Tim Liu, Period 7, 10/18/23

Tim Liu, Period 7, 10/18/23

Modern Mythology 2024 

Literacy & Learning

Lesson: Depiction of Culture

Before we began reading Stone Blind and learning about Athena being a subject of rape. I already knew this context/story where Zeus would rape metis, impregnate her, had her transform into a water then swallow her which would eventually led to the birth Athena through the head. 

In class, we learned to scan sources to see how people view rape and compare them with how Natalie Haynes depict Metis. What surprises me the most in class when reading the articles was the way how ancient cultures view rape during those times. Before I even scan through Susan Guettal article, I thought ancient societies would implement strict laws against rape. However, it there wasn’t such thing as rape during the ancient days, instead they sometime considered it as adultery or sexual assault. The males in the household during the time have the responsibility to keep the women in the household at home because they couldn’t trust anybody. Ancient laws tends to favor the upper classes who could simply get away with rape by simply paying a fine to the victim’s husband or father. If the victim of rape was a free and independent it’s up to her to decided to whether she should choose death or marry the same person who raped her. 

Natalie Haynes depicted Metis as an independent woman who helped Zeus waged war against the titans. However, was sort of betrayed by Zeus and was forced to submit to Zeus. The Athenian laws would just see this as sexual assault or adultery. So how does this new information influence my critical depiction? I feel like the way people view classic mythology is much different than what we see today. They were okay with rape which we now see as a serious crime or a crime against human rights. How is what I’m learning applied to any other classes/the world around you? I feel like this proves post-structuralism right, which critics say that the meaning or interpretation of words or the way we view words is constantly changing depending on people's values or experiences during their time period.