Folktale of Pandora, Theseus and Hippolytus, The story of Penelope, and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. All of these myths help to show the roles of women in the Greco-Roman Society.The folktale of Pandora is one myth which helps show the role of women in the Greco-Roman society. The story of Pandora is one that shows how men found themselves superior and blamed women for the problems of the world. In the story Prometheus offered Zeus something that looked good but was bad on the inside. In return Zeus offered him something that looked good on the outside but was filled with lies, swindles, and other bad behaviors (Powell 115). To make a long story short, Pandora opened the jar and made the good life turn into labor, misery, and disease, with death in the end. I think that this showed that the Greco-Roman society blamed women for all of their problems. I think that this is different than the women’s role in today’s society. I think that men are blamed more for the problems of today. Even though you and I both know they’re mostly the fault of women.The story of Theseus and Hippolytus is another myth that shows the role of women in Greco-Roman society. In this story Hippolytus rejects Aphrodite to follow Artemis. In revenge, Aphrodite makes Hippolytus’ mother Phaedra fall in love with him. Phaedra, unable to control her sexual desire, makes her move on Hippolytus. After he rejects her, she hangs her self and leaves a note saying that Hippolytus raped her. When his father Theseus returns he kills him. This story shows that the Roman-Greco society thought women were filled with lies and the cause of many bad things. This is different than women’s roles in today society because today it is usually thought that more men lie to avoid troubles and confrontations.Another myth that helps explain the roles of women in the Greco-Roman time period is the story of Penelope. This is part of the story of the...
