Mother Monster or ??

Depicted in ancient Greek art there are ordinary men, heroes, gods, and goddesses— not ordinary women. Instead, ordinary women were turned into monsters or mothers; the two perceptions they acquired due to the patriarchy and mythology. They were depicted as either the enemy of humans or a vessel for fertility and child-bearing, and hardly anything in between.

Like so many other civilizations, Ancient Greek men declared themselves as all-powerful and superior. However, Ancient Greece’s patriarchy was particularly hard on the common women of the society. It oppressed and secluded them in many aspects of life. Women were only to marry, bear children (preferably males), and maintain the home. At the age of 14 or 15, their fathers choose who they were to marry and then they were transferred from the protection of their fathers to the protection of their husbands. Women were instructed to listen to and obey their husbands.

Women were not permitted to attend many social events, school, or participate in social functions like politics and the military. The events that women were permitted to attend mostly revolved around the established roles of women in ancient Greece. For example, one religious event women were allowed to participate in was to serve the goddess Artemis at her sanctuary at Brauron. Young girls were instructed to act as untamed animals and would ultimately be domesticated through the act of marriage.

Certain publications like Xenophon’s, Oeconomicus, stated a desire to exclude women for benefit of the male members of a household. He suggested impersonal treatment to the women in order to mold a perfect wife for the specifications demanded by the man of the house.

Simply put, women were seen as obstacles and invaluable, and the men in charge of them must shape and mold them to be someone who is seen and not heard. Someone who knows their role and does not push back against it. Someone who exists solely for men’s convenience.

The role women were forced to play in ancient Greece was harmful due to their forced limited involvement in society, being handled as property of either their father or husband, and knowing their only true calling was to obey their husbands, bear children, and maintain the house. As if the role destined for women was not harmful enough to their lives and portrayals in art, Ancient Greek mythology blamed women for the downfall of men. The stories painted them as distracting and conniving to men’s great journeys.

Ordinary greek women like Pandora and Helen are depicted as evils in the ancient greek world. The story of Pandora paints her as responsible for releasing all the evils that exist in the world today. The story of Helen of Troy blames her for the Trojan War and all the deaths that occurred in it. In other cases, women were simply left out of the mythology stories despite their sacrifices and commitments to the men’s journey.

WRITTEN BY MICHAELA HAGEL PHOTOGRAPHED BY SNEHA CHOPRA MODELS CHI-AN LU, MELODY MOSES & SHALOM YEMANE

Because the people of ancient Greece relied on these myths to dictate and rule their lives, women were either seen as evil or full-out ignored in artistic portrayals of Greek life.

Due to the simplistic greek caste system of gods first, goddesses second, men third, and women last, goddesses were depicted more positively in mythology and were afforded the same freedom that ordinary men were. Accordingly, goddesses were not confined to the roles that the ordinary women of Greece were. They were allowed to give advice to powerful men, visit the underworld, and were not required to bear children.

However, although goddesses like Aphrodite were awarded some freedom, they were still commonly painted as deceiving and manipulative. The Greek poetess Sappho described Aphrodite as “fancy-throned and deathless, the deceitful child of Zeus.”

Ancient greek women were forced into a role that was enslaving and detrimental to their reputation. Because they were practically brainwashed into suppressing their voices, the men of ancient Greece were rewarded the freedom to paint them in any light they decided. We see this reputation carry on to women of the future, such as Anne Boleyn of England. Despite King Henry VIII cheating on her multiple times and being caught, she was beheaded because he claimed she was unfaithful to him.

The word of men is taken as fact, while the word of women is suppressed and taken as myth. This is true for ancient Greece as much as it is for today, we see tens of women claiming to be sexually assaulted by a single man, but because of the lack of tangible evidence, it is his word against the multiple women. Despite the numbers giving an advantage to the women, most of the time, the man’s story is believed.

Women in ancient Greece and women today must work twice or even three times as hard as men do to be believed, be listened to, and even be trusted.

Sources

Met Museum

Worcester Art Museum

American Journal of Archeology

Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History freedom freedom