Women in Religion and Mythology
This class was really the first time I’d ever read a religious text and it was interesting to see how blatantly things were stated. It seemed like Genesis and the myth of Lilith were more of a means to lay out rules than historical accounts, but that may just be my bias talking. Unlike Christianity, I do know a little bit about Greek mythology (I read the Percy Jackson series so I'm basically a Greek scholar) and it was interesting to compare how women are portrayed by these myths compared to how they were portrayed in Biblical stories.
The first week of class we watched Mary Beard’s lecture on Women in Power and she spent some time covering Athena and Medusa as examples of women who were initially seen as empowered, breaking things down to reveal that Athena is deprived of the things that make her a woman and that Medusa is depicted as a force which must be contained and restricted. While these are some of the more well known figures of Greek mythology, I would like to shift focus to nymphs. 
Nymphs are female deities who represent certain features of nature, such as rivers, trees, wind, or rain (Kopestonsky, 2016). They are typically depicted as carefree and peaceful beings, especially in neoclassical paintings like the one I have inserted in this post. In addition to this, nymphs are promiscuous beings with the power to control elements which could make or break a society- they control the spring water which feeds fields of food and the winds and rain which could form a storm to destroy a city (Larson, 2001). Nymphs are inherently sexual and uncontrollable beings, which we have noted are features that men do not take kindly to in women. This aspect of immense power ties in quite nicely with the story of Medusa. The nymphs have the power to sway men through seduction and through natural destruction, again shifting the perception of them from something revered and powerful to something which must be conquered.
Additionally, I think the way nudity is treated in these paintings and myths is very interesting in comparison to how it is treated in Genesis. In both cases, nudity is the natural state of humans/deities. They are comfortable with no clothes, that is until Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit and suddenly become aware that nudity is bad. One must ask, why is nudity bad? I suppose this is a way for a religion or its God to assert their importance and dominance even over nature. I mentioned this briefly in class but I think it is worth expanding upon, especially given nymphs’ association with nature. Nymphs exist without clothing throughout myths and they are desired by men and other magical beings alike, as can be observed in the men watching the nymphs in the bushes on the right side of William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s The Nymphaeum. This detail changes the whole painting and its implications, shifting it from casual and free to full of desire and mischief. The nymphs become sexual objects under the male gaze, reinforcing what is established in Genesis; female nudity is inherently sexual.
It’s frustrating to continually find the objectification and villainization of women in religion and myth, despite drawing from sources all over the world. I already knew Grecoroman mythology was laden with tales of rape, especially at the hands of Zeus, but it turns out that myths of brutal sexual violence that end with the punishment of the victim exist in Indian myth as well (Priyamvada, 2017). It is not just in Europe and other places where Western culture and religion are dominant where these issues lie. Women have been objectified and victimized in the stories written and spread by men throughout history in order to justify and legitimize their behaviors and to serve as a proverbial boot on the neck of every woman who has ever lived. Many women feel immense guilt and despair over things that men have done to them, men who walk around like they’ve done nothing wrong because we have built a society where rape and other forms of violence against women are so common that they are viewed as ‘mistakes’ rather than crimes against humanity. So, I feel like it’s justified that I have a hard time trusting in religion and myth.
Kopestonsky, T. (2016). The Greek Cult of The Nymphs at Corinth. Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 85(4), 711-777. doi:10.2972/hesperia.85.4.0711
Larson, J. (2001). Greek nymphs: Myth, cult, lore (pp. 1-91). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
London Review of Books. (2021). Mary Beard: Women in Power [Video]. Retrieved 11 February 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watchv=VGDJIlUCjA0&ab_channel=LondonReviewofBooks
%28LRB%29.
Priyamvada, P. (2017). Tracing The Origins Of Rape Culture In Mythology. Feminism In India. Retrieved from https://feminisminindia.com/2017/10/06/origins-rape-culture- mythology/#:~:text=The%20chief%20Greek%20God%20Zeus,being%20raped%20in%20
Athena's%20temple.
The first week of class we watched Mary Beard’s lecture on Women in Power and she spent some time covering Athena and Medusa as examples of women who were initially seen as empowered, breaking things down to reveal that Athena is deprived of the things that make her a woman and that Medusa is depicted as a force which must be contained and restricted. While these are some of the more well known figures of Greek mythology, I would like to shift focus to nymphs.
Adolphe-Bouguereau, W. (1878) The Nymphaeum [Oil on canvas]. Haggin Museum, Stockton CA.
Nymphs are female deities who represent certain features of nature, such as rivers, trees, wind, or rain (Kopestonsky, 2016). They are typically depicted as carefree and peaceful beings, especially in neoclassical paintings like the one I have inserted in this post. In addition to this, nymphs are promiscuous beings with the power to control elements which could make or break a society- they control the spring water which feeds fields of food and the winds and rain which could form a storm to destroy a city (Larson, 2001). Nymphs are inherently sexual and uncontrollable beings, which we have noted are features that men do not take kindly to in women. This aspect of immense power ties in quite nicely with the story of Medusa. The nymphs have the power to sway men through seduction and through natural destruction, again shifting the perception of them from something revered and powerful to something which must be conquered.
Additionally, I think the way nudity is treated in these paintings and myths is very interesting in comparison to how it is treated in Genesis. In both cases, nudity is the natural state of humans/deities. They are comfortable with no clothes, that is until Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit and suddenly become aware that nudity is bad. One must ask, why is nudity bad? I suppose this is a way for a religion or its God to assert their importance and dominance even over nature. I mentioned this briefly in class but I think it is worth expanding upon, especially given nymphs’ association with nature. Nymphs exist without clothing throughout myths and they are desired by men and other magical beings alike, as can be observed in the men watching the nymphs in the bushes on the right side of William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s The Nymphaeum. This detail changes the whole painting and its implications, shifting it from casual and free to full of desire and mischief. The nymphs become sexual objects under the male gaze, reinforcing what is established in Genesis; female nudity is inherently sexual.
It’s frustrating to continually find the objectification and villainization of women in religion and myth, despite drawing from sources all over the world. I already knew Grecoroman mythology was laden with tales of rape, especially at the hands of Zeus, but it turns out that myths of brutal sexual violence that end with the punishment of the victim exist in Indian myth as well (Priyamvada, 2017). It is not just in Europe and other places where Western culture and religion are dominant where these issues lie. Women have been objectified and victimized in the stories written and spread by men throughout history in order to justify and legitimize their behaviors and to serve as a proverbial boot on the neck of every woman who has ever lived. Many women feel immense guilt and despair over things that men have done to them, men who walk around like they’ve done nothing wrong because we have built a society where rape and other forms of violence against women are so common that they are viewed as ‘mistakes’ rather than crimes against humanity. So, I feel like it’s justified that I have a hard time trusting in religion and myth.
References
Kopestonsky, T. (2016). The Greek Cult of The Nymphs at Corinth. Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 85(4), 711-777. doi:10.2972/hesperia.85.4.0711
Larson, J. (2001). Greek nymphs: Myth, cult, lore (pp. 1-91). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
London Review of Books. (2021). Mary Beard: Women in Power [Video]. Retrieved 11 February 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watchv=VGDJIlUCjA0&ab_channel=LondonReviewofBooks
%28LRB%29.
Priyamvada, P. (2017). Tracing The Origins Of Rape Culture In Mythology. Feminism In India. Retrieved from https://feminisminindia.com/2017/10/06/origins-rape-culture- mythology/#:~:text=The%20chief%20Greek%20God%20Zeus,being%20raped%20in%20
Athena's%20temple.
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