As far as sexual desires, the stories focused much more on the desires of men rather than women, with one exception. In Echo, Jupiter and Juno are quarreling over whether sexual activities are more pleasurable for men or women. After consulting a third party, it is decided that women experience the greater pleasure. However, women are definitely held to a different standard than men. In the case of rapes, it was often the woman who was looked down upon or punished, which seems completely backwards. Perseus and Andromeda even talked about the virgin Andromeda and who it would be shameful if she merely laid eyes on a man.
There doesn’t seem to be any sexual taboos from the readings at this point, but we’ll see what surfaces in the myths next week. However, there are points of comparison between these ancient myths and today’s society. The fact that women seemed to be held to a different sexual standard than men in the stories also reigns true today as far as number of partners and being a virgin is concerned.
Overall, in the myths I read this week, there was a lot of sexual activity, both conduct and misconduct!
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| This oil painting by Rembrandt was done in 1631 and titled "Andromeda Chained to the Rocks." |
Bibliography
Image: Andromeda Chained to the Rocks, Rembrandt (1631). Web Source: Wikipedia.
I am so glad that you found that little clue about how there might be women's storytellers and women's themes lurking there in the ANONYMOUS Greek mythological traditions... because it is clear that sometimes there are women's stories that make their way on into the tradition, and Ovid in fact is a storyteller who is interested in women's stories and tells at least a few stories that are very much grounded in women's experiences, like the story of the midwife who saved the life of Alcmena, the mother of Hercules, and allowed her to give birth to that child (which is again another story of adulterous Zeus and an angry Juno!). The double standard is a theme you will see over and over again in the myths and folktales of the world... even in the anonymous tradition, it is often men's voices that predominated - but not always, and those instances where you can see a woman's perspective are all the more powerful by way of contrast!
ReplyDeleteAnd I have to say that this painting you found by Rembrandt is INTENSE: talk about conveying the woman's experience; Andromeda here is terrified and appalled by what she sees, as the expression on her face shows so clearly. Wow!!! That is a really amazing painting and one that I have not seen before; I am going to go save it in my Myth-Folklore portfolio so that I can share it with anyone else who might work on this story for a class project. I love learning about new images from people's work in this class, so thank you for that! It is going in my learn-something-new-every-day file!