Robert Graves - the Greek Myths

In Robert Graves's The Greek Myths there is a very interesting movement of power from females to males depicted in various myths throughout the book.

In the beginning, almost all of Europe was Matriarchal. Since people did not understand the connection between intercourse and giving birth to a child, women were given full credited for creating and taking care of the next generation. Therefore they were considered more important for society and the superior sex. You can see many examples of this in their earlier myths. For example in the very fist myth of the book The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, The Pelasgian Creation Myth, the female figure Eurynome rises from Chaos and creates the Universe. Although she creates a male serpent who fertilizes the universal egg, he is a lesser being and ends up being banished to the dark caves below earth for claiming to be the author of the universe. Another good example is The Olympian Creation Myth. Here Mother Earth, another female, again rises from Chaos and bears a son Uranus as she sleeps. Once again the female is the first god and the creator of all things while the male is created by her.

When people start to realize that men were also needed for the birth of a child, men become more important in society as well as in religion. However these males were still usually under the control of a woman who each year often sacrificed their lives. Gradually men gained more and more power until authority was generally split equally between the sexes. In The Castration of Uranus, Mother Earth persuades the titans to attack Uranus. Cronus (Uranus's son), who leads the titans, surprises Uranus in his sleep and castrates him, symbolically stripping him of his power. This marks the beginning of another section of greek mythology, the Titans, which also displays the end of female dominance.

Gradually men get more and more powerful, and eventually become the dominant gender which has continued arguably to this day. The myth that depicts this change is The Dethronement of Cronus. In this myth Mother Earth prophesies that one of Cronus's own sons would dethrone him so he swallowed the children that Rhea his wife bore him. Rhea is enraged by this, and she gives birth to Zeus in the middle of the night, hiding him from Cronus and gave him to mother earth. When Zeus grows to a man poisons Cronus causing him to throw up Zeus's brothers and sisters. Zeus leeds them to war against the Titans and after ten years. Zeus and the greek gods win and confine the Titans to Tartarus. This is the beginning of the third 'section' and society has become totally patriarchal.

It is very interesting how the myths tell the story of Europe changing from a Matriarchal society to a Patriarchal one, both culturally and religiously.