Familial Roles In Ancient Greek Literature

In Greek mythology customs and traditions can often times be represented well in Greek literature other time it can be misinterpreted. I am going to discuss how the Kyrios, mother, and the children can both be accurately portrayed or inaccurately simply depending on which myth you read. The two myths I chose to explore this concept further are Agamemnon, Menelaus, Nestor and Cercrops, Erichthonius, and Erechtheus. In these Greek myths, familial roles are portrayed in both effective and ineffective ways which highlight the expectations surrounding the structure of the Okios, or family unit, as well as the relations of men and women known as the Kyrios, also to be included will be the children the how the social norms were portrayed not only from a mythological standpoint, but also from a historical standpoint what influenced the appearance in literature. Multiple examples can come from one story or each story can give its …show more content…
Traditionally children of the ancient world were known to have few rights and freedom of choice especially girls. Boys who eventually became men grew to a certain age and were then given more rights and bigger responsibilities. The accuracy regarding that of children Ion bore the son of Apollo and when she told her father of his existence he was saved. This shows that males were greater importance than females all through the stories of Cercrops, Erichthonius, and Erechtheus women were sacrificed or killed, but the son of Ion is saved it gives a very strong sense that boys were more important than girls. Other instances being Erechtheus sacrificing his daughters, but not only did it show importance of boys it shows how children in general weren’t considered as valuable as adults. The life of a child is also shown to have much less worth when Idomenus kills his wife and her daughter though she did nothing wrong he shows no mercy to the