King George’s son had just turned 18. He had grown into quite the rebel; the two of them were always arguing about something. Prince Philip has wanted to experience the world outside of the palace for his birthday, but King Georg wouldn’t allow it. Prince Philip’s mother, the Queen, had taken him out on little adventures when he was younger. Unfortunately, she died at the hands of a vengeful wizard when Prince Philip was only 8 years old. Prince Philip had always blamed his father for his mother’s death; after all, King George had blinded a wizard on his way home from the village after stealing from him, so it was no wonder the wizard was spiteful, and King George was to blame.
King George's actions were not only allowed by his society, but they deemed a normal way in which to treat people, especially a woman.
As Prince Philip grew older and learned more about the treacherous things his father had done, he grew angrier with King George. One day, Prince Philip had had enough and decided to get his own revenge. As King George lay fast asleep in his bed, Prince Philip snuck into his room, drew his sword from its holster, and lopped off his father’s member, tossing it into the ocean.
King George’s member swirled around in the ocean for quite some time. One day, from the white foam of the severed member, grew the most beautiful woman. This woman was the fairest of them all and as such, would be betrothed to Prince Philip in no time.
Within six months, a wedding date was set for Prince Philip and the beautiful woman. He was extremely excited for this day, as it was not only the day, he would marry his beautiful bride, but also the day he would assume the throne. The day drew long as the beautiful bride-to-be tried with all her might to escape her impending nuptials, for she wanted to live a life of independence and freedom, and she knew that this would not be possible if she were to become Queen. There was nothing to be done.
A week after the Queen married King Philip, she found herself in an even more depressive state than she had anticipated. She knew that it wouldn’t be easy to assume this new role, but the most troubling part for her was how poorly she was treated by her husband. He was supposed to love and cherish her – after all, that’s what they said in their vows – but all he did was mock and belittle her.
Over the next few years, the Queen birthed two beautiful baby boys, Prince Henry was the first, followed by Prince Charles three years later. Prince Charles and the Queen had a special bond; they would take secret trips out of the palace, much like King Philip did with his mother when he was a young boy, The Queen’s boys seemed to be just about the only thing keeping her together. That was until King Philip discovered that she has been sneaking out.
Was history doomed to repeat itself? Was this the way all women were to be treated? Would this misogynistic cycle ever come to an end?
Analysis:
"Again, as between the sexes, the male is by nature superior and the female inferior, the male ruler and the female subject." - Aristotle (Politics)
Women, to this day, are treated unequally to men. We see this constantly occurring, way more than we should from unequal pay to reproductive rights. A prime example of this is in modern-day royalty. To begin with, it is amazing and unbelievable to me that royalty even still exists. Queen Elizabeth was the first-ever Queen ruler of the Monarchy, and this only occurred because she was the eldest of two girls; had she had a brother – even a younger brother – she would not have become the Queen. It was a big deal at the time, for a woman to rule the kingdom, as it had only been men thus far. Queen Elizabeth’s rule is still of great importance and amazement today, not only because of how long she has been the Queen but for what it means to be a woman in that position. The amount of sexism that she has had to overcome is a testament to what women have had to and are currently dealing with every day. Another prime example of modern-day breaking of feminism is Kamala Harris as the first-ever female Vice President of the United States. Back in 2016, we saw Hilary Clinton in the running for the President of the United States but sadly lost to Donald Trump. The United States then crawled through four years of unjust sexism from the President but came out on top with the first female Vice President – a step in the right direction.
Sexism was also apparent in ancient Greek mythology, which can be seen in many mythological stories, such as The Odyssey and The Iliad. In The Odyssey, Penelope, the wife of Odysseus can be compared to Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon for their differing roles as wives to two heroes of the war at Troy. Notice, from the beginning, how these female characters are defined by how good or bad they are as wives as if that is the only thing they are. Those are not seen as their own individual people, but rather as eh wives of their men. Penelope is seen as the ‘ideal wife’ because of her ability to help her husband Odysseus reintegrate back into society (oikos) after his 10-year battle at Troy and additional 10-year journey home (nostos). (Hom.Od.23.6) On the other hand, Clytemnestra is seen as a horrible wife because she not only does not help her husband reintegrate into society (oikos), but she makes it more difficult for him to do so. (Hom.Od.11.10) These two women are seen as either pleasant or unpleasant company in the eye of their man, as well as others, based on how well they perform their role as wives. This restricts Penelope and Clytemnestra from being objects of possession to their man, not as their own people with their own identity, not connected to Odysseus or Agamemnon. There is another example of sexism in ancient Greek mythology in the story of The Iliad. After Achilles ransacked her village, Briseis was taken by him as a sign of his time for being a great warrior in the battle to take the town of Lyrnessus. (HomIl.1.160) Once taken by Achilles, Briseis was enslaved to him and deemed his property, until she was forced to be given up by Achilles and awarded to Agamemnon (this is the reason why Achilles refused to fight in the battle at Troy). Once again, the woman was not seen as a person capable of making her own decisions, but that of possession to the person who earned her in battle. For Briseis, this meant being taken, enslaved, and thrown around between different men who were deemed victorious across different battles.
The myth I wrote was meant to expose this idea that women have and are seen as objects of property, especially through the perspective of man, rather than as real people who have their own beliefs, desires, and needs. Throughout the myth created, each woman was intentionally labeled with their responsibility or duty they were used for, rather than by a name. The title of Queen and mother are both examples of this; these women’s names were not Queen or mother, but they were referred to as these titles because these are the roles, they were responsible for providing. This act of not addressing these characters by their name rips them of their individualism and gives permission to their man and other characters to treat them as such.
The event of King George blinding the wizard was based on the story of Odysseus when he traveled to the cyclops’s cave, stole from him, and blinded him during his adventure home from the battle at Troy. (Hom.Od.9.380) Both of these events were acts of unnecessary violence towards beings that had not deserved the pain and anguish they were put through. The characters of Prince/King Philip’s wife were based on the myth of Aphrodite’s birth. (Hes.Th.173) Both of these characters were forged from the violent act of the severing of the ‘member’ of a royal, or in the case of Aphrodite, a God. As well, Aphrodite was the Goddess of love and a very beautiful Goddess, much like how Prince/King Philip’s wife was seen as the most beautiful woman around. Similar to the marriage of Cronus, God of time, and Rhea, Goddess of fertility, was the union between Prince/King Philip and his wife. Prince/King Philip can be seen as the brother of his wife since both of them were born from King George, similar to how Cronus and Rhea were both born from Uranus, God of heaven/sky, and Gaia, Goddess of earth. (Hes.Th.453)
In both the ancient myths and the myth I created, instances of sexism can be seen. As mentioned earlier, ancient myths ran rampant with the ideology of women as property of their man and not people of their own. In my myth, it had the same theme of sexism with the female characters being the property of their King/husband, whether they liked it or not. A correlation between Aphrodite and Prince/King Philip’s wife, Odysseus and King George, and the marriage between Cronus and Rhea, and Prince/King Philip as his wife can be seen as well.
Image 1: In this image we see an Amazon being taken down by Herakles. The Amazons were seen as threatening to men in Ancient Greece as they were fierce, could fight well, and were overall able to do all the things that 'a man' could.
References:
Aristotle. Politics. Translated by H. Rackham. London, 1944, pp 1.1254b.
Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by Samuel Butler, revised by Timothy Power and Gregory Nagy. London, 1900, pp 23.6.
Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by Samuel Butler, revised by Timothy Power and Gregory Nagy. London, 1900, pp 11.10.
Homer. The Iliad. Translated by Samuel Butler. London, New York, and Bombay, 1898, pp 1.160-199.
Hesiod. Theogeny. Translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. London, 1914, 173-206.
Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by Samuel Butler, revised by Timothy Power and Gregory Nagy. London, 1900, pp 380-390.
Hesiod. Theogeny. Translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. London, 1914, 453-491.
Malibu, The J. Paul Getty Museum; BAD 201704.
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