Goddesses, Whores, Wives and
Slaves in the Bronze Age and
Dark Age of Greece
1. Pomeroy pp. 1-56
2. Chapter One – Goddesses
3. Chapter Two – Bronze Age
4. Chapter Three – Dark Age
The Goddess–Ge (Gaia)
The Temple at Delphi - Greece
• The “earth mother”
• Brought forth all life from
darkness and chaos
• Breathed life and form
into all matter
• Gave birth to Uranus (on
her own) then married
him and produced Cronus
• Mother of the Titans, the
Gigantes, the Cyclopes
• Original prophetess at the
Delphic oracle
The Power of the Interpreter
• Socrates wanted to ban
poets
• “We must control the
myth-makers and give
approval to any worthy
story they may make and
reject any which are
unworthy.” (The Republic)
• Why? They have the
power to lie and convince
• These poets include
misogynists such as
Hesiod (although that
didn’t bother Socates as
much)
Hesiod – second only to Homer,
his Theogeny is the standard
poetry on origins of the Greek
world and traditions of the Gods
From Goddess to God – Ge to
Zeus
• Hesiod took the story of
Ge and transformed it
from the earthly and
emotional to the superior
rationality of Zeus
• Zeus establishes a
patriarchal government,
moral order and culture
while taking away female
power by giving birth to
Dionysus and Athena
Zeus giving birth to Dionysus (his knee)
“What’s in a name” - Pandora
• The first female
human
• Pandora can mean
“giver of all things”
• Pandora can mean
“receiver of all gifts”
• Hesiod chose the
latter
The Olympians - Athena
• Pomeroy (p. 4) “Athena is
the archetype of the
masculine woman who
finds success in what is
essentially a man’s world
by denying her own
femininity and sexuality.”
• She is a virgin and born
not of a woman but by
Zeus
• Patron goddess of
industry, specifically
spinning
The Olympians - Artemis
• “In her relationship with
humans, Artemis is
primarily concerned with
females, especially the
physical aspects of their
life cycle, including
menstruation, childbirth,
and death, however
contradictory to the
association of these with
a virgin may appear”
(Pomeroy, 5)
The Olympians - Hestia
• “There is little myth about
Hestia, for she was the
archetypal old maid,
preferring the quiet of the
hearth to the boisterous
banquets and emotional
entanglements of the
other Olympians.”
(Pomeroy, 6)
The Olympians - Aphrodite
• “Much of
Aphrodite’s
seductiveness lies
in her frivolous,
deceitful character,
for these appear to
be the qualities of
sexually attractive
females.”
(Pomeroy, p. 6)
The Olympians - Hera
• “The domination of
Zeus over Hera, as
well as over the other
divinities, is
constantly threatened.
Hera-as her
husband’s sister-is his
equal, and never
totally subjugated.”
(Pomeroy, 7)
The Poets – Hesiod v. Homer
• Note in Pomeroy that Hesiod interprets
Haphaestus, Hera’s son, as lame and a
buffoon. Homer is less consistent, on the
one hand having Zeus toss Haphaestus
out of heaven for siding with Hera, on the
other having Hera throw him out for his
deformity (Pomeroy, 7)
Interactions between mortals and
immortals
• For male gods, an “endless category of
rape….The grim picture, one would presume,
was painted by men. But the erotic fantasies of
modern women give us another perspective
from which to view the rape myths. According to
current psychology, women frequently enjoy the
fantasy of being overpowered, carried away, and
forced to submit to an ardent lover.” (Pomeroy,
12)
• Questions, comments, reaction?
Mother Goddesses
• “For the classical
scholar, the mother
goddess theory
provides a
convenient, if
unprovable,
explanation of the
following puzzles:
Why are there more
than four times as
many neolithic
female figurines as
male ones?”
(Pomeroy, 15)
Fertility goddess
Snake goddesses
Chapter II – Bronze Age (1600 – 1200 BCE)
Chapter II – Bronze Age and
Homeric Epic
Clytemnestra kills Cassandra - Aeschylus
• Pomeroy argues that the
Bronze Age legends have
many powerful female figures
besides Helen including halfsister Clytemnestra:
– To Homer, she is the weak
and insignificant wife of
Agamemnon and is killed
by her son, Orestes
– To Aeschylus (after the
Bronze Age), she is
powerful and vengeful,
killing her husband and his
new wife, Cassandra, in
bloody fashion in the play
“Agamemnon”
Orestes killing Clytemnestra - Homer
Chapter II – Bronze Age and
Homeric Epic
Penelope weaving and waiting – Bessano (1585)
• Odysseus’ wife and first cousin
of Helen of Troy, Penelope:
– To Homer, she is the virtuous
woman – married to an absent
husband and a son too young
to take care of her, she is an
independent woman – yet
remains virtuous to the end
– To Thomas Bullfinch (who
popularized Greek myth 150
years ago), she was the image
of modesty and cleverness,
avoiding suitors for ten years
until her husband returned
(Penelope’s web)
Penelope with her son, Telemachus
Chapter II – Motives for Marriage
• Heroic Greek society
concern was defense:
military preparedness and
strength were keys to
survival
• For women, this
demanded marriage for
mature women to
produce warrior sons
• Marriages were both
patrilocal and matrilocal
Nausicaa meets Odysseus, who
wishes on her a husband (not him)
Chapter II – patrilocal and
matrilocal marriages
John
illustration
1805that
• Flaxman’s
Pomeroy
points -out
patrilocal pattern included
marriage by capture,
though her example of
Briseis doesn’t actually fit
• For matrilocal, the roving
warrior marries the
princess and settles in
her kingdom, often
through a contest
• Pomeroy points out that
the woman’s preference
is often not consulted
Atalanta and Hippomenes by Rubens
Chapter II – Husbands and Wives
• “Homer’s attitude toward women as wives is
obvious in his regard for Penelope and
Clytemnestra. Penelope wins the highest
admiration for her chastity, while Homer entrusts
the ghost of Agamemnon to describe
Clytemnestra’s infidelity in reproachful terms.”
(Pomeroy, 21)
• But this interpretation of the madonna/whore is
not the only interpretation of Penelope and
Clytemnestra, as we have seen, and Pomeroy
leaves Cassandra out altogether
Chapter II – Husbands and Wives
• Pomeroy seems to
suggest that in a peaceful
society women had more
influence than when a city
was under siege
– She points to towns such
as Scheria and
Andromache
– She furthers suggests that
matriliny in mythology
happened because a male
god had sex with a mortal
female – and left the child
Leda with her children by Zeus – Giampietrino 1530
Chapter II – Amazon Women as
Warriors
• In both these
depictions, the
Amazon women are
clearly warriors, but
they are also being
defeated by men.
Chapter II - Women in a Man’s
World
• According to Pomeroy,
women, free or slave,
were valued for their
beauty and
accomplishments during
the Bronze Age (p. 25)
• There was also a sexual
double-standard. Men
often kept slaves as
concubines and were
sometimes polygamous.
Even Hecuba was
Priam’s “best wife”
Hector arms himself in battle with
Priam and Hecuba looking on
Chapter II - Daily life in the Bronze
Age
• “In the daily life, royal women and female slaves
were engaged in similar tasks, the significant
distinction being that royal women worked out of
their own volition, while slaves worked under
compunction” (Pomeroy, 29)
Women weaving in ancient Greece
Chapter III – Dark Age and Archaic Period
Chapter III – Dark Age and Archaic Period
• According to Pomeroy, women’s lives were
heavily proscribed – that is, their roles were
biologically determined – while men experienced
tremendous upheaval to their lives in this period
(Dark Age from 1200–800 BCE and Archaic
period from 800-500 BCE)
• The Archaic age established the polis (citystates), the tyrants and colonization of other
lands due to “critical mass”
• Marriage – concept carried over from Bronze
Age – important for growth of the polis and the
family rather than individual fulfillment.
(Pomeroy, 34)
Chapter III - Dorian women (Sparta)
• Spartan women’s dress
reflected the culture –
simple, functional – slit
skirts rather than
voluminous robes
(Artemis was the patron
goddess)
• Sexual relations border
on the androgynous and
transvestite, particularly
in terms of marriage
ceremony
Ionic chiton
Peplos – slit skirt
Dorian Women (Gortyn)
• A similar culture to the
Spartans existed on
Crete, though Spartan
women seemed to have
experienced the most
liberation. Gortynian law
gave women a right to
property (even in
divorce), monetary
compensation for their
work, and some freedom
choosing a mate
Gortyn law preserved on tablets
Chapter III - Ionian Women: Voices
from the Grave
Woman’s amphora (left)
Above inset shows prothesis
and women tending the dead
Neckhandled vase
with a man
killing a bull
• So named because
Ionian lives from this
period are best
understood by their
funereal icons and
artifacts.
• Women had spindles,
jewellery and cooking
pots buried with them
• Men had spears, shield
bosses and drinking cups
Funereal Rites and Revelations
Very expensive
funereal slab or
stele (510 BCE)
Male
figures
(kouroi)
Female
figure (korai)
Women of Lyric Poetry
•
•
•
•
Sappho on vase
Sappho (around 600 BCE)
This representation from 1883
Well…was she?
“In Greek literature generally,
references to the women of
Lesbos connoted unusually
intense eroticism, both
homosexual and
heterosexual.” (Pomeroy, p.
54)
• Songs performed by women
include dirges and partheneia,
formal choral hymns sung by
unmarried girls with flute
• Most importantly, these women
were valued in Sparta and
Lesbos