Martiarchal Role in Literature of Greece
In ancient Greece there was once a matriarchal society. We know this because it is evident in the literature that has passed into our hands and from the religions of these ancient peoples. While this evidence is before us the reason for the change to a patriarchal society is not so evident. Very little information exists on the subject, possibly because the change was so violent in some cases. Robert Graves tells us "ancient Europe had no gods." The Great Goddess was regarded as eternal and unchanging. Fatherhood held no meaning for these peoples because it was at a later time that they discovered that a man was needed to produce a child. All over the world we can encounter these mother goddesses. The women were considered omnipotent and the priestess of a village was usually the queen. She took lovers for pleasure, not for a father for her children, as the children of a community were considered sacred gifts from the goddess. "Men revered and respected the marvel and power of women and adored the matriarch, her hut or temple being the earliest social center. Thus the first victim of a Greek public sacrifice was to Hestia. Hestia was goddess of the hearth and it is her decree that suppliants must be protected in her name (Graves
All other major goddesses were married off to gods. Medea is also shown to be a woman of the matriarchal ways when she promises Aegeus, king of Athens, that she will help cure his impotence if he will give her sanctuary after she commits her bloody deeds (Euripides 763). It still remained under the moons tutelage, in theory at least, long after the matriarchy had been outgrown (Graves 13)". The Greek playwrights Aeschylus and Euripides wrote plays around the time of the founding of the courts in Greece (Harris 423-435). She then caries out her plans and poisons the princess and, in anguish, kills her own children. This knowledge of fertility herbs links her to the matriarchal goddesses. They were actually treated better than women were eventually treated. This was a very important political move; in theory it meant that Zeus had popped out of the sky all by himself, making him the mighty creator without a mother to answer to. The fact that she was allowed to get away with her crimes suggests that she has the full approval of the gods and goddesses. He was ordered by Apollo to kill his mother in the Libation Bearers because she had killed his father, Agamemnon (Aeschylus 570).
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