Male And Females In Greek And Roman Mythology

In Greek and Roman mythology, both males and females are necessary in the creation of the world and everything on it. Since they both need to work together, it would be assumed that males and females would hold an equal amount of power but that is not the case. From the beginning with Gaia and Ouranos to the current ruler of Mount Olympus, the men are regarded as the more powerful and capable beings. The females may still be valued and considered from time to time, but overall do not compare to the males. Female figures among the gods are contained by the forces of patriarchy and often suppressed by their male counterparts. As seen in the writings of Hesiod and Homer, the females do possess a certain level of ability but never as much as the
Since Kronos is trying to avoid being in his father’s position and being overthrown by his child, he decides to swallow his children with Rhea(Hesiod Theogony 467). Once again Rhea doesn’t have the power to stop her husband and relies on her son to go against his father. Rhea enacts a plan to fool Kronos into swallowing a stone instead of their son Zeus(Hesiod Theogony 486). Later on, once Zeus is grown, he confronts his father with the help of Rhea and Gaia to free his siblings(Hesiod Theogony 497). Zeus also assumes power and becomes the king of the gods even though it was his mother who made that possible. The prophecy is that a son will overthrow the father but never the daughter. The story basically repeated itself where the female is in need of her sons to rescue her and it begins this patriarchal system where the men are put above the
From this, it highlights how it was acceptable for the men to have multiple wives and have a lot of children but the women were typically with one man. Hera tries to be an equal to her husband but she isn’t able to do what he can. Zeus “bore from his head owl-eyed Athena”(Hesiod Theogony 924) and out of anger, Hera “bore famous Hephaistos”(Hesiod Theogony 928). Athena is regarded as the “awesome, fight-rousing, army-leading, unweary mistress”(Hesiod Theogony 926) while Hephaistos is considered the “famous Lame One”(Hesiod Theogony 571). Anything that comes from the men is great and amazing like Athena but when the female tries to do the same thing, she created quite the opposite. Regardless that Athena is a women and Hephaistos a man, their origin is what counts and what determines the type of god or goddess they will be. Zeus is able to create Athena by himself without the help of his wife and there is no consequence for him. However, Hera’s attempt to go against her husband for not including her doesn’t work the same way because she is not a male and doesn’t hold the same position as