Traditionally in the ancient Greek culture, women were seen to be a reflection of her husband or father's standing in society. If her husband was a powerful man then she was considered a powerful woman by association. Ancient Gricean women would also depend upon their patriarch for protection, for there was always a threat perceived to a woman's honor if she was alone or if her family was perceived to be weak. For all these benefits men gave to women, women in return were to give back their loyalty and obedience and thus the power balance was seen as a fair trade, with men in control and women accepting this as a fact of life. Now women could never be “truly independent” by themselves according to the author of Women in Greek Myth, but if a woman was able to defend herself and find a way of gaining power herself, then the molding that the society held them to, was vastly shaken.
In mythology, there were very few opportunities for women to venture from this role without serious repercussions against them or others people involved in their lives. They were also considered unnatural and dangerous. The most common threat perceived to the ancient world would be from a woman who broke the society's mold by being more powerful than their male counterparts. Such as the infamous sorceress Medea or the great Heroine Atalanta and from the famed mortal daughter of Zeus, Helen of Troy whose beauty caused a war of legendary proportions. The idea that the men of the ancient patriarchal society held a fear of strong women, these women in particular, was a fair evaluation. The women in ancient mythology were composed of a diverse group of woman who did not fit into their molding because they each held a wide range of powers and abilities that the men of these times did not know how to combat against or how to achieve themselves. Thus powerful women were deemed dangerous because of men's fear and jealousy.
The most powerful disciple of the goddess of magic, Medea, was also the most devastating threat to the ancient heroes of old, for her magic and intelligence greatly outmatched the men who sought to profit off her abilities. In Apollonius Argonautica, Medea is introduced as a young woman who is willing “to drawn out all her soul” and given it to Jason in order to help him achieve his goal of obtaining the fleece. This
loyalty to Jason demonstrates how far she is willing to go to fulfill her role as a loyal lover. However, the need Jason has for her skills demonstrates the fact that Medea is, in fact, more powerful than him. While Medea was fitting into the mold ancient society held for her by obeying Jason's ‘commands’, she was also going against it at the same time. Medea was capable of protecting Jason in exchange for his loyalty and thus went against the traditional bargain of power in the relationship. This portrayal opens up the conflict that Medea will go through because she has the powers and the intelligence to gain greater control of her own life but is limited by the society that she is surrounded by.
Now in Euripides, Medea, Medea is now going against her “oath braking” husband’s commands and the magic she had previously used to support him gain power is now helping her to avenge herself. Medea states that when a woman is “wronged in her marriage,” such as she was by Jason by denying her the promises made in their marriage, to protect and support her, a woman heart is “more bloodthirsty.” As hatred rules her decisions, her cunning and will surpass the expectations of the men around her, who do not know how she will retaliate against them. The king Creon states that he is “afraid” of her because he knew that Medea was “innately clever and skilled,” in powers that have been proven to be devastating to those who crossed her. Creon’s fear demonstrates how a powerful woman like Medea was seen most commonly as a threat and was banished in order to protect themselves from her obviously impactful retaliation against them. Medea is a complex character for she goes from an innocent young girl, fulfilling her society's expectations of her, to a person who could no longer oblige by them for they were unjust to her. The core attribute of her power and intelligence is always present in her many adaptations, thus always making her go against the expectations men had held for her. In the end, Medea is immortalized as a powerful sorceress who is a plague to the men who are threatened by her strength and power.
Atalanta is a figure who is a more obvious example of a woman who did not fit the full Grecian mold. She was always vastly stronger and more empowered than the men she was surrounded by. In Ovid's retelling of the Calydonian Boar, Atalanta is depicted as “girl boyish,” meaning that while her femininity was present she gave off a look that was more masculine than associated with young women. Her liminal looks only highlighted how she was able to move throughout what was considered a man's territory. Because she was able to move throughout wild territory without the need for protection from a man, she quickly became a skilled hunter that rivaled many men's talents. In the hunt for the Calydonian boar, Atalanta’s success made the men’s “[faces] turned red,” because they could not handle being out-skilled by a mere woman. The whole tragedy of this myth could have been avoided if the men were not threatened by the notion of a woman being able to beat them in what was considered a male-dominated area.
Even while Atalanta was fulfilling the expectation of getting married, she did it in a way that still highlighted her challenging the mold. In the foot race against her suitor Hippomenes, she “lingered,” in her running and because of this gave him a slight chance, but she would always end up “leaving him behind.” Atalanta lost the race because of divine intervention and her feelings toward her suitor, it was not because she was less than him. Atalanta was always a challenge against the expectations men held for women in traditional Greek culture. She was physically strong and did not need permission from men to do things in her life. Because of men’s inability to accept this, she was declared a dangerous woman, for she was the cause of their humiliation and in some ways indirect deaths.
Helen of Troy is considered the most destructive women in all of history. She is attributed as the primary cause of the Trojan War in all of ancient literature. Her most famous attribute was her unearthly beauty, the cause of many men’s destruction. For this beauty, she was considered to be the ultimate prize when attaining a wife. In Blondell’s book Helen of Troy, it is pointed out that men desired “to be the husband” of Helen thus shifting the control of the marriage in Helen’s favor. In the marriage between Menelaus and Helen, Menelaus was in the “position of a bride,” because he was the one who moved to Helen's home of Sparta and because Helen always held a power about her. This power was her ability to control men by just her looks alone. This marriage is a precisely an example of the molding being worked against. Helen brought Menelaus a powerful standing in society. He was considered a second-rate ‘hero’ before he married her. Helen, on the other hand, has been worshiped as a goddess throughout the ancient world and as the goddess were feared for their power, so was Helen.
The Trojan War was the result of Pairs falling under the same spell that Helen cast upon all men who gazed upon her. He was as helpless to her beauty as all other men were. In the many adaptations of the aftermath of the Trojan War, Helen is treated differently throughout the adaptations. In Homer's Odyssey Helen is painted in a sympathetic light. She “lamented the madness,” she states Aphrodite caused her to go with Pairs and cause all this destruction. Helen is now fulfilling her role in society by being loyal to her husband and submitting to his command. However, she was also fulfilling the mold when she went with Pairs, a man who could give her a powerful position in Troy as well offering her better protection than husband provided her.
On the other hand, there was a lot of blame placed on Helen for her going with Pairs willingly. In Euripides Trojan Women, Helen is blamed harshly for she “ hideously destroyed,” both Troy and caused many greek deaths. Helen defense is that she was the instrument of the god's will, however, there are the undertones of this not being the true reason she left. Helen was always a woman used to being in control when it came to men. Her actions might be because of her desires to break out from the thumb of society or because of unjust divine intervention. However, she is still a woman who held power no man could fight against and thus she was deemed to be a danger to them.
Men in the ancient world were afraid of women who they could not control. As well as having no idea on how to surpass their diverse range of powers. The fear and jealousy they held for them were understandable because in ancient mythology no two women were the same. Each woman had individual ways of gaining power for herself in the ancient world. while they harnessed their power they were also breaking the expectations men held for them. However, the expectations in themselves were the reason for so many tragedies associated with these women. When they tried to fill society's mold for them they became suffocated and in retaliation, they completely shattered the mold instead. From breaking the mold men had held them to and for being too diverse for men to handle, powerful women were forever deemed as dangerous women and seen as plague to ancient society.