Deception of Women

In before times in Greece, women were written and portrayed in mythology as beguiling, manipulative and apparently, they cause the downfall of men. And so a lot of people have been saying that women are the source and weakness of men but at the same time they are the bringer of joy and light into the lives of men, even to the most barbaric of them all. “Behind every man’s success is a woman and behind the fall of a successful man is usually a woman” or so they used to say but who is to say that this is true? Although, this is only in poems and stories but there is a clear connection between what was written to what is actually happening in real life. Whatever relationship or any situations that were depicted in myth would not have been efficient and competent if it were not also reality. Through four incidents in Greek mythology let’s see if what is said about women is true.

PANDORA’S BOX

Pandora opening the jar

In The Theogony of Hesiod, in exchange for the help that the titan brothers, Prometheus and Epimetheus, gave to the gods/goddesses during the war between titans and Olympians, Zeus gave them the ability to create and fill the earth with creatures. Epimetheus made animals while Prometheus made men. However, because the creation of Prometheus was unable to aid and fend themselves, he went to Zeus and ask for the fire of gods to which Zeus strongly declined. And so Prometheus stole the fire from them enraging Zeus in the process.  For Prometheus’ sin, he was brought and chained to the mountains of Caucasus for many years as punishment. Every day an eagle would eat his liver and then only to rejuvenate, this only stopped when Heracles killed the eagle.

However, Zeus’ rage continued to boil and decided to punish his brother, Epimetheus, as well. With the help of the gods and goddesses, they created a beautiful woman, wearing an elegant dress adorned with beautiful jewels and named her Pandora. Prometheus warned his brother to not accept any gifts from Zeus but when Epimetheus saw Pandora, he fell in love and then they got married. Zeus gifted the couple a jar where a warning to not open the jar was written upon it.  Epimetheus pleaded his wife to never open the jar to which Pandora agreed but despite the warning, she opened the jar, unleashing the seven sins to the world, she quickly closed the lid unbeknownst to her that she had locked what could save mankind. Fortunately, Pandora opened the jar once more to let her husband see what she had done, releasing ‘hope’ at the end.

Pandora’s Box is one of the most recognizable stories of misogyny in ancient Greece. This story lets us see the greatest scourge to men, women. Pandora was responsible for afflicting pain and introduced misery to mankind. As written above, at the end Pandora closed the lid containing ‘hope’ before re-opening it. If we think about it, Pandora punished men twice, first by letting evil out and second by closing the lid before ‘hope’ could exit.

 Although, Zeus created her as a beautiful deception to punish Prometheus and Epimetheus, at the end she was to be blamed while Prometheus got off when he created the conflict in the beginning. Pandora, in a way, is like a child. She was born not because she asked to be born but because of the actions of Prometheus only to be loathed at the end. Aside from that, in the story not only Zeus, Prometheus and Pandora are at fault but Epimetheus as well. If he had not accepted Pandora into his home then the jar wouldn’t have been opened and everything would have been well. Everyone who are involved in this is as at fault as Pandora.

Curiosity is something that everyone possesses, sometimes it could be good in which led to discoveries of diseases and medicines but sometimes it could hurt and endanger our life. An example is from an experience of a man shared by Karen Woodall who went canoeing and was captivated by a colorful snake. As he approached the snake, he startled it and bit him. It turned out to be a poisonous coral snake; he had to be airlifted out from the swamp and sent to the hospital. This proves that not only women have the inquisitiveness but as well as men.

JUDGMENT OF PARIS

A painting of The Judgment of Paris

In Homer’s The Iliad, it started when Peleus, the father of Achilles, fell in love with Thetis, a sea nymph. They decided to get married and held a celebration inviting all gods except for Eris, goddess of strife. However, it did not stop her from inviting herself in the celebration and she brought with her a golden apple upon which was written “For the fairest.” Three goddesses, Hera, Aphrodite and Athena, made a claim on this. They went to Zeus for his verdict but to avoid choosing between his wife and daughters, he passed the responsibility to Paris. The three quickly offered the shepherd prince to gain his favor, each promised him enticing gift, power from Hera, military glory and wisdom from Athena and the most beautiful woman in the world as his wife from Aphrodite. Paris judged the three and eventually gave the apple to Aphrodite.

As promised, Aphrodite gave Paris his prize which was Helen, who was in Sparta and was married to Menelaus, king of Sparta. They both fell in love and ran away bringing the city’s treasures with them. Because of this, Menelaus waged war against Troy for his wife that lasted up to ten years of suffering for the men and cities involved.

Beauty itself is not a deception rather the ‘idea’ or how beauty is used by someone or how it is seen by people is what makes it a deception because Athena, goddess of wisdom, who among the three is the wisest and the most capable of choosing not to take part of the ‘competition’ but somehow she got involve. Why? As I see it, she just like her relatives, want to achieve the title of being the fairest because being beautiful means you have the power, not the political kind of power but the power to fend off men. In another case, we could say it is sort of a confirmation of their beauty. This is very sad especially for women. Beauty isn’t something you have to get affirmation from any third party; the acceptance of oneself is enough affirmation as it should be.

Although, The Judgment of Paris is the main incident we are tackling, we would be mentioning the Legend of Trojan War as well since these correlates with each other. They both are known and famous for having many situations in which women are portrayed as deceitful and the cause of the downfall of mankind. But as what I see, the women involved are not fully at fault but Paris as well.

 Despite the goddesses not being mentioned much as the story unfolds, they all have an impact for the downfall of the city of Troy. The goddesses are seen as envious and vain, and they are willing to use to their power to achieve the golden apple even if it has to come to bribing Paris. Their action of bribery defeats the significance of the said ‘competition of the fairest.’ Not only that, they disregarded the consequences for their actions, to which the action of Aphrodite led to Paris interfering the marriage of Helen to Menelaus which then led the fall of Troy.

In Helen’s case, she was victim of Aphrodite but her decision to reciprocate the affection of Paris and abandoning her husband, family and kingdom made her at fault. Her actions were to be blamed for every warrior’s death. But in another aspect, the judgment of people towards her is unfair.  The action of Paris is as unjustifiable as what Helen has done. If we deeply think of it, Paris’ choice of seducing Helen, knowing she is a married woman is a disgrace. Yes, it is what Aphrodite promised him as prize but if he was a wiser man, he wouldn’t proceed on claiming Helen and causing war that would affect cities and families.

In ancient Chinese history, similar cases happened as well during the Tang Dynasty. Yang Yuhuan later became Yang Gui Fei, was one of the Four Beauties of China. She was the concubine of Li Mao, the Prince of Shou and then later appointed as the concubine of Emperor Xuanzong. Because of her beauty, the emperor neglected his duties in order to spend time and please her. His action made the imperial army to weaken and during 755 B.C. a rebellion led by An Lushan marched to the capital. The emperor fled together with Yang Gui Fei but when they reached Mawei Village the remaining soldiers of the kingdom wanted Yang Gui Fei to die, the emperor had no choice but end her. Although, the rebellion was diminished, the emperor wasn’t able to recover the loss of Yang Gui Fei, he was left a broken man after his favored concubine’s death.  

CHRYSEIS

Chryseis being brought to Agamemnon

                In another side of the story of The Iliad is the story of beautiful Chryseis. She was among those Thebes women who were seized by the Achaeans. As they were divided, Agamemnon saw her and wanted her for himself. He brought her to his tent and to his bed.

Several days after Chryses, father of Chryseis and priest of Apollo, came to the camp of the Achaeans. He brought with him splendid gifts and offered them to the warriors in exchange for his daughter. All Achaean chiefs were in favor for what the old man has to offer except for one, Agamemnon. He rejected the gifts Chryses offered and ordered him to leave. Chryses, being an old and frail man, left frightened. 

Suddenly, death and suffering plague the Achaeans. Achilles summoned a meeting after ten days of suffering and asked for answers from priests, a seer or prophet. Calchas, famous among seers, told them that these miseries happened when they offended the old man and to get rid of these they must bring Chyseis back to him. Agamemnon agreed to return the girl but a greedy man like him wanted to have another spoil, a prize in return. This angered Achilles since the spoils were already divided but Agamemnon would not have it for he doesn’t want to have nothing while Achilles got to keep his prize.

True to Agamemnon’s words, he reluctantly returned Chryseis to her father and Achilles with heavy and enraged heart gave Briseis, his spoil to the greedy man and in return withdrew himself and his forces from the war to let Agamemnon see how foolish he was to offend the best soldier under his command.

Just like Helen in the Trojan War, Chryseis was the source of misery for the Achaeans because of the power of her beauty that bewitched Agamemnon. Beauty was a horrific thing that women posses because it is a power that they hold above men especially during the time of chauvinistic men but it is also the savior of women who became slaves or spoils to them. If it were not her beauty, she would’ve been in the hand of a far more ruthless man.

 Although, Chryseis was the reason for the hardships sent to the Achaeans, it was mainly the greed that clouded Agamemnon’s decisions that put his men through those.

Slaves in before times were possessions in the eyes of lustful men where they prize themselves with slaves as a sign of victorious conquest. But for some states, they don’t see slaves as prizes but merely an object or something where they can pleasure themselves. Similar to Comfort Women, these are women or girls who were forced as sex slaves by the Imperial Japanese Army. Ranging from as low as 20,000 to as high as 360,000 to 410,000 (not exact) women were involved, usually they are from Korea, China and Philippines. Women were also used as "comfort stations" for military in Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaya, Manchukuo, Taiwan, the Dutch East Indies, Portuguese Timor, New Guinea and other Japanese-occupied territories.

CALYPSO’S SPELL

Calypso enchanting Odysseus

                After ten years of battle in Troy, Odysseus and his men left to return home where Penelope, his wife, is waiting in Ithaca. But sadly, he encountered some misfortunes and monsters that delayed his return to Ithaca. One was Calypso, a nymph and believed to be the daughter of Titan Atlas. When Odysseus washed up alone on the island Ogygia, home of Calypso, he was captured for seven years, accounting for a large part of his journey home, by the nymph who fell in love with him.

 

She forced Odysseus to be her immortal husband, she enchants him by singing as she spin on her loom. At first he humored Calypso by doing all the duties of a husband which includes sleeping with her but Odysseus soon wanted to return home. Athena, who championed Odysseus, noticed his want to leave and so she asked for Zeus’ to order the release of Odysseus. Zeus sent Hermes to tell Calypso to release Odysseus in which she rejected. In the end, she eventually and stubbornly agreed to release Odysseus; she also helped him build a new boat and supplied him with food and water for his journey back to Ithaca.

Calypso is one of the ‘female monsters’ Odysseus faced before he could finally return. She is called as monster, although she lacks the face of a monster, because she has the ability to enchant mortal men. In this we are able to see again how women are depicted as deceivers and enchanters of men.

It is noticeable in the full text of The Odyssey how different female and male monsters are from each other. Like when Odysseus faced Polyphemus, he was able to set himself free from the Cyclops but when he faced the ‘female monsters’, he had to have help from gods/goddesses to break free even though he detected their deception on his own.

 Calypso’s failed effort of enchanting Odysseus into staying has me shocked, not because of her magic not working, to which we are sure is effective, but to the fact that Odysseus managed to free himself from the enchantment of the nymph due to the strong desire of going back home into the arms of his wife. Despite everything that has been offered to him, a promise of immortality and the lack of hardships, he still chose the life of a mortal man. He wouldn’t be able to see through the lies of Calypso if it weren’t for his love for the beautiful Penelope.

Not all women are deceitful and it is seen in The Odyssey where Penelope saved Odysseus from the monsters. Any man or woman would deceive people to put themselves in a favorable place or just to save themselves.  I think its like a natural instinct of people to do that to defend themselves or just to make themselves happy but it doesn’t mean what they have done is excusable.

As mentioned earlier, women’s beauty are their power. A woman uses her charm to get what she wanted or to protect herself. Clearly, they are at fault but if we think about it, men are at fault as well for being so gullible. It is their choice to be eaten by the lies of women. In ancient Greece, women are depicted as vile even in literature, giving them more reason to oppress them.  This explains a lot as to why women are given limited freedom. This may sound feminist but it is just unfair for their part because even though men are at fault, they seem to always get away.

If we read into it carefully, it is the CHOICE and DECISION of both parties that put them in danger and it shouldn’t be women alone who should be reprimanded but both of them. Even in reality, there are similar situation where women are found at fault when in fact it is both men and women. It is not even about women’s deception anymore but the ability of an individual to pick a choice that could harm people. People should think and not let their decisions be clouded or swayed by other people or their emotionally distressed self decide. Look at where Agamemnon’s greed led him. To avoid being deceived, one should be wise enough to think and analyze before making a decision.  

References:

Atsma, A. J. (n.d.). JUDGEMENT OF PARIS. Retrieved from https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/JudgementParis.html

Baricco, A. (2006). Excerpt from An Iliad. Retrieved from https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/8535/an-iliad-by-alessandro-baricco/9780307275394/excerpt

Calypso in The Odyssey: Summary, Overview Video. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/calypso-in-the-odyssey-summary-lesson-quiz.html

Comfort women. (2003, August 23). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_women

Meehan, D. (n.d.). Containing the Kalon Kakon: The Portrayal of Women in Ancient Greek Mythology - Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History. Retrieved from https://www.armstrong.edu/history-journal/history-journal-containing-the-kalon-kakon-the-portrayal-of-women-in-ancien

Plato. (2018, July 10). Female Monsters of the Odyssey. Retrieved from https://classicalwisdom.com/mythology/monsters/female-monsters-odyssey/

Woodall, K. (2017, February 15). The Danger of Curiosity. Retrieved from http://www.switchbacks.org/2017/02/01/the-danger-of-curosity/

Yang GuiFei (杨玉环). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://sacrificeworldwide.com/yang-guifei/

Images are from google