Containing the Kalon Kakon: The Portrayal of Women in Ancient Greek Mythology (original) (raw)

Demythologization of the Mythic Representation of Woman: Critical Reimagining of the Archaic Stories

Ancient Greek myths, as the architect of the patriarchal ideology, serve as a panorama of the reality, which women in all ages around the world face and are forced to experience. Based on the fossilized ideas of the archaic philosophy, the mythological narratives are at the center of a canon which reveals, internalizes and legitimates the binary oppositions between the sexes. Although myths are set in the past and thus seem to be bygone, the events and characters still mirror the modern age: nothing seems to have changed concerning the negative perception of womanhood. This essay does echo the feminist writer Cixous's challenge to awaken all women to discover their own power by not yielding to man-made stories but writing their own realities. In this direction in this study, the classical myths are reimagined within the concept of "feminine writing" with the purpose of subverting the dynamics of patriarchy and phallocentrism.

On Women in Ancient Greek Culture, Drama and Education

International Journal of Scientific Research and Management

Women in ancient Greek culture, drama and education is a question which has been at the centre of the theoretical debate and creative experiences at least from the middle of the twentieth century until today. This paper proposes to revisit this question based on three principles. First of all, it refers not only to the dominant model of Athens but also to other parts of Hellenism, whose political systems may be democracies, tyrannies or hereditary kingdoms. Secondly, it draws its examples from the Greek metropolis of the 5th and the 4th centuries B.C., but also from other places and periods, which cover an area from the Mediterranean to Asia and a period long before and after the classical era. Thirdly, it envisages the question of ancient Greek women not only from the angle of culture, meaning literature and drama, but more generally in all the senses contained in the ancient term paedeia (παιδεία), including education. To clarify the meaning of this last point I would say that I a...

Mythos and Men: Toward New Paradigms of Masculinity

The Journal of Men’s Studies, 1997

Mythos is the Greek word from which we derive "myth" (Ruck & Staples, 1994). In its original form, mythos referred to the stories that were passed via oral tradition, having threads of religious, social, gender role, and contextual meanings. These stories (myth and mythos are used interchangeably in this paper) gave societal members examples of appropriate behaviors within the culture (Doty, 3 986), for better or worse. This would include possible models for interpersonal interaction, as well as definitions of self. Myths were the cement that held a society together through reinforcing community values, by making the mores highly visible and well known (Doty, 1986). Myths, like cultures, were not constant; rather, mythos were revamped and reinterpreted over time to fit with new information and peoples within an evolving culture. Shifts in cultural paradigms were reflected in the changes of the names, duties, and realms of influence of the main mythic players. A prime example of this can be seen in classical Greek mythology, as the pre-Greek matrifocal gods (e.g, Athena, Hera, Demeter) were given new identities and roles when encountering the newer Indo-European patrifocal gods, for example, Zeus and Apollo (Highwater, 1990; Spretnak, 1978). For instance, Athena was often associated with the Mycenaean snake goddess cult in pre-Greek mythos, which included polygamous sexual relations for women but more chaste behavior for men. As her mythos evolved, she became the virgin daughter of Zeus-born from his head, never knowing the more "animal" pleasures. This evolution of mythos reflected the paradigm shift regarding what was considered the appropriate gender role behavior of the day. Myths are a viable way to examine the prevailing attitudes and beliefs of a culture-ancient or contemporary (Doty, 1986).

Skouroumouni Stavrinou, A. 2018. Review: Female Mobility and Gendered Space in Ancient Greek Myth. By ARIADNE KONSTANTINOU. Bloomsbury Classical Monographs. London, Oxford, New York, New Delhi, Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018. Classical Journal Online.

Both within the different areas of the ancient Greek household and outside it, historical and archaeological research provides us today with a potentially more flexible assessment of the ability of ancient Greek women to move from space to space: some mobility was possible, dependent on age/status and time/occasion. The exact relation of that nuanced picture of ancient social reality to ancient social ideology cannot, given the evidence, be decidedly defined. Konstantinou opts for an alternative quest: deciphering the interplay between social ideology, social praxis and mythic imagination (also one of her long-term concerns in previous talks and published papers). The resulting monograph comes as a welcome contribution to a number of domains: the reading of ancient mythology, cultural history, space and gender analysis and the study of epic and tragic poetry (her two key primary sources).

Gender Analysis; Gender and heroism in Greek and Roman society

Greek and Roman literature give a modern audience a privy look into ancient cultures and, more specifically, gender norms and expectations of these societies. When examining Homer’s The Iliad as well as Euripides’ The Trojan Women and Lysistrata by Aristophanes we are able to compare and contrast these three ancient works to better understand the role of gender within greek and roman society and its effect on notions of heroism.

Reading Greco-Roman Gender Ideals in Byzantium: Classical Heroes and Eastern Roman Gender

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK ON IDENTITY IN BYZANTIUM, 2022

Allusions to ancient and biblical models play key roles in the articulation and enforcement of gender norms in medieval eastern Roman society. This essay explores how ancient figures could be used as normative models for ethical practices that differed significantly from those of their own society, focusing on the example of the fourth-century BCE Spartan king Agesilaus, a polytheist whose sexual attraction to young men was acceptable and open within his society, and who appears in the early twelfth-century CE history by George Kedrenos as a model of celibacy. He is remembered for having the strength of character to turn down a kiss from a boy and upheld as an example of the virtue of chastity. Tracing this one story helps us see the mechanics of cultural transmission that moved Agesilaus’s story across 17 centuries, and how gradual changes in ethical systems allowed George Kedrenos and his audience to perceive Agesilaus’ ethics as consonant with their own. Classical Greek figures served as examples of ethical behavior because, rather than standing as an example of foreignness, Xenophon’s story affirmed the central tenants of twelfth-century ethics.

Female Mobility and Gendered Space in Ancient Greek Myth

London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018

Women's mobility is central to understanding cultural constructions of gender. Regarding ancient cultures, including ancient Greece, a re-evaluation of women's mobility within the household and beyond it is currently taking place. This invites an informed analysis of female mobility in Greek myth, under the premise that myth may open a venue to social ideology and the imaginary. Female Mobility and Gendered Space in Ancient Greek Myth offers the first comprehensive analysis of this topic. It presents close readings of ancient texts, engaging with feminist thought and the 'mobility turn'. A variety of Olympian goddesses and mortal heroines are explored, and the analysis of their myths follows specific chronological considerations. Female mobility is presented in quite diverse ways in myth, reflecting cultural flexibility in imagining mobile goddesses and heroines. At the same time, the out-of-doors spaces that mortal heroines inhabit seem to lack a public or civic quality, with the heroines being contained behind 'glass walls'. In this respect, myth seems to reproduce the cultural limitations of ancient Greek social ideology on mobility, inviting us to reflect not only on the limits of mythic imagination but also on the timelessness of Greek myth.