We would be glad if we could skip through the serious issue of Greek misogyny. It would be in the case, if there was no reason for suspiction, that it is a literary source of rome misogyny. This and no less efficient oriental substance are the culture medium for smelly misogyny well, which spoils European culture until today.
After reading this passage, my friend Professor Bareda told me, that " serious problem of all literature- not only Greek, lies in that, that in a majority it is an issue of men, so it is in the hands of men." And censors women writers of antique Greece in 7th and 3rd century BC, so there are hardly eleven names. "There are also too many authors, whose names are withheld" she continues "they either write under the man pseudonym or in anonymity. It is said that Perikles speech was written by his concubine Aspasia. There is also an opinion that the last book of the historian Tukydios about the peloponese war was written by his daughter. This book is different from others, because it misses essays. The absence of women writers means that antique literature represents opinions of men, and emphasizes everything negative, what is supposed by women: double-dealing, falsity, coquettishness etc. with the well known exaggerations mentioned details. Let us imagine, that in matriarchal and feministic culture the roles were changed. What concerned the satire and attacks, the men had smaller chance of success."
In reality in the whole Greek culture, we meet the witnessing of the large misogyny stream, from which the Greek never -we regret to mention that- dissociated, neither did he moderate him. Generally, the greek Misogyny men , what concerns supposed calculating and greedy character of a woman and they have the similar announcements as for example: While she is seducing you, go and find a granary." /Hesoiodos: Works and days, page 37 3-374/. This unpopular comments are comparable with those modern ones as for example: "While you are trying to guess the exact colour of her eyes, she is asking you about the amount of money at your account." Also the anonymous author offers not less unfortunate testimony. "While you are thinking only about what to give, she is thinking about what to take" And though we do not have the reason to think that misogyny of today were convinced by their Greek ancestors.
If the highest virtue of a woman was sophrosyné - restraint, by men it was adreia, bravery in its different manifestation, it means the courage in the fighting place and selfcontrol in peace. The man had to exhibit his restraint, sagacity, temper, the ability to think and seriousness. It seems that the only manifestation of all characteristics ascribed to man on the other hand limits appropriate lack of these characteristics of a woman. If the perfection of a man lies in his self control, subjugation to rationality and logics, the innate imperfection of a woman shows opposite lacks - irrationality and talkativeness.
And do not think that such an absurd prejudice was not connected to the highest philosophers. Aristotle alone claims in his History of animals /p 590, 1,2/ that a woman is smaller man with limited intelligence. A woman cannot think, he said, she easily changes opinions, does not keep her word, often screams and cries. A man thinks logically, because he thinks with his head, a woman does not think, because she thinks with her matrix. From the Greek word hystéra /matrix/ is derived hysterikós, which got to us through Latin as hystery and hysterical. The dictionary defines hystery as a "psychoneurosis" more often by women than men. Note that sexist view of Greek lasts until now in the science and language.
Let us push aside the attitude on the basis of gender. It seems that the Greeks could sense reality, although they derived exaggerated conclusions from it. I have recently read an article of Mayte Contrerasa, that women "are as waves succumbing to biological cycles /../, hormonal disturbances and all other fluctuactions. Also so called pre-menstrual syndrome in the laws of certain countries is a practical reason for liberating judgment."
According to Greek, this supposed mistaken psychological development of a woman makes her a suspicious creature, mentally imperfect, which has to be controlled by a responsible man /father, husband and son/ and the town keeps her , so that she will not behave wildly. Greeks were convinced, that thanks to her characteristic fondness a woman is not moderate from birth, and that explained supposed fondness of a woman of food, wine and sex, three common elements of a Greek misogyny. We view them as disturbing in Greek literature as for example by Demokritos, who considers inclination of a woman to evil natural.
We can see that it was hard for a Greek woman very difficult. Hipponax wrote a terrible sentence: "… the two best days in the life of a woman are her wedding day and when she dies."
As a bloodthirsty tiger, which becomes a murderer, when he is hungry for human meat, so woman necessarily changes into the servant of her "moving matrix" when she experiences climax. That is a Platons theory. She obtains "fire eye, when she has tasted a man" " A woman is a lecherous being, I cannot say it in other words. says Euripides with the mouth of Electra. It is an idea, which is after thousands years repeated by Arabic authors, who have a good teacher in Greek and oriental tradition. Ibn Hazm, famous author of Necklace of a dove recommends and says: "Never think good of a woman. Womans soul does not think of anything else but making love, she is not interested in anything else and she was not created for anything else."
In the overshadow there is a jealousy of men to their sexual partners who can feel the climax more often than men. Except for that, man is worried about the shape of his organ. This is confirmed by Greek story of Tireseios. He was the first famous transsexual in history, and he confirmed in the story that women enjoy sex more than men.
Be it as it may, the topic of a woman seducing a man, or who is ruled by a passion to man is continuously repeated in Greek literature from the beginning: the story of Amazonians is an archetype reflecting reservations of men society towards supposedly innate women cruelty and greed and it seems that this suspicion confirms the surplus of dishonourably known bad heroins in the period when the society was more divided. Helena, a wife of the king Menla, escapes with a lover and so starts the Troja war. The brother of Menla, Agamemnon is killed by his wife Klytaimester who also found a lover. Neither Penelopa freed from the suspicion, although the most widespread historical version describes her as a devoted wife, in later anonymous versions she is made the worst, because she changed in the absence of husband 129 men in bed. They walked around her house and the proof of her sin is the birth of Pana /"everything"/.