Gender in Myth

We had very interesting discussion surrounding gender and mythology in our group this week. Our discussion was very heavily focused on gender in myth, as well as how those stories might translate into societal gender roles.

The first guiding question was “What are your thoughts on the role of gender in origin myths”. I started the discussion with my own thoughts. I felt it was of particular importance to separate myths involving male creators, and myths involving female creators. I felt there was a big difference between those myths. In many forms of creation involving female deities, it is common to see a a male consort, lover, or husband who assists in creation. A few examples of this include Gaia and Cronus/Uranus from Greek Myth, or the Goddess and God in Wiccan Myth. Alternatively, in some stories involving male creators, creation can occur without any form of female divinity. Particularly, we see stories of things being created from semen alone. A few examples of this are the birth of Aphrodite or Atum creating Shu and Tefnut. I find the difference in gender of the “main” creator creates very different stories.

Another student followed up on these thoughts, bringing up the tale of Adam and Eve, where Adam creates Eve from his rib. While Adam goes on to create with Eve afterwards, he initially created Eve by himself, with no assistance. The student also brought up another interesting point in the legend of Annapurna. We see Shiva incapable of maintaining the world’s equilibrium without Annapurna. The student argued that this form of myth can create stereotypes, and in my opinion, I think it can also create societal gender roles for men and women. A second student followed up on that idea of myth creating stereotypes and gender roles. They mentioned Greek Mythology where we see men in the “Hero” roles, and women in the “side” roles. 

The second guiding question asked us to reflect on the relevance of myth for Worldview analysis. Personally, I felt that myths were good, but were not a perfect or all-encompassing way to understand worldview. One that I thought of was the myth of the Big Fish. While it is a Sikh myth, if you replaced the Guru with Buddha, it may be able to fit into the Buddhist worldview as well, as they do share some similarities when it comes to rebirth. However, we know that Buddhism and Sikhism do differ greatly in other areas. For example, militarization and non-violence.

This question also tied well with with the last question. A few students tied the ideas of gender in myth to helping our understanding of gender in society. These myths can teach us about “who’s who” when it comes to gender roles. What is expected of men? What is expected of women? One example used was Hero stories from Greek Myths, where we see strong, adventurous men and sometimes helpful, but passive women. This might shape society’s expectation of these roles and characteristics, and can be considered to be the “normal” way to act. Another example was Izanami and Izanagi, where they would have horrible children if the woman spoke first, and many fine children if the man spoke first.

Here’s a video I found that talks about some of these myths:

I was interested in expanding on this idea in my post, so I sought out an article to provide more information. I found some interesting information on how divine intimate relationships with mortals are viewed by gender in Konstantinou’s Hestia and Eos: Mapping Female Mobility and Sexuality in Greek Mythic Thought. In this piece, Konstantinou discusses the goddess of dawn Eos as a cautionary figure when it comes to female goddess sexuality (2016). In both the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite and the Odyssey, Aphrodite and Calypso use her as an example of why female goddesses should not have sexual relations with mortal men (2016, p.13). I found this to be very interesting in comparison with Zeus, who has many Mythically documented relationships (and children) with mortal women. It is also interesting to see gender roles being placed upon the divine, particularly by non-divine individuals like Calypso.

While it is very interesting to look into what gender in myth means, and how it affects those cultures and societies, I felt as if the research into the area was a bit lacking. I do hope to see more research become available, so we can look further into this area.

References:

Konstantinou, A. (2016). Hestia and Eos: Mapping Female Mobility and Sexuality in Greek Mythic Thought. American Journal of Philology, 137(1), 1-24.