(Rant warning: I spent the day talking about Mormon fundamentalism with my US Politics & Religion class and how a “woman’s purpose” was to bear children. So, this was a wild ride full of frustration.)
The tone that Aeschylus uses towards women was not unexpected, but I still was not ready for Orestes and Apollo to be so direct with their misogyny. When Pythia, the priestess of Apollo, opens the first scene, she immediately honors three powerful females: Gaia, Themis, and Phoebe. Delphi was a matriarchal society from the start. I suppose when Apollo was born, there was a societal shift. And then, as if none of the previous deities existed, everything was now about “King Delphus” who was “Zeus inspired” (Aeschylus, Furies, p. 118, 16-17). The town became centered around men’s power. …show more content…
145, 657-657). If Apollo’s comment reflects how the Greeks thought at the time, then women were clearly only seen as procreation machines. Apollo then tops off his argument with how “there can be a father without a mother” and he uses Athena as an example. Of course this would not apply to anyone who is not a deity since Athena emerged from Zeus’
The tone that Aeschylus uses towards women was not unexpected, but I still was not ready for Orestes and Apollo to be so direct with their misogyny. When Pythia, the priestess of Apollo, opens the first scene, she immediately honors three powerful females: Gaia, Themis, and Phoebe. Delphi was a matriarchal society from the start. I suppose when Apollo was born, there was a societal shift. And then, as if none of the previous deities existed, everything was now about “King Delphus” who was “Zeus inspired” (Aeschylus, Furies, p. 118, 16-17). The town became centered around men’s power. …show more content…
145, 657-657). If Apollo’s comment reflects how the Greeks thought at the time, then women were clearly only seen as procreation machines. Apollo then tops off his argument with how “there can be a father without a mother” and he uses Athena as an example. Of course this would not apply to anyone who is not a deity since Athena emerged from Zeus’