User:Britkuckel/Amazons (to merge)

What the myth reveals
The Greeks were a society that was defined by its specific gender roles and its strict adherence to them; men fought and women raised children. In a world where to deviate from these two paths meant anarchy and disruption of the peaceful patriarchal way of Greek life, the Amazon myth was created.

The myth of the Amazons had a very important function concerning the validation of Greek gender roles. The Greeks used the Amazons to justify patriarchy. Theire story was a fable about what would happen if women were not restrained. The triumph over the man-hating women would show the superiority of the patriarchal way of life. The Amazon myth shows a complete inversion of every gender based norm in ancient Greek society. Greek myths were created to reflect the way society really functioned by producing model citizens or by showing what could result if the worst were to happen.

In Greek society, a woman’s place was in the home and taking care of domestic issues. Women were not only charged with making heirs for their husbands, but also with making citizens and soldiers of the advancement of the State. Women were completely dependent on men in every aspect of their lives. When they were daughters, they were under the rule of their father, when they were wives, they were under the rule of their husbands and when they were widows, they were under the rule of a brother or her next male relative. While women were confined to the safety of the home, men left their homes for business, politics, war and other activities.

One of the most defining factors in Greek conceptions of masculinity was war. The Greeks rationalized that war called for strength, toughness, endurance, movement, and good health, all of which were considered to be male qualities. If a woman were to enter into war, it would pose a threat to masculinity. If a woman were to enter onto the battlefield the balance would be disturbed because women were not equal to men. Because the Amazons were warrior women they represented a contradictory statement. Women were not meant to be warriors in ancient Greek society. If they were not controlled, they would wander into territory that is exclusively a male territory. The Amazons not only posed a threat to masculinity because of the fact that they were female, but if the Amazons were considered equals on the battlefield, then war with the Amazons became a fight to protect one's life against barbaric women. ] Amazons were considered equals on the battlefield until they were slain, then they just became a dead woman instead of a worthy opponent. The defeat of the Amazons symbolized the preservation of the Greek society from invading barbarians. It also kept an invading [matriarchy|matriarchal]] society out of the purely patriarchal Greece. Invasions of barbarian tribes would have been a constant threat to the Greek way of life. Myths such as the Amazons may have been a call to preserve the Greek way of life and promote the preservation of patriarchy. The Amazons became an example of what would happen if women were uncontrolled in society. The Greek way of life would be reduced to that of a barbarian and patriarchy would revert back to matriarchy. The myth of the Amazon was a warning to every male who wished to keep things the way they were: women must be controlled or Greece as they knew it would fall apart.

In Greek society it was important for women to have sexual intercourse with only one man for the sake of producing true citizens, whereas men had the freedom of having multiple partners since they already had a wife to secure a legitimate heir. In the world of the Amazon women sex was not restrained to marriage because marriage, for the Amazons, did not exist. Once a year, the Amazons were said to approach a neighboring tribe and stay with the men for one month until pregnant. The men they chose to mate with were random and never the same as the year before. Unions, such as these that are random and used for only reproductive purposes, place the power of reproduction into the woman’s hands. The Amazon woman had control of her own reproductivity. The Greeks were a patriarchal society while the Amazons were a matriarchal society. This means that the children are traced using the mother line of descent rather than the fathers. A matriarchal way of life does not call for the need to know the father of a child, which supported the once a year, random mating that the Amazons were accustomed to. They controlled their fertility, reproductivity and used men merely for sustaining their populations.

The Amazon myth teaches true Greek values through opposites. Greek women were specifically bred for bearing children; it was their sole purpose in life. Since the Amazon women forced their men to remain in the house caring for children it was the women who were the ones active in warfare and politics. This is a complete inversion of the Greek way of life. In Greek society women were restricted with their movement and men had the fluidity between social scenes. These two ideas are reversed in the Amazon myth. . It was important to restrain the sexuality of a woman so that the children she was producing were legitimate heirs. Sexually unrestrained describes the Amazon way of life perfectly. The Amazons completely reversed the Greek view on sex. The sex in a Greek house took place with in the home, in the indoors, a roof was necessary.

When the Amazons mated with men, they had intercourse outside in a random location. Sex in the home, to the Greek man, must have meant control over his woman. He was controlling the situation and his wife, and in doing so, controlling her reproductivity. There was no concern for producing heirs because for the Amazons, sex was merely for regenerative purposes. The Amazon way of sex completely negated the male’s control over reproduction and sex. Sex and reproduction for the Amazon completely disrupted the Greek view of male control over his wife.

The creation of the myth has a simple purpose, to show exactly what would happen if men did not control the world around them. The myth of the Amazons was used as a justification of patriarchy and the Greek gender roles. The Amazons were even defeated in battle by Greek heroes to symbolically show the triumph of patriarchy. The myth of the Amazons is a complete inversion of what life was supposed to be in ancient Greece. The myth reveals the true feelings of those living in Greece, and through this myth, one can see a symbolic justification of gender roles, sexuality, patriarchy and power.

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