Women In Greek Mythology

Females in classical mythology appear to have been somewhat neglected except for such obvious headliners such as, Medea, Phaedra, Alcestis, Dido, Clytemnestra, Helen and a few select who captivated the creative imagination of ancient storytellers. Goddesses, of course, have always acquired attention because of their part in religious history and, in due course, in works of art and architecture based on their devotion. Specifically, a disproportionate amount of monsters were devised by the ancients as female—the Theban Sphinx, the Furies, the Harpies, the Gorgons, Scylla and Charybdis, the Lamiae, the Chimaera, and even Chaos. Presumably, nonetheless, mythology has been the domain of gods and heroes, and women have only been referenced in
Majority of them, however, have analogous qualities in various world mythologies; these are called archetypes. A prevailing female archetype is the wise woman who offers guidance or prophecies of the future, similar to the wise old man, who plays a similar role. A mischievous adaptation of this archetype is the witch, such as the Weird Sisters who foretell downfall in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. These characters are based on mythological figures, including the Moirae, or Fates, of Greek mythology, who decided mortal life and death. Some women in mythology, such as Andromeda from the Greek myths, were present solely to be rescued and protected by heroic characters such as Perseus. Others were more proactive; Ariadne, lover of the Greek hero Theseus, equipped him with a sword and a ball of twine so he could defeat the Minotaur and flee from the great maze termed the Labyrinth. Such women were not to be fooled with; Medea helped the Greek hero Jason in his expedition for the Golden Fleece, but when he abandoned her for another woman, she revenged him by murdering their children. This is famously depicted in Euripedes’ classical Greek tragedy Medea. In many myths, Medea was an enchantress, unifying her with the witch