Greek Mythology’s dangerous half-women
Do you think strong, beautiful women are intimidating? The ancient Greeks sure believed they were.
Not only did they consider their goddesses to be ruthless — even love goddess Aphrodite could be stonecold — or did they think all beautiful female antagonists were sorceress’ — like Medea and Circe. The ancient Greeks also created myths about female creatures just waiting to make men’s lives miserable.
There were the women who waited by the side of the road to catch travelers and eat them, the ones who could kill a guy with a single, icy look, the sexy entertainers who would try to murder you, and even the ones who would defecate all over a king’s food. The Greek who came up with the last story must’ve drawn inspiration from the fact that women poop.
DISCLAIMER: Women poop.
All of the following stories have two things in common:
- To highlight how evil some of these mythical women were, the Greeks downplayed their feminine beauty with animal bodies, tails, tusks, or even hair.
- In the end, the half-women were always defeated or outsmarted by a man who the Greeks would consider a hero.*
Those requirements helped the poor Greeks cope with women who were anything but sweet and mellow.
These are the dangerous half-women of Greek Mythology.
*This also happened to the warrior women the Amazons, although apart from being tall and robust, the Greeks didn’t consider them to have any physical flaws like the half-women.
Echidna
Echidna was a half-snake woman who was born when the world was formed. That’s why she’s considered the mother of most other monsters in Greek Mythology. With her brother Typhon, she gave birth to some other fearsome half-women like the Gorgon Medusa and the Sphinx.
The ageless and immortal Echidna spent most of her life living in a cave near modern-day Narlıkuyu, Turkey. There, she caught and ate uncareful passers-by until Echidna was killed by the hundred-eyed giant Argus Panoptes. A possible interpretation of this myth is that it took 50 pairs of eyes or 50 men to kill her.
The Gorgons
The Gorgons Stheno and Euryale are the immortal daughters of Phorcys and Ceto, ancient sea gods. They were born as women with tusks, wings, bronze hands (strange), and hair made of live snakes. If all of that doesn’t sound terrifying enough just yet, the women could also turn anyone to stone with one glance.
Although the third and last Gorgon, Medusa, is probably the best-known of her kind, she wasn’t born as one.
Medusa’s life story might be one of the most tragic ones in Greek Mythology. She caught the eye of the sea god Poseidon, who raped her in a temple of another famous goddess, Athena. The goddess of wisdom was disgusted by the sex on her temple floor but didn’t care for punishing the actual culprit in the story and took out her rage on the poor Medusa.
After Athena turned Medusa into a Gorgon, she banished the woman to live with the other Gorgons on an island. The ‘hero’ Perseus eventually beheaded Medusa to use her petrifying stare against his enemies. Afterward, he gifted the head to Athena, who, petty as she was, placed it on her war shield.
The Harpies
The Harpies were two human vultures who went by the names of Aello and Ocypete. They had the faces of women but the bodies of birds. Though they were general symbols of cruelty, they play a big part in one particular myth.
Phineus was the king of Thrace, a part of modern-day Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey.
One day, Zeus, king of the gods, punished Phineus because the man used his foresight to predict the future of everyone around him. Zeus banished Phineus to an island and made sure the Harpies tormented him. Aello and Ocypete were ordered never to let the king eat, whether it was by stealing his food or defecating on it.
Phineus’s luck changed when the hero party of the ship the Argo passed his island while they were searching for the Golden Fleece. Zetes and Calaïs, two members of the team who could fly, would eventually chase the Harpies away for good. The bird-women would never bother Phineus again, and all Greeks could forget about the horrible fact that women poop.
The Sphinx
The Sphinx was a lion with the face and chest of a woman and the wings of an eagle. She was a symbol of destruction and guarded the entrance to the Greek city of Thebes, confronting passers-by with riddles they couldn’t solve. Every traveler who failed her test would be eaten.
When Oedipus, the future king of Thebes, wanted to get into the city, the Sphinx asked him: “What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?” Oedipus was the first traveler to answer one of the Sphinx’s riddles correctly by saying: “Man. Man crawls on four legs when he’s born, walks when he’s an adult and has to use a walking stick when he’s old.”
Furious about her defeat, the Sphinx committed suicide by jumping off the cliff that was her home.
The Sirens
The Sirens were dangerous half-women (and -men) who lived on some rocks near the Italian island of Capri. By using their enchanting singing voices, the Sirens made passing sailors wreck their ships. Although today the Sirens are considered to have looked like mermaids, the women and men had the bodies of birds.
Two of Greek Mythology’s most famous heroes managed to pass the Sirens’ islands without wrecking their ship. The first one was Jason, the leader of the hero party of the Argo. He had one of his crew members, the musician Orpheus, play his lyre to cover the Sirens’ voices.
The second hero to receive safe passage was Odysseus. After the Trojan War, the king of Ithaca had to sail past the Sirens to get home. He made his men stuff their ears with beeswax so they couldn’t hear the Sirens sing and tied himself to the ship so he could listen to their beautiful songs, but wouldn’t be tempted to jump overboard.
Since a Greek myth wouldn’t be complete without a bit of tragedy, it’s said that after Odysseus tricked the Sirens, the women committed suicide because they had failed in wrecking the king’s ship.
Strong women and their weird animal bodies
From the snake tail of Echidna to the awkward little lion body of the Sphinx, the Greeks refused to let the female antagonists in their myths look normal. They also needed to meet some kind of sad fate, like the Harpies being banished for their pooping. But most often, they were simply killed, like Echidna and Medusa, or said to commit suicide, like the Sphinx and the Sirens.
While the Greeks merely invented these stories to cope with strong, unfriendly ladies, nowadays, these half-women are better known than some of the heroes who killed or outsmarted them. Think about that next time you see the Versace logo or watch The Little Mermaid.
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Sources:
Fry, Stephen. Heroes. London: Penguin, 2019.
Fry, Stephen. Mythos. London: Penguin, 2017.
