Gendering the Mythic World - Greek Myth - Essay Example

Professor Name Institution, course number Date Gendering the Mythic World – Greek Myth “From even before the beginning of the Greek civilization, which began around the year 1100 BC, story-telling was a tool of record-keeping. The Greeks began a form of story-telling called "mythology". The Greek myths were often about the Greek gods, heroes, and mortals, and usually taught a moral lesson, or helped one remember and recognize the power of the gods” (Burton, E., 2012). Greek civilization remained the significant heritage for the modern generations. This heritage is revealed in the rich history, presented by different legends and myths. Myth is a narration that conveys peoples perceptions of the world and their place in it. It gives the information about the origin of all natural phenomena and mostly reflects the lives of ancient gods and heroes. The predominance of mythological consciousness refers mainly to the archaic era, associated primarily with its cultural life in the system of sense organization, where myth played a dominant role. In myths, people consider the events in a particular time sequence. However, the most important place takes not the frames of time, but starting point and essence of the story. Later Greek poets of early antiquity refused to use irony in relation to the myths, but exposed them to strong recycling, elevated by the laws of morality. In the mythological world, authors represent peace as the tribal community that unites its members. It forms a common model of life and behavior. “Classical Greek culture was strongly marked by gender segregation. Generally, the public sphere was associated with men, the domestic, with women. This segregation arises from Greek ideas about the human body and the biological differences between males and females. Although women’s bodies and voices were strictly controlled or semi-secluded in most areas of ancient Greek public life, women did have important public roles in one area: religious ritual. While women worshipped both male and female divinities and acted as priestesses in cult even as men acted as priests, performing many of the same activities, Greek ideas about the body affected ritual aspects of nonverbal behavior, especially regarding clothing, voice, and gesture” (Calef, S., 2009). The gender relationships in ancient Greek are one of the most interesting issues for the modern scientists. They predetermined the main peculiarities of coexistence of mortals and gods in the ancient world. The aim of this work is to analyze gender relationships in ancient Greek and their valuable features on the basis of myths. Male-female relationships in ancient Greece In ancient society woman took a subordinate position in comparison with men. This position was strongly supported by public morality. The main female virtues in ancient Greece were piety, modesty and chastity. At that time, woman was not so much the object of love as a mean of procreation. She led a secluded life, focusing on the economic and maternal care. Consequently, in ancient myths there are mostly negative attitudes towards women. Hesiod was the first poet, who revealed the problematic image of a woman in the myth about Pandora. Prometheus (the son of titanium Lapetus) gave people the fire, which was stolen from Zeus. The last was very angry about it, but he could not deprive people of the fire. In order to castigate people, he sent down troubles to them in the face of evil woman named Pandora. Pandora, removing the great cover from the vessel, unleashed all ills and sorrows of the world. Consequently she became the initiator of accepting women as a disastrous race. Man, in their turn, bore the characteristics of winners, warriors and sages. Their dominance in the social group was thoroughly described in myths. The female images represented the family destination of women. The greatest values were love, beauty and sensuality, tenderness, softness, modesty and aesthetic attractiveness. Aphrodite (the goddess of love) was the main image of Beauty in ancient Greece. However, Greek mythologists usually described the relationships between male and female by the image of love. In Greek mythology, there are several stories, revealing this idea. For example, the myth about the singer Orpheus, who was so fond of his beloved Eurydice that wanted to get her back from the world of the dead. He refused to look at other women and was torn by cruel Bacchantes. Another myth is about Admetus and Alcestis. In this story, Moira were ready to save the life of dying Admetus, in case if someone else gives his own one instead. Love of Alkyds was so great that she sacrificed her life in order to save Admetus. Ancient mythology represents love as the motive power of the spiritual ascent, aesthetic delight and aspiration ideas of goodness and beauty. Greek poets describe it as the main joy of life. However, we can also notice that love in ancient mythology bears a spirit of tragedy. It is rarely has a happy end, especially if we talk about gods. Except devotion and strong affection, the heroes face envy, fears and internal conflicts. There is always a good and bad side in the myth. Male-male relations of ancient heroes In the Greek tradition, mortal men and mortal women were created at different times and for different purposes, and indeed are different races of humans (Calef, S., 2009). Men had the completely different characteristics from women. The relationships between them bore mostly a competitive character. Most of ancient men were conquerors. Each struggled for his own wellbeing and benefits. However the interrelationships between males in ancient Greece greatly depended upon the personality of the individual. If we take Zeus, for example, he is described as a very self-confident god. He has a certain authority and tends to manage and rule other people. Zeus has the acumen and foresight in different situation, but he cannot contemplate his feelings and do not care about the feelings of others. He does not accept and understand the feelings of disobedience or dissent. That is why, there are so many myths, where Zeus, conflicts with other gods or irritates them. A good example is a conflict between Zeus and Prometheus. This tragedy tells us about a cruel tyrant Zeus, who punished Prometheus for rebelling against him. The main thing in this tragedy is the conflict between the two generations of male gods: the old, defeated, to which Prometheus belongs, and the new one, led by Zeus. On the one hand there is a hero, who selflessly fighting for human happiness, and on the other – the despotic tyranny hindering progress. In this situation Zeus is characterized as a cruel ruler. Images of Hephaestus, Ocean and Hermes also reveal the theme of tyranny. Hephaestus is kind, but coward. With tears of compassion he fulfills his mission of executioner. In this case, we can observe the subordination and at the same time, compassion between males. Hephaestus is a terrible type of “honest coward," which became an accomplice of the tyrant. At the decisive moment he betrays Prometheus and performs as the executor of the will of Zeus. Talking about male relationships on the Olympus, we need to take into consideration the functions of gods. If we compare Apollo and Dionysus, we can see that the mythology represents them as two opponents. Apollo, in the Homeric religion, is the guardian of order in the nature. He protects aristocracy, which achieved a dominant position in the society and reveals himself as the patron of moderation in everything, including arts. In contrast, Dionysus is the god of wine, released from constraint and generally accepted rules, the god of violent fun, granting joy to those who were deprived of it. He is the god of the peasantry mountainous Greece, born by a mortal woman and died in torments in order to be reborn in the form of a human being. Thus we can only imagine, what could be the relationships between them, as all their actions contradicted with each other. If we talk about ordinary people of ancient Greece, in this case the relationships between men were more humane. Female relations in ancient Greece “In Athens women had no independent existence in the eyes of the law, despite the fact that Plato had recently in his Laws proposed that women should be given the same education as men, the same access to the law courts, the same rights to own and inherit property, to hold public office, to compete in athletics and to live and work as equals to men” (Scott, M., 2009). However, the sorrows of the unjust fate did not unite the women of ancient Greece. This happened due to the same reason, as in male-male relationships. Each woman is represented in Greek mythology as an individual. She protects her family and customs, destroying everything that can harm her personal space. The anger of the Olympic goddesses is as strong as the anger of its mail representatives. We can see this from the situation between Hera (the wife of Zeus) and his lover (the mother of Heracles). Hera tried to spoil the life of Heracles’ mother (a mortal woman) in every possible way, even under the fear of anger of Zeus. Thats why in ancient Greek myths, Hera is described as the evil and vengeful goddess. One more example of the constant struggle and meanness between goddesses of ancient Greece is revealed in the myth about the birth of Zeus’ daughter Athena. Zeus seduced a mortal girl, taken the form of a simple human being. When Hera found out about his affair, she decided to punish an arrogant husband. She came to the lover of Zeus in the image of an ordinary woman and told her the whole truth about Zeus. Hera convinced a girl to talk to Zeus and ask him to reveal his true image. It ruined a curious woman, but before she died, she gave birth to a little girl. Zeus did not kill a newly born and sewed her into his thigh. In some time, Zeus felt a strong pain in his head. Hephaestus cut his head off in order to look at the cause of this phenomenon. Shining Athena came from the head of her father, the goddess whose name will inspire reverence and awe. Analyzing this myth we can see indifference of Hera to both the mother of Heracles and Athena. The fates of the mortal women, though bringing the immortal children were of no importance for the goddess. Cruelty and struggle for maintaining life became the main principle of the women of ancient Greece. “The Gods of Greek myths are almost beyond our emotional reach, because they are many instead of one” (Grant, M., 1962, 53). The varieties of Greek goddesses do not let us make a certain judgments in respect to female-female relations. However, it gives us the approximate picture of the famine gender of that time. Describing the values, appropriate for the gender relationships in ancient Greece, we can mention the same features, which are typical for the modern generation. “Like many early peoples, the Greeks did not believe in only one God. They had many gods and goddesses, some of which they associated with the great forces of nature or with human emotions” (Gibson, M., 1977, 12). Among men it was unity and power. These were the binding features of cooperation between them. Women accepted common purposes as the main way of interconnection, while love, affection and the necessity of breeding created a union between the opposite genders. Thus, Greek mythology brings a lot of examples, when love was betrayed, vow broken and goals reviewed. The values of Greek gods and people have a changeable nature. They depend on their emotions in a certain period of time. The gods of ancient Greece did not use to think much about the consequences of their actions. They did the necessary steps without fear and concern, even if they touched the eternal values. Consequently, the whole nature of relationships in ancient Greece is contradictory. For example, the most "light" god Zeus married a very "dark" goddess Persephone, and from this marriage was born Zagreus. Zagreus, being a baby was eaten by the titans. However, from the ashes of the Titans, Zeus created people who carried both titanic and Dionysian beginnings. Libitina represents love and death simultaneously. All things and phenomena in the mind of an ordinaty man is full of confusion, disproportionate imbalance and disharmony. The authority over the marine element belonged not only to formidable Poseidon, but also toquite peaceful and wise god of the seas Nereyu. Concluding this paper, it is necessary to mention that gods in the imagination of human mind are accepted as the creatures, which do not make mistakes and are deprived of feelings. However, the myths represent the opposite side of this theory. Reading them and following the emotional actions of Greek gods, we understand that they also felt frustration, irritation, suffer, pain, satisfaction and other emotions. The relationships between them depended upon the character of these emotions in respect to each other. Gods possessed all characteristics peculiar to people, the ability to eat and drink, love and hate, and have physical disabilities (the god of blacksmith Hephaestus was lame). Greek mythology and its myths were the first attempt to reveal the sense of the surrounding world and expand human life experience. Its main goal was to give harmony and significance to the whole picture of nature. Works Cited Burton, E. The Value, Viability, and Relevance of Greek Mythology in Todays Society, 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.teenink.com/nonfiction/academic/article/435069/The-Value-Viability-and-Relevance-of-Greek-Mythology-in-Todays-Society/ Calef, S., Simkins, R. A. Women, Gender and Religion, 2009. Retrieved from: http://moses.creighton.edu/jrs/2009/2009-7.pdf Gibson, M. Gods men and monsters from the Greek myths. New York: Peter Bedrick Books, 1977. Print Grant, M. Myths of the Greeks and Romans. New York and Scarborough: New mirror, 1962. Print Scott, M. The Rise of Women in Ancient Greece, 2009. Retrieved from: http://www.historytoday.com/michael-scott/rise-women-ancient-greece Read More