University Essay: Women in the Classical World and Amazonian Women

This essay delves into the portrayal of women in the classical world, examining how literature reflected societal perceptions, beliefs, and values. It highlights the stereotypical representation of women as symbols of purity, tenderness, and sexual charm, while also acknowledging their occasional depiction as cunning and manipulative. The essay focuses on the biased, often misogynistic, approach in the portrayal of female characters, particularly how they were considered as objects of possession. It also examines the exception to this pattern, such as the Amazonian women. The essay further discusses the Amazonian women, a mythical group of female warriors, their characteristics, and their role in Greek mythology. It contrasts these figures with the traditional perception of women, highlighting how the portrayal of women has not changed much over time, with strong women often being seen as unfeminine, negative, and undesirable. References to relevant scholarly sources are also provided.

Running head: Women in Classical World
Women in Classical World
Student’s name
University
Author’s note

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Literature reflects the social perception, belief, values and attitudes of an era. Since
antiquity, the portrayal of women classical in literature consists of certain stereotypical character
traits. They were represented as the symbols of purity, tenderness, affection and sexual charm.
Often, they were perceived as cunning, manipulative and vicious. In any way, women remained
as one of the intense subject focus in classical literary works. Sarah Pomeroy, while introducing
her Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, writes Women pervade nearly every genre of
classical literature, yet often the bias of the author distorts the information” (Pomeroy 2011).
Evidently, the social role of women in literature were more restricted in comparison to men. As
the majority of the authors were men, there was an apparent biased, misogynistic approach in the
portrayal of female characters. By and large, women were considered as object of possession, to
be controlled and cherished by men. And those who were comparatively independent, were
usually the negative characters.
In contrast to the general pattern, there were certain female characters that stood out as
breaking the stereotypes embedded in the classical literature. The Amazonian women, a mythical
group of characters developed within the Greek mythology is a prime example of such bold,
powerful and courageous women. Whether these women had historical is difficult to prove,
although there are numerous references of the Amazons throughout the Greek literature, visual
art and architecture. The earliest representations of Amazon were found in the archaic epic of
Greece and Attic vase paintings of the sixth century BCE. The tomb of Amazon queen Myrrinha
in Troy is a historical landmark of the greatness and bravery of Amazon women. In Homer’s
Illiad also, there are references of these warrior women, as found in King Priam’s description of
his experience of battling them. In the Trojan War, the great Greek warrior Achilles defeated the
Amazon queen Pentheselia, and subsequently fell in love with his victim. Many other Greek

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heroes were told to test their mettle in the battles with the Amazon women. Thus, the imagery of
the Amazon warriors was prevalent in the ancient Greek literature, visual art and culture
(Pomeroy 2011).
The Amazons were essentially a band of female warriors. They were believed to live in
northern Anatolia, or even father eastern region of the barbaric world. The Amazon heroes, as
the fifth century historian Hellenicus described were “a golden-shielded, silver-axed, male-
infant-killing host” (Pomeroy 2011). They were, in particular, represented as hostile to men and
marriage. They resorted to the men of neighbouring villages and tribes for sexual gratification,
and were alleged to refuse the task of rearing children. The female children were accepted in the
clan, although the male children were discarded or only to be taken as slaves. As warriors. The
Amazons were essentially portrayed as typically unfeminine. The term Amazon (A- mazos)
literally mean without breast, as it was held that these women seared their right breast rule out
any impediment that might come in the way in fighting. More specifically, it was believed that
they maintained this practice as it restricted them to use the bow and arrow masterfully. They
even fed their girl children with horse milk so that their breasts do not get enlarged (Pomeroy
2011). However, these fierce, independent women were criticized by the contemporary historians
and litterateurs as obsessed with sex, and this eventually loomed their downfall, as they were
believed to be succumb to Scythians (Fantham 1994). Thus, the characters of Amazon was
clearly an antithesis to the traditional perception of women, who were believed to be assigned
with the duty of nurturing the seeds of the men. Therefore, the idea of femininity and strength
were evidently contradictory in the portrayal of the Amazons.
This tendency is not very different from today’s society. Although, women have broken
many obstacles, achieved suffrage, and trading numerous walks of life as equal to men, the

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patriarchal framework of the society, still hold them as inferior to men. It is still believed that the
primary duty of a woman is to rear children and take care of the household. Hence, independent
women are still not considered as ideal or pure women. The widespread of rape culture, slut
shaming, objectification of women, or even the lack of reproductive autonomy mark the
limitation of their independence. And yet, those who succeed to break the shackles of patriarchal
domination and achieve leadership, or show courage and strength, are likely to be portrayed as
atypical, or unfeminine. By and large, the masculine and feminine characteristics have been
upheld as the same as antiquity. Hence, the portrayal of women has not change much over time,
and it always present strong women as unfeminine, negative and undesirable.

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References
Fantham, Elaine, et al. Women in the classical world: image and text. Oxford University Press,
1994.
Pomeroy, Sarah. Goddesses, whores, wives, and slaves: Women in classical antiquity. Schocken,
2011.