Greek and Roman Mytology: Edith Hamilton

According to ancient Greek and Roman mythology Pandora, the first woman, was created as a punishment for mankind, “From her, the first woman, comes the race of women, who are an evil to men, with a nature to do evil” (Hamilton 87). Edith Hamilton’s Mythology is a collection of Greek and Roman myths in which the ancient perception that women are inferior to men can be seen. Throughout the myths of Gods and heroes womankind is seen as a more flawed version of mankind. The Gods and Goddesses worshiped by the Greeks and Romans also reflect the ancient misogynistic views through their own actions. Mythology shows that women in ancient Greece and Rome were perceived to be subservient to men in that they were often objectified, portrayed as petty and weak, and were either taken advantage of or considered evil by men.

Women were treated as possessions and shown to be valued for their beauty alone in many of the Greek and Roman myths. The myths surrounding the Trojan War especially show how women were objectified. When Paris was asked to judge which Goddess was the most beautiful Aphrodite bribed him, promising, “that the fairest woman in all the world should be his” (249). This myth shows that the Greeks and Romans saw women as possessions that could be stolen and bartered away. Edith Hamilton took a similar myth, the fight between Agamemnon and Achilles, from the Iliad. In this myth Agamemnon lost Chryseis, a Trojan woman who the Greeks had carried off during a victory. When he was forced to return Chryseis to the Trojans he stole another woman from Achilles and said, “If I lose her who was my prize of honor… I shall have another in her stead”(255). Clearly Agamemnon did not see Chryseis and the other girl as people, but rather as spoil...

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...ions of Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena. The abandonment of Atalanta displays the ancient assumption that women were weak and worthless. The stories of Ariadne and Dido present the idea that men took advantage of women to get what they wanted and felt justified in doing so because women were viewed as beneath them. While mythological heroes and gods often acted lustfully, the ancient idea that a female’s lust was sinful is shown through the myths of Circe, Calypso, and the Minotaur. Women in ancient Greece and Rome were also perceived to be an evil to men as seen in their clear links to the mythical monsters. These misogynistic themes were certainly not only present in the novel by Edith Hamilton, but also in the culture and religion of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Works Cited

Hamilton, Edith. Mythology. New York, New York: Little Brown and Company, 1942. Print.