Myths can be defined as traditions that have been followed for generations in an attempt to make the things in the world more sensible. Myths are mostly if not always made up of some beliefs about life, the roles that are to be played by men and women and even cultures and society. These traditions and beliefs are handed down from generation to generations which makes them a big part of the transmission of culture and the attitudes of the society in general.
In this chapter by John Gould, he seeks to shine a light on myths that were associated with women and how women were viewed in the Athens. For many generations, women were put on the sidelines. It is no different in the Athens. The writer shows how women we considered as just child bearers and nothing more. As an example, he explains how women were given off by the fathers just to bear children for their husbands. The writer likens women to animals whose only sole purpose is to bear offspring. He also compares women to horses that need to be tamed and broken.
He also tells a tale of how women were seen as seductive and destructive, these myths about women go to show that women were not respected for anything else other than their sexuality and that the power of a woman was only in her sexuality. In his explanation, the author states that in most of the stories of the Athens where a man meets a woman, the man ends up destructed. This also shows that women were seen as weaknesses to the men and that they were only a distraction to the man.