Misogyny in Mount Olympus
- A Reflection by Jane Segovia
The Theogony is an ancient didactic poem composed by the Greek poet Hesiod around the year 700 BCE. It is considered to be one of the earliest works created about Greek mythology. Although its aim is to introduce the origins of the universe, the poet of this piece reveals a much darker side of Olympus - its misogynistic ways.
Misogyny is described to be the prejudice against women. Sadly, it is depicted in numerous parts of the 1,022 hexameter line poem that described the origin of the Greek Gods. This is not surprising since the said poem also contained greed, incest, and eating one's own babies in order to prevent one's downfall. Still, misogyny is prevalent in the piece of writing as well as in the current times which makes this topic relevant and still worth discussing.
Origin of Aphrodite
As the Goddess of Love and beauty, Aphrodite is someone a lot of woman look up to. She is the epitome of what they wanted to be and how they wanted to be perceived as. But have you ever wondered about her origins? How she came to be of existence? Well according to Theogony, the lovely and delicate Aphrodite was created from the severed genitals of Uranus, the god of the sky, that was cut off by his son Kronos in an act of rebellion. She is also considered to be the lover of smiles and as pleasant as that sounds, it was actually derived from a play on words. You see, the term smiles or meid- sounds like mēd(ea) which means genitals. So Aphrodite is not the lover of smiles but rather the lover of genitals thus explaining the sexual connotation people have regarding the said goddess.
Women brings Downfall
There are two notable goddesses mentioned in Theogony namely Gaea and Rhea - the goddess of earth and the goddess of fertility and motherhood respectively. Aside from being described as the sister-wives of their husbands as well as the mother of numerous gods and goddesses, they were featured in Theogony as those who brought the downfall of two significant gods. Isn't it interesting how they are known only to be wives, mothers, and nuisance to those gods abusing their powers?
For Gaea, "she devised a subtle and evil scheme" to avenge her children who Uranus deemed fierce hence hid them in a cage where they could not even see light. She was able to convince her son Kronos to go against his father because apparently she cannot do it herself. I wonder why? Is it because she is a woman? It is not stated directly but that is the way I understood the situation.
Meanwhile for Rhea, with the help of her parents, she hid her son Zeus away from Kronos who was eating all of their children because of a prophecy that states he will be overthrown by his own son. Ironic how the god who defeated his father became just like him, right? Again, the son was able to defeat the power-hungry father. Do you also see the pattern of a woman asking for her son's help to defeat an evil husband? Because apparently, women can't do it themselves for reasons that are not even stated in the 1,022 lines created by Hesiod.
Women as Misery and Punishment
First up is Nemesis, the daughter of Night. She is describe to be a "woe to mortal men" which means she brings misery to them. Nemesis also gave birth to sons and daughter who had their own negative connotations like Fraud, Wanton-love, and etcetera. Yet among the lines of poetry in Theogony, Pandora shows clearly the misogyny present in Greek mythology.
Pandora is said to be the first mortal woman created and the reason for her creation is a punishment or "evil for men". This punishment was created due to Prometheus, a titan, stealing fire for humans to use in fending for themselves. With the creation of Pandora, Zeus gave her a box he described to be filled with gifts from gods and goddesses as well as a level of curiosity in her nature. The box was known to be Pandora's box that released all evil and suffering into the world when the owner, a woman, opened it.
Purpose of a Woman
From Pandora, the "race of tender women" was created. Hesiod described this race as pernicious which simply means harmful to men. He also described women to be "a great source of hurt, dwell with mortal men, helpmates not in consuming poverty, but in surfeit." This can be simplified as Hesiod describing women's purpose to cause hurt to males, to stay with them, and to help them spend their riches and NOT to help them rise from poverty. Moreover, he compared men to bees who worked the whole day while women were drones who stayed in the hives and did nothing but still benefited from the hard work males did. Does this seem familiar? My realization is that this dynamic shows a great amount of resemblance to the traditional, misogynistic roles given to men and women where the former works and the latter stays at home.
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