods are supposed to be temperate, diligent, loyal, hard-working, and cheerful. Although the religion women's responsibility for one's destination in the next life and one's fortunes in this, the individuals form a tight-knit and strongly. The above picture is supported with a number of important cases of religious domination remaining important because it continues to serve a variety of important social functions. The realization that a woman has to devote herself to husband and live according to the values was typical for all mortal women. Even if women want to be equal to men they would never talk about this with their husband. Such behavior considered typical for this epoch (Lefkowitz, 1986). A special attention was given to the role of marriage. For instance, Orestes acquires his entitlement to the throne of Sparta by marriage with Menelaos' daughter, Hermione. Menelaos came to the throne through his marriage with Tyndareus' daughter, Helen. Odysseus' winning of Ikarios' daughter, Penelope, has a high profile in the mythology - a myth which Homer, in his characteristic way, replays through the perverted attempt of the suitors to win Penelope's hand in Ithaka. In these cases the succession to the throne passes via a woman. This is not 'matriarchy', for women are not queens in their own rite, nor is it 'matrilinearity' (Rosaldo, Lamphere 1974), for power passes via daughters and wives, not mothers. Indeed the marriage is called into existence precisely because the daughter cannot wield power herself. This belongs in the broader Greek cultural picture of the restrictions upon woman inheriting property. Blazina (1997) states that "In a similar vein, it is suggested in the self-in-relation model that men gain their sense of self through independence and autonomy, while women gain theirs through their relations with others" (285). Property can only pass to a household of which a man must be in control, and a man who dreams of wealth and power should look to marry an heiress. The marriage of Oedipus and Jocasta is based on this type too: as the old king is dead and there is no suitable relative to marry Jocasta and take Kreon is her brother, an outsider is needed (Rose, 1991). Medea, for all her excesses, plainly wins sympathy based on Jason's behaviour; Deianeira in Sophocles' "Women of Trachis" acts, with adequate approval, to restore Herakles' interest in their marriage; Clytaemestra in "Agamemnon" by Aeschylus though a clear monster who has subverted and perverted the restraints required of women, nevertheless has an intelligible pretext for her hostility to Agamemnon in his introduction of Cassandra to the house. But for all this the real force of disgrace in male-female relationships falls upon the woman: Clytaemestra (who murders her husband), Medea (who destroys her family) (Rosaldo, Lamphere 1974). Matriarchy (Rosaldo, Lamphere, 1974) belongs at the ends of the earth. For instance, Amazons lived beyond the Black Sea or when that was no longer far enough, in Skythia. They had once existed but were defeated by a male emblem, a Herakles, Theseus, Perseus or Achilles. Amazons are there to tell how the world isn't. It is not so different from the disenfranchisement of women under Kekrops in the wake of Athene's victory over Poseidon. In other societies, too, the myth of matriarchy belongs to a prior and chaotic era before the present social order (Rose, 1991). Critics (Dillon 2002) suppose that there are double standards of Greek males that though men and male gods do a lot of begetting in myth, the issue of faithlessness arises only with women (the only male issue is adultery - Thyestes, Paris). As an exception, a chorus in "Medea" puts this stress on female faithlessness down to the absence of women authors who might redress the balance. That would imply that there was a competing women's value-system centered on securing the devotion of Greek, males to their marriages, which indeed there must have been. "For example, men who have not resolved the Oedipal struggle may suffer from psychic splitting with women and a never-ending striving for one-upmanship with other men" (Blazina 1997, 285). Medea is one of the most vivid and interesting female characters who combines qualities of a loving mother, wife and revengeful women. She plans all her murders in order to avoid punishment. Her actions is an indicator of what happens to people's thinking about themselves when they can no longer hold on to the old traditions: in their likeness to each other, in their prescribed place in the order of things and in their ability to use their reason to impose their own order and control. Life circumstances are the cause of cruelty and meanness of Medea. She seems to have approved of the burning of them, not on the ground that they made people go on crazy movements, but because they are idealistically poor. Medea comments: "But if events / force me to act openly, I'll use a sword. / Even though it will bring about my death, / I'll push my daring to the very limit / and slaughter them" (Eurepides). This remark shows deliberateness of her actions and plans driven by fear and egoism (Bremmer, 1987). One myth plainly for women is that of Demeter and Kore (Persephone). Even this presents a grim portrait of marriage as abduction from the mother with the connivance of the father (Zeus). Yet the myth is grounded in a festival for citizen women and their daughters, the Thesmophoria, and celebrates their relationship with each other and their affinity with the productiveness of nature. According to Dillon (2002) other myths, concerning nubile maidens, can often be viewed as going back to stories which must have had currency amongst females concerned with the initiation of girls. But once critics set aside that background, most often inaccessible to classical Greeks, the mythical environment becomes very hostile to these maidens. For instance, Io is the victim of the lust of Zeus and the jealousy of Hera; her situation is tragically explored in "Prometheus Bound" and can only be resolved by the family line to which she gives rise: Herakles, who will incidentally release Prometheus, and ultimately Danaos and the Argives. Her consolation for being exploited lies in the oikos to which she will give rise, as in a sense it does with every Athenian maiden. Herakles wants the maiden Iole, but he does not woo her: he must seek the consent of the family. When they refuse he kills them all and has her anyway, though he then bequeaths her to his son Hyllos, whose influential offspring she will doubtless bear. Kreousa in Euripides's "Ion" thinks Apollo did wrong by raping her, but her offspring is Ion, eponym of the Ionians. And Kallisto, raped by Zeus, may have a rough time, what with being transformed into a bear and maybe even shot by Artemis, but never mind: her son Arkas will be the ancestor of the Arcadians (Lefkowitz 1986; Hard, 2003). Conflict between men and women is integral to this mythology and the associated Dionysos cult, depicting the termination of the normal condition of society and the need to begin it again. At Chios and Tenedos the women are found pursuing or killing a man; at Chaironeia they even pursue Dionysos; and conversely at Chios, Orchomenos and maybe Sikyon a group of men or an individual pursue a group of women (Lefkowitz, 1986). This too is where Lykourgos, son of Dryas, fits: supposedly he is a king of the Thracian Edones, but he has a clearly Greek name and his father Dryas rather reminds one of Dryops. In any event, according to Homer this Lykourgos on a fabulous Nyseion pursued the "nurses" of Dionysos and suffered as a result. A special group of women in mythology is Nymphs (Dillon, 2002). The Nymphs are worshipped in caves. Rose (1991) explains that: "the Nymphs were consequently appeased, and a new swarm got from the decaying carcass of a bullock. This belief was apparently common, and not confined to the Greeks; the fact lying behind it is the existence of a fly which lays its eggs in carrion, where they hatch out, and closely resembles a bee in outward appearance" (144). For instance, in Homer there is a cave of the Nymphs; at Eleusis there was a cave of Pan and the Nymphs. The cave is the prime cult site of Pan and the Nymphs in Longus. But their power spreads further into every aspect of the countryside: trees have their Dryads, groves have Alseids, rivers Naiads, mountains Oreads. This does not take account of implausibly tame developments such as Meadow-nymphs and Garden-nymphs. It was always an entertaining and pretty challenge to catalogue their names (Burkert, 1979; Bremmer, 1987). In the Iliad, Homer writes: "and the goddesses gathered around her, All of the Nereids who lived in the depths of the sea: Glauke was there and Thaleia and Kymodoke And Nesaie and Speio and Thoe and Halie ox-faced (Homer, Iliad 18.37-40 cited Bremmer 1987, 34) In Greek mythology, the theme of revenge and hatred are depicted through women's characters. Taking into account cultural assumptions, it is possible to say that poisoning was the usual way to annihilate the enemies. For instance, Medea considers a poison as the most effective tool to deal with her enemies, a rival king, Pelias, and his daughters. "I'll murder them with poison. Yes, that's it. / But once they're dead, what city will receive me" (Eurepides). Medea is not crazy, but a woman full of anger and jealousy. Eurepides depicts that she has no firm principles and moral rules which could stop her from murders. These developments unveil traditional assumptions about the unity and supposed homogeneity of the person. "By projecting herself into her tapestry, the Homeric Helen implies that women and their activities are central themes of epic song" (Hard 2003, 2). Critics (Lefkowitz, 1986; Rose, 1991) admit that the picture of the dangers of women's passion does not begin with tragedy. For instance, "the Odyssey" contrasts the intelligent and responsible mistress of the oikos, Penelope, with the brute sexual passions of Kalypso that restrain our Greek man from achievement of his purpose. Odysseus is also advised by Hermes, in a most curious passage, to refuse Circe's bed until he has imposed an oath on her and thereby avoided the loss of his manhood: it is not clear what exactly is envisaged, but in any case our Greek male needs some reserve and assertion before an offer of sexual relations in order to maintain his maleness. Odyssey describes: The goddess Calypso kept me with her in her cave, and wanted me to marry her, as did also the cunning Aeaean goddess Circe; but they could neither of them persuade me, for there is nothing dearer to a man than his own country and his parents (Homer) More broadly, the whole distrust of women, hatred of women, seems an exaggeration) has a special place in Greek poetry from Hesiod onwards. His is the image of Pandora, the nearest thing the Greek tradition has to the biblical Eve, though like much of Hesiod's writing, this story may be new to Greek mythology (Hard, 2003). Conflict between the sexes occurs elsewhere too. The women of Lemnos murder their husbands, interpreted by Burkert (1979) as relating to another renewal festival, and the Danaids at Argos kill their first set of husbands, the Egyptians - though that may be more a matter of their progress to the acceptance of marriage, as befits a myth possibly once associated with a passage rite of girls. Likewise Amazons exist in order to fight men and to be defeated by the likes of Herakles, Theseus and Perseus. Myth and imagination, the separation and distinctive roles of the sexes are explored and presented as a hostility which is periodically in ritual, and once for all in myth, resolved in favor of the men and the taming institution of marriage. Critics state that there is no lesson that the sexes are necessarily in conflict. Exceptional disruptions serve only to underline the harmony and undisputed male supremacy on which Greek mythology and ritual believe successful societies are built. However, the gods' lusts, though in themselves something which would get them life imprisonment in a modern society, are not trivially exercised but exist in order to beget significant offspring who will have a god at the head of their genealogy. It is doubtful therefore whether this mythology is best viewed as implementing irresponsible male fantasy, though the case of heroes, who can step beyond normal constraints, may be different. Seduction of free-born girls was after all a crime and myth considers no others. Some girls in Greek myth are presented as inviting their fate. For instance, the Proitids mocked the statue of Hera. Two of the daughters of Kekrops, Agraulos and Herse, pry into a forbidden chest, and, seeing a snake wrapped round the infant Erichthonios, are driven mad and hurl themselves from the Acropolis. These strains of hazardous impulsiveness amongst girls may be reflected in a tendency of mythology to produce names for maidens (Melanippe, Hippolyte, Hippodameia), inviting Calame's suggestion that marriage and female education both are designed to these dangerous maidens (Rosaldo, Lamphere 1974). In sum, culturally, women obtained a secondary role and could not participate in social life. Men supposed that women were weak and helpless, and needed their support to survive. Cultural assumptions prevent her to lead a normal way of life and women try to change their destiny see sufferings as aimless and worthless. Women in Greek mythology do everything possible to gain social recognition and remain with their beloved. Self- understanding is a major life time developmental task which approve attractiveness and worthless. Manipulations of men and revenge help women to represent the eternal warfare between virtue and sin, good and evil. Works Cited Page 1. Blazina, Ch. Mythos and Men: Toward New Paradigms of Masculinity. The Journal of Men's Studies, Vol. 5, 1997, 285. 2. Bremmer, J. Interpretations of Greek Mythology, London, 1987. 3. Burkert, W. Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual. Berkeley and Los Angeles, Calif, 1979. 4. Dillon, M. Girls and Women in Classical Greek Religion. Routledge, 2002 5. Euripides. Medea. N.d. http://www.mala.bc.ca/johnstoi/euripides/medea.htm 6. Homer, The Odyssey. N.d. http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext99/dyssy10.txt 7. Hard, R. The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology. Routledge, 2003 8. Rosaldo M.Z. Lamphere, L. (eds), Women, Culture and Society, Stanford, Calif, 1974. 9. Rose, H. J. A Handbook of Greek Mythology: Including Its Extension to Rome. Routledge, 1991. 10. Lefkowitz, M.R. Women in Greek Myth, London, 1986. Read More