This post was submitted by Meistergedanken
Something that always strikes me afresh whenever I wade deeply into history is how human nature does not change. If you read about the Romans as they were 2,000 years ago, or the Greeks 2,500 years ago, one invariably comes away with the feeling that we are fundamentally not so different from them, despite the accumulated knowledge and nifty gadgetry currently at our disposal.
If human nature has remained essentially static since the advent of the Bronze Age, then the same issues between the sexes that we have now had already arisen back then. However, ancient society addressed and dealt with these issues in a completely different manner, of course, resulting in a balance of power the total opposite of the one in modern Western culture. How did it get that way? I’ll get to that in a moment…
I was reacquainting myself with Edith Hamilton’s “Mythology” recently, and I noticed a theme running through many of the myths, serving as a motive back-story to the primary tale. In these myths, mortal women who submitted to advances from a particular god proceeded to suffer accordingly:
• Io and Zeus – First turned into a cow by Zeus to shield him from his wife’s wrath, then she was imprisoned and guarded by the hundred-eyed Argus, then chased by stinging flies over vast distances.
• Antiope and Zeus – She subsequently abandoned her illegitimate offspring on a mountaintop.
• Callisto and Zeus – She was transformed into a bear to be killed by her own son until she was turned into the constellation Ursa Major.
• Semele and Zeus – She died because she insisted on beholding Zeus in his full glory.
• Leto and Zeus – Abandoned by Zeus, and exiled by everyone else, she wandered the earth aimlessly until her children were born.
• Danae and Zeus – She subsequently bore a child that killed her own father.
•Tyro and Poseidon – She abandoned her children to protect herself but was nonetheless spurned by her cuckolded husband.
• Coronis and Apollo – She was killed by his sister Artemis when she cheated on Apollo with a mortal.
Contrasting with these was a story on the other side, in which Marpessa refused the advances of Apollo from the first, preferring a mortal, and consequently lived happily ever after.
There are a lot of tales like this. Often they are explained by scholars as a makeshift attempt at melding disparate belief systems together as various Hellenic tribes migrated, clashed and mingled with other tribes. But this time I gleaned a new insight that permitted me to form a different hypothesis.
A lot of keystrokes have been logged describing the “alpha” male and his irresistible appeal to women. Readers are familiar with all that, so there is no need to linger on that topic. I would merely remind the reader of the axiom that most women would rather have 15 thrilling minutes with an alpha than 15 tedious years with a beta.
Here’s what occurred to me as I was reading the myths: the gods were the ultimate alphas.
If women are hypergamous, then their greatest fulfillment would come from getting banged by one of the Olympians. These perfectly formed, handsome, virile, immortal, powerful beings were the male ideal fully realized, as all the Greco-Roman deities were idealizations of some sort. If you suspect your usually loyal wife/girlfriend would nonetheless open up her legs in rapturous glee if a willing Brad Pitt sauntered into the house while you were away at the office, then how much more willing would ancient women be to be ravaged by a god? Or a man that could be called “god-like”?
Of course, a woman can’t reasonably expect to have a relationship with an alpha (the conclusion being that the inevitable progeny from the union would necessarily be bastards, a heavy burden until recent times). No, this is strictly a one-night stand, a pump-and-dump encounter with the god vanishing immediately after, no doubt already anticipating his next conquest following a well-deserved repast of nectar and ambrosia.
But here’s the thing: as indicated above, many of the myths that relate tales of lustful immortals chasing after women end badly – for the women. These are cautionary tales at their finest. They said, to the credulous woman: however tempted you might be, don’t let the god-like alpha roger you senseless, or bad things will happen.
Social control is often effectively imposed first by fear, and then by punishment. And later on, the mere fear of punishment will suffice. Much like the slasher movies that always kill off the women as soon as they take their tops off/have sex, these myths served as warnings, tailored to prevent women from destabilizing young, still forming civilizations by indulging their promiscuous instincts. They said: protect your virtue, ladies, and don’t fall prey to the charms of the mysterious stranger. Stick to your tribe, and keep yourself pure for the boy next door. This is when the concept of Honor was not alien to women, or a “useless”, solely male preoccupation of doubtful utility unless it could be used to further romantic manipulations.
That’s what we’ve now lost: the FEAR (along with shame, of course). The ancients knew the nature of women, and thus they knew its value. Now women have been liberated – from fear, from shame, and from responsibility. Consequences, though…that’s another story.
