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投稿類別：英文寫作類
篇名：
ισχυρές γυναίκες: Voices of Women in Greek Mythology
作者：
徐宇慧。台北市立第一女子中學。高三良班
指導老師：
秦微雲老師
ισχυρές γυναίκες means strong women in Greek.
ισχυρές γυναίκες: Voices of Women in Greek Mythology
Introduction
Motivation and Purpose of the Study
Compared to the ancient females, many of us now have the privilege to be educated,
our voiced can be heard in the society, and we now even have female presidents. In some
places, women’s rights are supported by law, local custom, and behavior. The topic of
women's rights include:
1. to have integrity and autonomy
2. to vote
3. to hold public office
4. to work; to receive fair wages or equal pay
5. to own property
6. to be educated
7. to serve in the military
8. to enter into legal contracts
9. to have marital or parental rights (Hosken, 1981)
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ισχυρές γυναίκες: Voices of Women in Greek Mythology
I would like to investigate how women’s power and self-awareness is described in
the classic Greek literature. My research question is: How are women portrayed in the
literature from one of the oldest civilizations? I chose Greek mythology and plays as the data
for analysis because “The Greek’s most important legacy is not, as we would like to think,
democracy; it is their mythology” (Lefkowitz, 1985).
Scope and Method of the Study
In order to gain a broader perspective of women in Greek mythology and women
today, I selected information from volumes of Greek mythology literature integrated by Edith
Hamilton and Jenny March, articles from library data bases, websites, and publications from
international organizations such as the United Nations and the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development. Then, I integrated the collected data to organize a
comprehensive overview of women in Greek Mythology and drama.
Thesis
Overview of Greek Mythology
Greek mythology began with Homer, who is believed to live a thousand years before
Christ. He wrote the Iliad, the oldest Greek literature. Its beautifully written and rich language
shows that Homer lived in a time when writers aim to express themselves with clarity and
beauty, which is a piece of evidence for civilization (Hamilton, 1998).
As Greece prospers, mankind became the most important thing and the center of the
universe. A ground-breaking idea, “the invisible must be understood by the visible” was
advocated. “All the art and all the thought of Greece centered in human beings” (Hamilton,
1998). Thus, the Greek gods were described with human physical characteristics and
emotional flaws, and their stories also closely represent human life.
For example, Zeus tries to hide his love affairs from his wife, Hera, but is almost
always caught. Hera is a typical jealous wife, who has all sorts of ideas to punish her husband
and rivals. Such humane stories depict a world that is freed from the fear of the almighty
Unknown. The Greek gods were portrayed with a humane touch, but the gods were still
powerful and acted unlike any decent man or woman, and the sense of right and wrong was
still limited. “The dominance of fate” and “bloodshed begets bloodshed” were two main
themes in these classic narratives (Sparknotes, n.d.).
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ισχυρές γυναίκες: Voices of Women in Greek Mythology
Summary of Female Characters in Greek Mythology
There are many unfortunate women in Greek mythology. For example, Dido and
Ariadne made many sacrifices for their lovers but ended up abandoned. Some women were
raped by the gods. May of the moral women described in the stories are either vain or jealous
(Hercules’ wife Deianira, and Cassiopeia, the wicked stepmother Ino), or foolish, mild, and
silently beautiful (Helen) (Sparknotes, n.d.). Though Greek women seem to have few options
in life, mythologists did give “equal time” to describe problematic issues from a woman’s
point of view. Women were the main characters in many tragedy plays (Lefkowitz, 1985). The
following section is the analysis of some women who did not bow to fate, but took control of
their lives in their unique ways.
Analysis
Figure 3.
Hecuba Taking Polymestor’s Eyes Out
Figure 4.
Medea about to Kill her Children
Figure 5.
Statue of an Amazon
Hecuba. In Euripide’s play Hecuba, Hecuba, a Trojan queen, mourns for the loss of her
husband and three children to the Trojan War. She was slightly condoled with the belief that
her youngest son, whom she sent to live with Polymestor, the king of Thrace, was alive and
well. However, Polymestor had betrayed and murdered her son for the gold that accompanied
him. Hecuba avenged savagely by killing all of Polymestor’s sons and taking out his eyes
with brooch pins (March, 2008).
Medea. As a princess from Colchis on the Black Sea, Medea is the strongest mortal woman in
all of Greek mythology. She first appears in the tale of Jason, where she saves Jason, a prince
of Greece and steals the Golden Fleece for him. After being married for several years, Jason
abandons her cruelly. Instead of accepting this misfortune, Medea revenges by killing
Jason’s new bride and father-in-law, as well as the two small children she and Jason had
together. Then she escapes in a dragon-drawn chariot (Sparknotes, n.d.).
Amazons. The Amazons were female warriors who were named after the tradition of
voluntarily removing their right breast to draw the bow easily and fight. No men were allowed
to live in Amazon country, but once a year, the Amazons would mate with men from another
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ισχυρές γυναίκες: Voices of Women in Greek Mythology
tribe to produce children. They only brought up and trained the female children in planting,
hunting, and war, and the male children were either put to death or sent back to their fathers
(Amazons, n. d.).
The Three Virgin goddesses. “The notion of virginity, offers a woman a kind of freedom that
she is no longer entitled to when she becomes involved with a man” (Lefkowitz, 1985).
Figure 6.
Figure 7.
Figure 8.
Athena in Greek Mythology
Hestia Standing
Artemis Nurturing the Living
Athena. She was first described in the Iliad as a ruthless and fierce goddess of battle. In other
literary work, she is described as a warlike character only when defending her land and people.
“Gray-eyed” and “flashing-eyed” is how Athena is most often described. Athena
protects the civilized life and handicrafts and agriculture. As the chief of the virgin goddesses,
Athena is called the Maiden or Parthenos, and her temple is called the Parthenon. Later
literary work describes her as the representative of wisdom, purity, and reason (Hamilton,
1998).
Hestia. Hestia was the goddess of the hearth, home and family. She was a kind, forgiving
goddess. Unlike many other gods and goddesses who traveled around the world, she never
left the sacred mountain ofOlympus(where all the gods and goddesses lived) and never
involved herself in any war. Thus, all Olympian gods respected and loved her.
BothPoseidonandApollowanted her marriage, but Hestia had made a promise that she will
never unite with any male but remain pure forever (March, 2008). She was always worshipped
in all temples.
Artemis. Artemis is Apollo’s twin sister. She is the goddess of hunting and childbirth, and
protector of all young living things. At the age of three, Artemis had asked her father, Zeus, to
grant her the wish to remain an eternal virgin. The most prevalent image of Artemis in Greek
art and literature is the virgin huntress. (March, 2008).
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ισχυρές γυναίκες: Voices of Women in Greek Mythology
Figure 9. Comparison of Women in Greek Mythology who did not Bow to Fate
Hecuba
Status
Queen
Medea
Princess
Amazons
Female
Warriors
Athena
Goddess
Hestia
Goddess
Artemis
Goddess
By being a virgin forever, the three
goddesses are not controlled by men or male
Gods.
Problem(s)
faced
Solutions
Death of
Betrayal of
husband and husband
children.
after all her
sacrifices
made for
him.
- Taking a
revenge on
her son’s
killer by
killing his
sons and
blinding
him.
- Avenged
by killed
their
children
and her
husband’s
new lover,
and new
father in
law.
Focused on
fighting
and only
mated with
men once a
year to
make sure
their race
lives on.
Goddess of
battle.
- Represents
wisdom,
purity, and
reason.
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Goddess of
the hearth,
home and
family.
- Is loved
and
worshiped
by all.
Goddess of
hunting and
childbirth.
- Described
as a virgin
huntress
who looks
over all
young
creatures.
ισχυρές γυναίκες: Voices of Women in Greek Mythology
Conclusion
From the analysis above, a table can be made to categorize the status that these
women are in, the problems that they faced, and their solutions (Figure 9). My finding can be
summarized by what Lefkowitz (1985) mentioned in his article, “Greek men recognize and
describe with sympathy the life and the central importance to their society of women.”
Nevertheless, although male Greek writers created fascinating descriptions of the problems of
women’s lives, they did not do as well in figuring out solutions. Therefore, maybe one
crucial concept that runs through Greek Mythology and literature is that “women have not
only the right but the power to comment on the events that shape their lives, even if they
cannot control them; and because they have a voice, women are able to speak not only for
themselves, but for humankind in general” (Lefkowitz, 1985).
Before reading the Greek Mythology, I wasn’t aware of how fortunate many women
nowadays are. Yet not all women are so lucky. A survey given in the European Union showed
that 40-50 percent of the women who responded have experienced sexual harassment or
unwanted sexual behavior in their workplace (European Commission, 1998). A 2006 study on
schoolgirls in Malawi reported that 50 percent of the school girls had been touched in a sexual
manner “without permission, by either their teachers or fellow schoolboys” (United Nations
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006). Research on athletic women in the
Czech Republic also found that 45 percent of females in sports were sexual harassed from
someone in sport, and 27 percent of them reported harassment from a coach (Fasting, K., &
Knorre, N., 2005).
The evidence from above shows that as our society progresses, there is still space for
improvement in terms of gender equality. For example, in Figure 10, the red and yellow areas
are places which have not participated in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women. What is needed now is widespread commitment among all of
us to participate in this process of transformation towards gender equality, through increased
attention and partnerships with women. For the future direction of study, I would like to look
at how the women that I identified from Greek mythology and plays are similar and different
to woman in the 21st century.
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Figure 10.
Participation in the CEDAW
ισχυρές γυναίκες: Voices of Women in Greek Mythology
References
Websites
1.
2.
Amazons (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.hellenicaworld.com/Greece/Mythology/en/Amazons.html
Sparknotes: Mythology (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/mythology/canalysis.html
Publications from International Organizations
3.
4.
5.
European Commission (1998). Sexual harassment in the workplace in the European
Union. In Employment and Social Affairs: Equality between Men and Women. Brussels:
European Commission, Directorate-General for Employment, Industrial Relations and
Social Affairs.
Fasting, K., & Knorre, N. (2005). Women in sport in the Czech Republic: the
experiences of female athletes. Oslo and Praha: Norwegian School of Sports
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (2006). Malawi:
abuse of women and girls a national shame. IRIN News Report (New York: United
Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) (February).
Books
6.
7.
Hamilton, E. (1998). Mythology. Newport Beach, CA: Back Bay Books.
March, J. (2008).The Penguin book of classical myths. Penguin UK.
Database Articles
8.
9.
Hosken, Fran P., 'Towards a Definition of Women's Rights' inHuman Rights Quarterly,
Vol. 3, No. 2. (May, 1981), pp. 1–10.
Lefkowitz, M. R. (1985). Women in Greek myth.The American Scholar,54(2), 207-219.
Figure Sources
1.
2.
Figure 1. Number of Women Employed in the UK in 1900. Retrieved from
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/womensrights.htm
Figure 2. Percentage of Employed Women of the World's Women Population.
OECD(2013),"Employment rate of women",Employment and Labour Markets: Key
Tables from OECD, No. 5.doi:10.1787/emp-fe-table-2013-1-en.Sciences and Czech
Olympic Committee.
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ισχυρές γυναίκες: Voices of Women in Greek Mythology
3.
Figure 3. Hecuba Taking Polymestor’s eyes Out. Retrieved Aug 1e, 2013 from
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/RM/HecubaPolymestorGMCrespi.jpg
4.
Figure 4. Medea about to Kill her Child. Retrieved Aug 1, 2013 from
http://www.giorgioclementi.it/medea_file/Medea-Delacroix-1862-Louvre2.jpg
5.
Figure 5. Statue of an Amazon. Retrieved Aug 20, 2013 from
www.metmuseum.org
6.
Figure 6. Athena in Greek Mythology. Retrieved Aug 24, 2013 from
http://www.mythindex.com/images/painting-athena.jpg
7.
Figure 7. Hestia Standing. Retrieved Aug 19, 2013 from
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_EbzYyttikVQ/SGESKkX7joI/AAAAAAAAAJs/dUig5KSPcIc/
s320/hestia%2Bescultura%2Bcl%C3%A1sica.jpg
8.
Figure 8. Artemis Nurturing the Living. Retrieved Aug 19, 2013 from www.theoi.com
9.
Figure 9.
Hecuba. Retrieved Aug 15, 2013 from
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/Hecuba002.jpg/2
20px-Hecuba002.jpg
Medea. Retrieved Aug 16, 2013 from
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ECnKeB1PlZo/SmsKzHynVmI/AAAAAAAAACA/8ZzaL
GnwuNU/s400/Parker_Medea.jpg
Amazons. Retrieved Aug 19, 2013 from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/worksof-art/32.11.4
Athena. Retrieved Aug 17, 2013 from theslowhunch.blogspot.com
Hestia. Retrieved Aug 18, 2013 from
http://paganreveries.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/hestia-the-queen-of-fire-partone/
Artemis. Retrieved Aug 19, 2013 from
http://occultliving.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/marble-Artemis.jpg
10. Figure 10. Participation in the CEDAW. Retrieved Aug 17, 2013 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_rights
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