Social Conditioning and Representation of Women: a Critical Introspection Into the Stories of Ahalya and Medusa
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JOURNAL OF CRITICAL REVIEWS ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 16, 2020 SOCIAL CONDITIONING AND REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN: A CRITICAL INTROSPECTION INTO THE STORIES OF AHALYA AND MEDUSA 1KRISHNAPRIYA. K.L, 2Dr. K. RAJARAMAN 1Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of English, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar, Chidambaram, Tamilnadu. 2Professor, Dept. of English, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar, Chidambaram, Tamilnadu. [email protected], [email protected] Abstract Mythology lays the foundation of any culture and has been an agency that provides education and entertainment. But with time, mythology turned out to be a constructed strategy that emphasized male dominance. Subsequently, this was used a key that helped to maintain male supremacy and aided the subjugation of women in the name of beliefs by adding explanations about the stringent morality to be followed. Mythologies in different cultures have been twisted to suit the purpose of man. With misrepresentation and manipulation of original mythologies, women were shown as oppressed beings throughout history. Out of many similarities, both Indian and Greek mythological stories draw parallels in the misrepresentation of women characters also. Ahalya and Medusa are two seemingly different yet closely connected victims of patriarchy from two different cultures. Out of the many versions of Medusa’s story, one fact to be noticed is that, each of them leads Perseus claiming power from the Gorgons. The original story is that Medusa was raped by Poseidon on her visit to the temple of goddess Athena. The goddess cursed her for breaking her chastity and destroying the purity of the temple. Ahalya on the other hand is being cursed for being adulterous and damaging the sacred vow of marriage. This paper aims to critically analyze how the ideas and ideologies propagated through mythical stories bring about changes within the cultures and population. Moreover, it gives a brief idea about how representation of the characters Medusa and Ahalya are changed over time. Keywords: Mythology, patriarchy, representation, culture, dominance Introduction There are various perspectives in writing literature, namely both woman-oriented view and man-oriented view. In the culture of the Greek, goddesses the mother Zoe gives birth to her son, Bios. As the son grew up, he acquired a position that of a co- creator as ages passed and it was during the Bronze Age, the importance of the women in the created myths began to disappear (A lot,2013). In Indian culture, it’s Brahma who created the world and there is no presence of a goddess can be seen in sharing the dignity of being the creator. The father son duo has been the base of the major patriarchal religions of the world today, which are Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The concept of the creation has been ascribed differently, both for the female and the male. Though the creations of the mother have been considered equal to her, all the creations of the male god is considered to be inferior. Myths were initially a source of entertainment and a strategy used by the ancient people to worship nature and humanity. But with time, mythology became a constructed strategy that emphasized male dominance. Subsequently, these were used as helpful keys that helped to maintain male supremacy and aided the subjugation of women in the name of beliefs by added explanations of stringent morality to be followed. Agencies like religion, culture etc adapted to the purpose of man such as when new lands were conquered, these myths were propagated or rather instructed to control the women of that area. The first step taken by the patriarchal ancestors to confirm their dominance was to exaggerate, twist and replace the names of ancient goddesses with the names of gods (Neolitica,2017). With generations of adaptations within the original mythical stories, some of the characters became daughters , wives and mothers of other main characters .On critically analyzing mythologies across different cultures , the myth of creation itself is manipulated to suit the patriarchal norms. Within the Babylonian myth of Enuma Elish, the original myth of the sacrifice of the son by his mother, the story is twisted in such a way that the mother is sacrificed by the son. Marduk who is killed by the dragon mother Tiamat, is made to die with arrows in her belly and a split heart in the remade version. The irony is with the amount of divines that is ascribed to this heinous act(Neolitica,2017) Subsequently as time passed, a duality was forcibly ascribed within the myths wherein out of 2520 JOURNAL OF CRITICAL REVIEWS ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 16, 2020 the two parts , the darker fallen and evil side was ascribed as the female whereas the divine and good side was ascribed to the male. As years passed, transformation of mythical stories changed such as the man no longer came from the womb of the mother. The creator, a man was considered as an entity that surpassed all creation. Nature which was ascribed feminine characters was separated from spirit, a male entity(Neolitica,2017). Woman came to be an agency that was to be conquered with force. In Christianity, the Yahweh is the god of the nomadic tribe. This sect considered the male counterpart as supreme just like the Aryans and Semites. Other than sidelining the concept of an equally powerful goddess, Yahweh is a concept that bars worship to any other god.The western civilization often quotes Greek mythology as an example through which ideas were spread such as myths were male oriented and a large section of women were subjugated and enslaved. The Greek culture is hybridized with the indo European culture to mold a literature that is based on man. Greek culture initially adored Gea, the earth or the great mother. The woman centric nature of the literature changed when writers like Homer ascribed male supremacy with the glorification of Zues through his works. There is a general transformation from goddesses to slaves with subsequent works in Greek mythology. For example, Metis , the first wife of Zues is the goddess of wisdom was swallowed by her husband while she was pregnant . Thus by, it is said that Athena came out of the head of Zues. A major patriarchal representative of the Greek culture is Hercules. The punishment that he receives by the oracle of Delphi for committed many heinous crimes is to dress up for a woman for three years. There is a constant battle in ascribing masculine and feminine traits in him. The queen Omphale considers him to be a woman; the king gives him chores like stealing and killing. On close examination, it is to be seen that the major exploits of Hercules were in regions that were reined by female monsters. Later it is seen that the goddess forgives him and Hercules married the daughter of Hebe. Indian folklores and indigenous tales gave prominence to female characters. Especially the tales of south India and north east portrays powerful and divine females as heroes. But with the establishment of the two great epics Ramayana and Mahabharata as the embodiment of Indian culture, female characters begin to lose their importance. Being exceptionally patriarchal these two epics converged almost all the divergent folklores into a single shape and structure. Mythical stories, apart from entertaining and educating, imprints ideas and ideologies into the minds of the perceiving population. A woman’s values are measured as a product of her capacity to reproduce and not with her intellectual fruitfulness or artistic abilities. Ancient myths have emphasized on the importance of chastity as being a crucial factor in preserving the honor of the community(Kanoria,2020). With the cultural beliefs that have been institutionalized over generations and the myths propagated, religions have stressed on maintaining sexual control through the amplified inferiority of women. Narratives being powerful weapons of social conditioning serve as a tool that fosters the patriarchal norms. Women are portrayed as being deceitful, sinful and manipulative creatures that are to be oppressed with power. Examples like Aphrodite, Helen of Troy and Pandora from Greek and Soorpanakha, Satyavati and Kaikeyi are used as examples by men of the elite class who advocate that giving freedom to women can be dangerous. In Iliad, Hera is never happy with Zues and has to even trick him to get sexual attention(Kanoria,2020). Gods such as Athena, Artemis and Hestia are glorified virgin goddesses which emphasize the conventional society’s tendency to create virgin gods as another option to accepting family life. The story of Kunti being a virgin mother in Indian mythology perfectly fits in here. Myth embodies objectification of women by comparing with beauty as an evil tool of seduction. Many other things like women’s dependence on men, child marriage, marital control to ensure racial purity, the importance of reproductive purity among women and female infanticide have been highlighted to ensure the dominance of patriarchy. The split representation of women can be seen in many cultures where in women are objects with beauty and passion who are to abide to the fantasies of man where as they are viewed as a threat if they have a quality of assertiveness(Alot,2013). Out of the many versions of Medusa’s story, each of them leads Perseus claiming power from the Gorgons. The original story remains Medusa being raped by Poseidon on her visit to the temple. The goddess Athena punishes the victim rather than her rapist, for tampering with the purity of the place(Neolitica,2017). Fact remains that Athena was unable to punish Poseidon for his immense power. This irony where the culprit escapes and the victim is punished echoes throughout Greek culture .