Women and Gender Roles in Myths

Gender roles, especially in women, have been a controversial topic for multiple cultures
and religions to date. We see women being portrayed as the subservient gender to the males
throughout history. Mysigonistic tendencies are common in patriarchal societies all over the
world. Myths can be defined as a set of stories or beliefs associated with a specific culture or
tradition. The impact of social relationships as characters of humans is mirrored through
mythology. The influence of myths emanating from years back in history still influences our
interactions today in society. One democracy that is probably most famous for producing myths
is the Greeks. Despite being dismissed by philosophers and Christians, their myths managed to
live on through writers and artists. It has become difficult for a man to escape the myths even
after man gained civilization, and to date, they continue to haunt us.
It is claimed that our planet is given a female name ‘mother earth’ due to the worship of
goddesses from a mythological time. There are many differences in masculine and feminine
qualities in the various cultural setups in the world. However, some gender roles cut across many
if not all cultures globally. In many cultures, women’s roles are confined to the domestic home
while men are primarily in the public sphere, where there is power and authority (Carson, 2020).
Women are given fewer opportunities to make critical decisions as they are viewed to be
emotional and less competent. Women are considered a source of danger as they could
potentially pollute the environment or men during menstruation. Because of this, menstruating
women were secluded in most social setups in history. They were considered to be contaminated
and could bring bad luck.
There is a widespread notion that a man should not engage in intercourse prior to
undertaking an essential task as it could bring bad luck to the activity. This belief is common

7

even today among major league players. Such beliefs only fuel the discrimination of women in
society as the idea that goes around is that they are profane and cannot be trusted to control
economic resources (Carson, 2020). These common misconceptions today can be traced back to
Greek mythology. Even though Geeks are known for their democracy in ancient Greek, women
had fewer rights than their male counterparts. They did not have the right to inherit, own land, or
vote. Their role was reserved for staying at home and for raising children. Even the education
they received was only trained primary enough to raise children.
The Greek patriarchal society mirrored the portrayal of women in Greek mythology that
viewed women as manipulative and deceitful. Greek mythology is familial as the conceptions are
capable of mating, reproducing, and conflicting (Srivastava et al., 2017). They have emotions
and possess distinct skill sets that drive their personalities. In a way, the familial structure of the
Greek gods and goddesses relates to the current society where people come together to form
cultural units. The issues faced by society today are very similar to what the Greek myths
comment on: sibling rivalry, jealousy, authority, murder, and adultery in marriage.
One idea that supported the gender roles in ancient Greek was the idea that patriarchy
was the divine will of the gods, and hence it was the natural course of action. They believed that
a mysterious god prepared a man’s body and mind to adapt and endure the outside environment
characterized by heat and cold (Srivastava et al., 2017). In this regard, males were supposed to
do the traveling, military, and most outside work. The woman with a body considered to be less
adapted for physical endurance was destined to work indoors at home. Therefore, this separation
of duties was thought to have been envisioned from the beginning of creation. From this
ideology, the manipulative and deceitful characteristics of women only further moved men to
seek domination over them to keep them from fragmenting society.

7

The oppression, misogyny, and discrimination that women faced in ancient Greek
prevented them from further harming men, as we see in the case of Pandora. Pandora was a
punishment by gods after Prometheus stole fire from the Gods. She was born of Zeus and
Prometheus even though the parents were not blamed for Pandora’s evil. Pandora was full of
misery, trickery, and chaos but was very beautiful outside (Carson, 2020). The pain and evil that
Pandora caused in the world were seen as a result of a woman, not a man. Even the idea of the
gods creating a woman as punishment was seen to infer the nature of women in general.
The harm caused by Pandora to the rest of society did not end there. When she is sent to
live with Epimetheus, we see that Pandora opened a box that released pain, torment, and disease
to escape. Pandora was squarely blamed for releasing evil and darkness to all humankind. It is
believed that the mistake that men made was to allow women to their house as it is the
destructive hands of women that brought about the evils. To add salt to injury, Pandora returned
the container’s lid before hope could rush out of the container (Carson, 2020). In a way, Pandora
caused double harm by releasing the evils and preventing hope from escaping from the jar to try
and neutralize some of the effects of the evil released. The hope would be useful to prevent the
deception of Pandora from reoccurring women were required to be submissive and obedient.
Another woman portrayed in a negative light by Greek Mythology is Aphrodite. She is
described as the deceitful, immoral, manipulative, and scheming daughter of Zeus. She is
renowned for being the goddess of sexual appeal, love, and desire (Rollero & Tartaglia, 2019).
She was not a typical Greek woman like the men of Greek was used to. As we see, she would
flaunt her sexual appeal to the public. Despite Aphrodite acknowledging it wrong for a mortal
man to consort with a goddess, she seduced Anchises, a Trojan prince. Zeus, who wanted the
blame of coupling with mortal women to be shared with other gods, the whole idea was born.

7

The children born of such engagements were destined to perish; by Zeus casting a spell of desire
on Aphrodite, he wanted her to use it for this purpose.
Aphrodite goes ahead and disguises herself prior to meeting Anchises, and when she is
questioned on her true identity, she lies. Because of the lie, Anchises sleeps with her and loses
his man’s identity. The manipulation by Aphrodite leads to him losing power and his identity in
their kingdom. Aphrodite affairs extended to her brother Ares, the god of war. Aphrodite takes
the ultimate blame for the adultery committed even though they are both responsible (Listo,
2018). The gods do not judge Ares harshly as they claim he was only responding to the beauty of
Aphrodite. Men are seen as helpless when it comes to the lust and desirable spells that Aphrodite
carries with her. Aphrodite came across as a woman who did not care about societal norms as she
broke most rules. As such, women were viewed to have the capacity to tempt men, and as such,
the only way to keep them in check was to keep them away from temptations.
The fable of the Trojan War provides excellent insights into the portrayal of women in
Greek myths. The war is seen to be driven by two women whose role was directly seen in the
instigation of the war. The two women in question are Aphrodite, an immortal, and Hellen, a
mortal wife to King Menelaus. The origin of the conflict was initiated by an argument between
three divine members, Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, about who was the fairest of them all (Listo,
2018). As they could not agree, the Trojan Prince was brought in as an impartial judge to the
matter. The winner was to be gifted a golden apple, and since they all had powers, they each
promised the Trojan prince something in return for choosing them. Aphrodite offered the prince
the most beautiful woman in the world, Hellen, despite knowing she was king Menelaus’s wife.
The three goddesses are portrayed as selfish and self-centered as they are willing to do
anything for status regardless of the consequences. Despite being under the spell of Aphrodite,

7

Hellen left her kingdom and husband and fled to be with Paris. As a result, king Menelaus and
his army followed her to the shores of Troy in order to bring her back. The two sides of the war
blamed Hellen for causing the conflict between them as the death of the warriors was blamed on
Hellen (Listo, 2018). The lessons from the whole saga were that if Hellen represented all other
women, then it meant all other women were promiscuous and could bring destruction to men.
For there to be peace, men needed to keep women out of the public realm.
In conclusion, the portrayal of women in Greek mythology was influenced by the lessons
learned from the legends shared at the time. It was in the interest of society to seclude women
from power and authority for the prosperity of the kingdoms at the time. The myths from
Pandora, Aphrodite, and Hellen all point to women as the cause of conflict and destruction. For
this reason, women having authority and power would cause more harm than good to the people.
Women in Greek mythology are seen as evil by nature with descriptions such as adulterous,
disloyal, deceptive, and manipulative. The characteristics of women at the time were not seen to
be desirable, and for this reason, the solution to this problem was to dominate them to keep them
in check. Even though most myths are not relevant today, their impact can be seen in the beliefs
and stands that people take in the world concerning gender roles.

7

References

Carson, A. (2020). 5. Putting Her in Her Place: Woman, Dirt, and Desire. In Before
sexuality (pp. 135-170). Princeton University Press.
Listo, R. (2018). Gender myths in energy poverty literature: a critical discourse analysis. Energy
Research & Social Science, 38, 9-18.
Rollero, C., & Tartaglia, S. (2019). The effect of sexism and rape myths on victim
blame. Sexuality & Culture, 23(1), 209-219.
Srivastava, K., Chaudhury, S., Bhat, P. S., & Sahu, S. (2017). Misogyny, feminism, and sexual
harassment. Industrial psychiatry journal, 26(2), 111.