Greek Heroine Cults essays

Greek Heroine Cults essays Larson, Jennifer Greek Heroine Cults. University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. Jennifer Larsons extensive knowledge on the subject of ancient women, goddesses, gods, and mythology is very apparent in this book. I found the book difficult to read as one would read a novel or even a textbook. However, I thought that Larsons very detailed (and referenced and cross-referenced) descriptions of heroine cults would make an excellent reference book. This comprehensive book details Greek heroin cults and their place in Greek society, from the worship of them, to a definition of who could be considered a heroine, to stories about them. Citing many sources and references, Larson gives an unbiased view to the many different theories and interpretations of the evidence found about the heroine cults. Larsons studies have concluded that there were many more heroine cults than history would lead one to believe (p. 4). She says that in the time of the ancient Greece, many individual families, or larger extended families worshiped their own heroines that might not be known to other Greek citizens. An other reason why heroines might not get much recognition is that they were often paired with a hero, and thus overshadowed by him. In our discussions in class, we too have talked about the fact that women are not as equally represented in history as men are, and this seems to be the case for heroines as well as for regular women. Since men were writing the histories, they wrote about their version of a hero. The famous history writers from ancient Greece would undoubtedly consider the traits of a fearless warrior to be the great heroic standard. The trials, tribulations, and wisdom of women would likely not be as interesting to the notable Greek history writers, and certainly not considered heroic, therefore the many heroine cults would not have been written about. Heroes may be defined by their courage and m ...