The Adulterous Women in Greece Myths

Throughout Greek mythology, the character type of adulterous women appeared repeatedly. In this essay, I will focus on the adultery of Aerope, Clytemnestra, Koronis, Pasiphae, and Helen. Upon close inspection, these women share similar fates, either being punished with violent death or causing extensive disorder to their society. This recurring pattern likely held the significant didactic meaning of the Greeks, as well as served to reflect the values they held dear. This was an important type of woman to portray as she threatened a man’s household and line of succession, both key concerns of Greek society. In this essay, I will investigate the motifs and themes in the stories of adulterous women in order to truly understand the meaning and importance of this character type to the Greeks.

Firstly, it is important to establish which women form part of this recurring character type and what behavior and storylines were common to these women. The mythology surrounding adulteresses diverged into two distinct patterns, with a similar overall message. The unfaithful women were either brutally punished for their actions or their infidelity caused a disruption of the natural order. Aerope was married to Atreus but was then seduced by his brother Thyestes. This was revealed in Thyestes’s possession of his brother’s token of a golden ram. Atreus sought revenge, “I want – punishment…In my kingdom/ Men beg for death.” and Aerope was killed, sentenced to death for her deceit. Clytemnestra committed adultery with Aegisthus, the cousin of her husband Agamemnon. Her son Orestes and daughter Electra took revenge for the death of their father and violently killed her. This is emphasized when Orestes comforts his sister “Our mother is dead. Her pride. / Her cruelty … forget your fear.”. In addition, Koronis during her pregnancy with the child of Apollo had an affair with Iskhys. Apollo sent Artemis to punish her and the women around her with arrows of plague, as described in Pindar’s Pythian Ode “And the fate of a far other kind turned to her ruin and smote her down…”. It is important to note here that these punishments can only be seen as a pattern in the stories of female adulterers, most men who had affairs go unpunished or were even lauded by ancient authors, including Odysseus (for example with Circe, Hom. Od. 10. 135 - 12). In this way, Greek women who committed infidelity were often discovered and then subsequently punished with death.

The comparatively more multifaceted stories of Pasiphae and Helen portray adulteresses whose actions resulted in chaos and disorder, a punishment to the community as opposed to them as individuals. Pasiphae was cursed by Poseidon to lust after the magical bull her husband Minos had failed to sacrifice. With the help of Daedalus, she employed a hollow, wooden cow to consummate her lust. This resulted in the birth of the Minotaur. He was described by Diodorus Siculus in the Library of History as “the creature…of double form, the upper parts of the body as far as the shoulders being those of the bull, and the remaining parts those of a man.”. This child was a manifestation of the disorder which Pasiphae’s adultery represented. The Minotaur is a monster in the stories of other heroes, including Theseus, and his survival required the consumption of humans, hence his existence was a punishment to the Cretan and extended Greek society. Furthermore, Helen was married to Menelaus but due to the actions of Aphrodite and the Judgement of Paris, she fell in love with another man. When her husband left Sparta, Paris, and Helen stole treasure from the palace and fled to Troy. This was the central cause of the Trojan War, ten years of chaos and bedlam for the Greek community. Nemesis and Tyche punished the adultery of Helen (Nemesis can be seen directing Tyche’s attention to Helen in Image 1), but she ultimately lived happily with Menelaus in Sparta at the end of the war. We can interpret this retribution as indirectly affecting a much broader group of people. The war represents a disruption of the natural order of the world due to Helen’s actions. Therefore, repeatedly in mythology, communal punishments are given for the actions of individual women, causing chaos.

Now that these patterns are established, it must be considered what meaning was imputed to the characters of unfaithful women amongst the Greek people. Notably, adulteresses were consistently portrayed negatively, with literal and symbolic punishments compensating for their wicked actions. This is also evident in the language used by ancient writers to describe these women. They are “debauched” and their actions are an “insult” or considered “madness”. This rejection of treacherous women likely reflected values from Greek society. One of the key functions of mythology was to mirror, emphasize and explain the ideology of the myth-telling society. There is significant evidence to suggest that female adultery was greatly discouraged and seen as shameful. Aeschines noted that women would be banned from public religious ceremonies if they had been discovered as unfaithful. Laws from the time of Draco regulated private revenge, showing that at some point men were legally empowered to murder the man with which their wife was having an affair. More generally, Greeks presumed beautiful women to be lascivious and unethical, calling them kalon kakon translating to “beautiful evil”. Hence, the negative representation of adulterous women reflected the sentiments of Greek society.

This adverse character type likely also had a didactic meaning for the Greeks. Myths were part of a child’s education and further, their religious role added impetus to the messages contained within them. Adulteresses receiving their punishment could have been a deterrent for women to prevent them from engaging in affairs. It could have been aimed at shaping the way parthenos understood how to behave in marriage. There is little evidence for how women interacted with mythology. In addition, these myths were likely instructional to husbands about the danger their wives presented, necessitating that they be monitored, educated, or even secluded. Helen in Aeschylus’s Agamemnon is described as leaving, “Lightly she crossed the threshold”. This implies that not only was she left alone by her husband, but there was no physical restriction on her ability to leave. Perhaps this guided the decision of many Athenian men to seclude their wives within their homes. This took place, particularly with higher-class females, whose husbands could afford slaves that allowed women to run their household without leaving its boundaries. More generally, women interacted publicly with others at certain events but contact with men from outside one’s family was curbed. While there is broad historiographical debate concerning the extent to which women were actually secluded, it is nevertheless clear that this was portrayed as the ideal method to prevent female misbehavior even if it was not practically enforced in all households, and thus there was a relevant didactic message evidently imparted by these myths. Thus, the portrayal of adulterous women both reflected social values and was didactic in meaning.

This analysis of the disavowal of the adulterous woman character type prompts the question: what was the importance of adulteresses being portrayed negatively to the Greek audience? The infidelity of women was a significant concern to the Greeks for two main reasons; clandestine, extra-marital relationships undermined the role of women in the household and threatened the legitimacy and paternity of offspring. Moicheia, or the betrayal of conjugal faith, was an important issue as it pertained to the household. This was a part of the structure of society, as with today, but was also an important feature of the polis or city-state. This incentivized the protection of gendered hierarchy in marriage by the state itself. Aristotle wrote that “…in the relationship between male and female: the former is ascendant and the latter inferior, the former the ruler and the latter the ruled. In the whole of humanity this pattern must be the same.”. Female adultery undermined the head of the household, the man’s authority over his women, and their sexual piety. The seduction of a married woman further insulted her husband, as he corrupted her mind and took her loyalty away from him. In the view of the Greeks, the story of female adulterers was important as it represented how women like Clytemnestra and Aerope undermined the social structure of the household as well as their role within it as subordinate women.

Moreover, the importance of legitimate succession is another reason why the character type of adulterous women was a significant concern for the Greeks. The central purpose of the institution of marriage for the Greek community was for men to have legitimate heirs. In this way, their name could continue immortally, and they could pass on their possessions. This is emphasized when Pataikos speaks “Listen to what I say: I give you this girl for the plowing of legitimate children.”. Secret affairs threaten a man’s certainty about the paternity of his children. This is particularly important for inheritance purposes, which involved religious acts, and purity of bloodlines was emphasized. When citizens introduced their child to their phratry, they wanted to have no doubts surrounding paternity. In this way, the legitimacy of a man’s children was threatened by his wife’s adultery, embedding portrayals of such women with great importance.