Female Nature or a Patriarchal Threat? Female Sexuality and Agency Construction in Graeco-Roman Myth

Abstract: This essay explores the construction of female sexuality and agency in Graeco-Roman myth as destabilising forces. Specifically, the study examines how female autonomy is often framed as threatening to the established patriarchal boundaries through analysis of four case studies: the Erinyes in Aeschylus’ Eumenides, Hera’s parthenogenetic birth of Typhaon in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, Circe in Homer’s Odyssey, and Medusa. Drawing on feminist and psychoanalytic scholarship, the essay argues that monstrosity in these myths does not necessarily derive from physical hybridity, but from the perceived threat of autonomous female power. While the threat is often imminent in these myths, a crucial pattern is analysed. Once contained and subordinated to the patriarchal cosmos, this female power becomes useful. Ultimately, the essay argues that Graeco-Roman myth does not depict femininity as inherently monstrous, but constructs it as such when beyond patriarchal borders, reflecting deep cultural anxieties surrounding female autonomy.