Why is there so much rape in ancient Greek mythology?

Breadbassket

Breadbassket

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Are there any other cultures with such a running motif or theme in their legends?

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The preoccupation with rape in ancient Greek mythology is likely the consequence of the way that the ancient Greeks viewed sexuality as an extension of an individual's power. It didn't matter to them if the participants were male, female, adults, children, humans, gods, or even animals; what mattered was which participant was the dominant party, and which the submissive one.
 
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Throughout most of her story a mans role to pursue even through initial rejection was implicitly understood and accepted by both sides. You have tons of instances where women are carried off in war and are fine with it. To the point where the word rape had a much less negative more descriptive connotation in the olden days as you can tell by all the old timey stories and paintings titled "the rape of x".

It's only in the past century or two that the way the gods pursued women started to really be looked on negatively for the reasons we have now. And only in the past couple decades that they've been seen as horrific crimes that disturb modern people far more than they probably ever disturbed the ancient Greek women actually being chased around as a whole. And a lot of the examples on the list aren't even traditionally considered rape and were just put there by Wikipedia using 21st century definitions where it's rape if you don't get verbal permission every 10 minutes.
 
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It's the epitome of the dominant narrative of the then-mainstream view of sexual purity. It's certainly not a dead mindset but it's still considered unclassy by today's standards.
 
They hardly showered; shat in corners and had rotting teeth. Rape was for all intents and purposes, foreplay for them.
 
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I'm gonna be real with you, the Greeks weren't that far removed from cavemen. They just figured out government. There still was a LOT OF RAPE happening. A LOT. I would go to say it was borderline normalized.
 
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The hellenic world had no real concept of sexuality or consent that we would readily recognise. What they had, and eventually became formally codified as Rome rose, was an understanding of social domination vs submission.

Slaves, of either sex, were open to being the submissive sexual partner without taboo by any man of a higher social standing and had no ability to refuse. The only avenue of complaint might be the slaves owner may object to their property being used, and then again only really if the "user" was a peer.

This was true to a lesser extent for free men and women by the nobility, though most patricians probably had more sense and taste than to demand sexual favors from all the free born under their control.

Women were mostly fair game for any male of a higher social standing. If your patron wanted to fuck your wife, you asked him what time and what she should wear. Unless you yourself were important enough to put him back in his place.

The idea that someone of a lower rank, of either sex, could say no to a more senior male just didn't exist.

Rape, as a crime, wasn't so clear either. If you were strong enough to fuck her without consequence, you were the superior male so you were just exercising your right. The law may have forbade rape, but this wasn't something a social inferior would be able to bring against their masters and was more a question of damaging an equal or superiors assets.

The only sexual taboo for a male, with a partner of either sex, was being submissive. No being fucked, no cowgirl. The more important male must always be on top and penetrating at all times.

It's actually interesting how sex-blind it was, they were more interested in the display of strength than anything else.
 
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A27 Cromwell said:
Rape is the pajeet's default setting.

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I have zero sympathy for these western women. Its been known that things are this way for years. Its like covering yourself in barbecue sauce and snuggling up with crocodiles. Either they are dumb as rocks or its 100% intentional, as the woman in the above makes perfectly clear so they can run back to social media for uptoots about how funny or how much of a martyr they are. Its funny seeing this shit reposted over and over on reddit and the simps over there pretending to be shocked about it.


Karen of Human Resources said:
The hellenic world had no real concept of sexuality or consent that we would readily recognise. What they had, and eventually became formally codified as Rome rose, was an understanding of social domination vs submission.

Slaves, of either sex, were open to being the submissive sexual partner without taboo by any man of a higher social standing.

Women also, were mostly fair game for any male of a higher social standing. If your liegelord wanted to fuck your wife, you basically asked him what time and what she should wear.

The idea that someone of a lower rank, of either sex, could say no to a more senior male just didn't exist. Rape, as a crime, wasn't so clear either. If you were strong enough to fuck her without consequence, you were the superior male so you were just exercising your right.

The only sexual taboo for a male, with a partner of either sex, was being submissive. No being fucked, no cowgirl. The more important male must always be on top and penetrating at all times.

It's actually interesting almost how sex-blind it is, they were more interested in the display of strength than anything else.
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I partially disagree in the sense that the grecoroman dominance/submission concept has been absurdly exaggerated and twisted by the left to the myth that greeks and romans had no concept of heterosexuality/homosexuality or man and woman and everybody just went around freely banging man or woman with dominance being the only concern.
 
grump said:
To the point where the word rape had a much less negative more descriptive connotation in the olden days as you can tell by all the old timey stories and paintings titled "the rape of x"
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Linguistically, rape meant to snatch/steal. It meant plunder before it meant forcing intercourse. That's why paintings are called the "rape of x". It just means sacking of the city and plundering its wealth.

It's only later that it took its current meaning.

$$

Assyrians had laws where if a man raped and was unmarried, he must marry the woman (with all encompanying obligations, including paying dowry)

Ancient israelites, similar.

Greeks and romans had laws that made rape a capital offense, whether "against a boy, woman or anyone".

Muslims regarded rape as a terrible act. But it could only be a rape if not married to that person AND if the person was muslim. You can't rape non muslims.
 
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Karen of Human Resources said:
The idea that someone of a lower rank, of either sex, could say no to a more senior male just didn't exist.
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It did though. It was not proper for a man to fuck other men beside his male slaves. If he did, it was expected that he would be their mentor and that the only sort of sex they would have were handjobs and this weird shit you can see in their art where the dude would thrust his dick between the other guy's thighs. Anally fucking a freeborn male was considered weird and potentially illegal depending on time and place. Two older dudes fucking was considered weird because it meant one of the guys was being immature and still wanting to be "mentored." Men who broke these rules were called out all the time for it by political opponents.
grump said:
I partially disagree in the sense that the grecoroman dominance/submission concept has been absurdly exaggerated and twisted by the left to the myth that greeks and romans had no concept of heterosexuality/homosexuality or man and woman and everybody just went around freely banging man or woman with dominance being the only concern.
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I mean they did. We have their own writings that prove that some people in that society did, even if being a hypersexual and fucking anything that moves was considered a vice. Every critique of homosexuality in Antiquity was a critique of certain types of homosexual relationships like the aforementioned anal sex with teenage freeborn men.
 
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The Greeks discovered writing not far removed from barbarian times. So mankind's state of nature was remembered to present day.

You are trying to apply a modern lens to pre history. Things were much more violent then, and power was the biggest commodity.
 
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Save the Loli said:
It did though. It was not proper for a man to fuck other men beside his male slaves. If he did, it was expected that he would be their mentor and that the only sort of sex they would have were handjobs and this weird shit you can see in their art where the dude would thrust his dick between the other guy's thighs. Anally fucking a freeborn male was considered weird and potentially illegal depending on time and place. Two older dudes fucking was considered weird because it meant one of the guys was being immature and still wanting to be "mentored." Men who broke these rules were called out all the time for it by political opponents.

I mean they did. We have their own writings that prove that some people in that society did, even if being a hypersexual and fucking anything that moves was considered a vice. Every critique of homosexuality in Antiquity was a critique of certain types of homosexual relationships like the aforementioned anal sex with teenage freeborn men.
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Actually there was a really in depth video about this, and I'd recommend anyone interested watch it.
 
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