Guest post from Eirene S. Allen.

Across the modern period, mortal women featured in ancient Greek myths have consistently been characterized as narrative props who move men along their individual heroic journeys but have no claim to heroism themselves. M. I. Finley’s influential The World of Odysseus, for example, concluded that ‘“hero” has no feminine gender in the age of heroes’ because Homer does not use the feminine form of the Greek word for ‘hero’. That word appears in the Iliad and Odyssey few but significant times, always in its masculine form. If ancient Greek heroism was reserved for men, the argument has gone, then it must be awarded for traditionally male activities (hunting, fighting, competing in athletic contests). Since women were generally excluded from these activities in myth narratives, Amazons and Atalanta excepted, they must not be heroines.

Yet myth narratives feature women prominently, not only Helen, Andromache, Penelope, and Nausicaa from Homer but also Antigone, Clytemnestra, Iphigenia, and many more from other poetic genres, including those composed by women. And they achieve their fame engaging in typically (in ancient Greece) feminine activities—weaving, performing laments, and crafting strategies to benefit those close to them and harm their antagonists. In addition to poetic myths that preserve their stories, archaeological and textual evidence suggests that women were worshipped in cult as superhuman forces.

Further, while it is true that Homer does not use the word ‘heroine’, a feminine form of hero does exist in ancient Greek, and it first appears in the victory odes of 5^th century lyric poet Pindar. Like Homer, Pindar’s odes tell stories about figures from the ‘age of heroes’, including those we meet in Homer: Clytemnestra, Heracles, Hector, Achilles. The tragedies of Athenian playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides likewise narrate stories about both heroes and heroines from the heroic age. And as with Pindar, figures familiar from Homer feature, including Clytemnestra, Odysseus, Menelaus, and Helen. ‘Hero’, it turns out, does have a feminine gender in the ‘age of heroes’. To recognize her, we need to learn how to read the signs. Here are five that identify a heroine, even if the word itself is not used to describe her:

1. Gods and goddesses intervene in and inspire the actions of heroines

In Homer’s epics, goddesses communicate with heroines and direct or inspire their actions. In the Iliad, Aphrodite appears to Helen in the guise of a beloved servant from Sparta and orders her to go to Paris. Athena inspires Penelope’s strategies in the Odyssey, which enable her to hold off the suitors while Odysseus battles Poseidon’s interference. Athena also appears to Nausicaa in a dream, disguised as one of her dear friends, and sends her to the river where Odysseus lies asleep. Sophocles’ Antigone defies Creon because her first loyalty is to the laws of the gods, which drive her to provide burial rites for her brother.

2. Heroines are daughters, wives, and mothers of heroes, sharing their ancestry from the gods

A similar formula introduces both heroes and heroines in Homer: their names and their patronymics. These patronymics reveal that heroines are descended from heroes, who are themselves descended from gods and goddesses. Helen, uniquely in Homer, is the daughter of Zeus. Other Homeric heroines are descended from heroes: Andromache’s father is Eetion, who receives a hero’s burial from Achilles, the same man who kills him in battle, and Nausicaa is the daughter of Alcinous, a grandson of Poseidon. Euripides’ heroines are descended from both gods and heroes: Medea is the granddaughter of Helios, Iphigenia and Electra the daughters of Agamemnon, and Antigone and Ismene the daughters of Oedipus.

Terracotta kylix (drinking cup)

3. Heroines are described or portrayed as ‘first’ or ‘best’ among their cohort

Penelope’s suitor Antinous describes her having more cunning than any other woman, even the best from ancient times. Odysseus expresses a similar sentiment when he says that she ‘among all women’ has a hard heart—not a backhanded compliment but a backhanded insult: it suggests a negative quality but is actually her strength, since it prevents her from being deceived by gods or men. In Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis, when Iphigenia agrees to be offered as a sacrifice to Artemis, Achilles says she is ‘first in will’, conventionally translated as ‘a heroic spirit’ since ‘first of’, according to classical scholar Gregory Nagy, is a ‘functional equivalent’ of ‘hero’.

4. Heroines achieve ‘fame in song’ (kleos in Greek)

By virtue of being included in the Iliad and Odyssey, every hero and heroine named in Homer has achieved kleos, which means ‘fame that is sung about’. The epics began as songs, and the heroines’ stories are included in them. Thus, every time we read or hear Homer’s epics, we are participating in passing on the fame of these heroines. Within the epics, Penelope’s kleos is mentioned not only by others but is also a concern to herself: She admits that her ‘fame in song’ will become greater if she succeeds in her scheme to reunite with her husband. The kleos of Iphigenia is also referenced in Iphigenia at Aulis: the Chorus tells her that ‘fame in song’ will never leave her.

5. Heroines had shrines and/or rituals dedicated to them in ancient times

Much of the misunderstanding around heroism in ancient Greece, whether for men or women, arises from misunderstanding the relationship between the myths told about heroes and the ritual honors offered to heroes. In ancient Greece, heroes were ‘religious’ figures. Larger and mightier than ‘current’ mortals, and closer to the gods, they had been alive during the ‘age of heroes’ and, after they died, retained their power. It was this power that local communities hoped to activate by offering ritual honors to the heroes and heroines with whom they were personally connected. While these rituals revolved around specific communities, the stories poets crafted about heroes and heroines—the myths—could be either specific to their local communities or Panhellenic, meaning common to all Hellenes. While it is difficult to know how many ancient heroine cults existed, many of the heroines featured in myth narratives are known to have been worshipped as powerful superhuman forces, as heroes also were.

The Epic Women of Homer is available to order here.