Women And The Role Of Women In Classical Mythology

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The society in which classical myths took place, the Greco-Roman society was a very patriarchal one. By taking a careful gander at female characters in Greco-Roman mythology one can see that the roles women played differ greatly from the roles they play today. The light that is cast upon females in classical myths shows us the views that society had about women at the time. In classical mythology women almost always play a certain type of character, that is to say the usual type of role that was always traditionally played by women in the past, the role of the domestic housewife who is in need of a man’s protection, women in myth also tended to have some unpleasant character traits such as vanity, a tendency to be deceitful, and a volatile personality. If one compares the type of roles that ladies played in the myths with the ones they play in today’s society the differences become glaringly obvious whilst the similarities seem to dwindle down. Clearly, and certainly fortunately, society’s views on women today have greatly changed. A good example of the typical type of role a woman would play in classical mythology is the myth of Pandora. Pandora was the first woman to be created; Hephaestus created her on Zeus’s orders. Pandora was only created as a part of Zeus’s plan to punish Prometheus for stealing the secret of fire from Olympus and showing it to the humans. Pandora was given all of the “seductive gifts” by the Olympians upon her creation . Athena gave her the ability to weave and create needlework. Aphrodite gave her beauty and lust. Hermes gave Pandora a shameful way of thinking and a deceitful nature; he gave her a predisposition towards lies and crafty words. Pandora was then dressed and adorned beautifully, along with h... ... middle of paper ... ...herself as a man and has misogynistic tendencies. Fortunately, the role of women in society today has changed very much from the roles that they played in classical mythology. Women are now seen as being able to play any role they desire, whether it is the role of a housewife or the role of a workingwoman with a successful career. It is no surprise that achieving the roles that women play today took such a long time when for so long even in mythology women’s roles in society were constantly pushed in the direction of domestics and when for so long women were portrayed as less then pleasant creatures. The fact that these sorts of roles were pushed on women in the Greco-Roman society was proof enough that it was a patriarchal society. It is astoundingly wonderful that the roles that women play in modern society have evolved so much since the times of classical myths.

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