Athena, a tool for the patriarchy Anonymous 12th Grade

“Athena, [in pursuit of her] adventures as a woman, [tied to an immortal and moral world that is] dominated by a male ethos”, is used to highlight the importance of gender in an unforgiving society. As a woman, Athena is enslaved to her gender, in which she must not deviate from the norm, carrying the burden of being both a “chaste virgin” (Apollodorus, Library, 91) and maternal figure, and ensuring complete subservience to the male gender. In this sense, Homer, Hesiod and Apollodorus cast Athena as embodying the typical feminine stereotypes in which she seems unable to transcend in any form. Fundamentally, Athena is disregarded as a female hero, highlighting a prominent fear of feminine power in which the prospect of any powerful woman is defensively disregarded and instead altered to suit the gender norms of ancient society.

In the birth of Athena, as Zeus prevents a natural birth, he ultimately prevents Athena from gaining genuine power, merely sentencing her to a lifetime of service to the favored sex. If Athena had been born naturally, she would have been a threat to Zeus’s supremacy. However, in giving birth from his own brow, Zeus ensures that Athena remains subordinate to himself, ultimately becoming a tool in which...