A Case Study on Euripides: How Do Female Stereotypes inAncient Greek Drama Reflect Patriarchal Ideals?
Despite being excluded from both the stage and public life, and with their stories written, performed, and critiqued solely by men, female characters often occupied central roles in dramatic narratives. However, their absence from the creative process raises critical questions about representation, suggesting that women’s stories were shaped not by lived experience, but through the lens of the male gaze: a framework in which women are depicted primarily for male consumption.
At a glance, ancient Greek drama appears deceptively progressive. In their plays, women are strong and dynamic figures who enact change and upheaval in their world. In contrast, in Ancient Greece at the time ( between 800 and 300 BCE), particularly in Athens, where these plays were primarily written and performed, women were confined to domestic duties and excluded from public, legal, and political life. They were praised for their silence and self-restraint, and any pain or hardship they experienced was meant to be endured privately, without complaint—an expectation that turned quiet suffering into a marker of ideal womanhood. While women in other parts of Ancient Greece lived autonomously, predominantly Athenian ideals influenced Ancient Greek drama.
In Greek drama, particularly in the tragedies of Euripides, dramatic women occupy three key roles: psychotic villains or, in stark contrast, soft-spirited and warm-hearted mothers or nurturers and lastly, promiscuous sex symbols, often working as sex workers and prostitutes. Whilst some characters complicate these general categories, most female characters can be broadly placed into these three archetypes. This contradiction raises the critical question: if their onstage portrayals differed so greatly from their lived reality, can these characters be understood as feminist breakthroughs, as some modern critics argue? Or were they merely a projection of male fantasies, cleverly crafted to explore societal anxieties, rooted in male fear?
In Greek tragedies, one of the three main ways women are portrayed is as psychotic villains who often murder their loved ones. Many scholars attribute this female predisposition to violence to male fears and social anxieties surrounding female power, even going as far as to portray women as overly emotionally driven figures who lack logic or self-control. A character that embodies this stereotype is Medea, a key character in three major plays. Medea murders her children to avenge her unfaithful husband, as well as committing a litany of other offences, including murdering her brother and scattering his limbs across water. Medea is a foreign sorceress. But, slowly becomes a monster of the Greek male imagination. Medea stands as the antithesis of the traditional Ancient Greek woman. She is assertive, resilient, and a vocal figure who asserts female agency. Her statement:
"I would three times sooner go to war than suffer childbirth once.”- Medea
is described by classicist Edith Hall as “the most famous feminist statement in ancient literature.” Hall positions Medea as a radical disruption to patriarchal expectations: a woman who challenges gender norms of the time, not through passive suffering but through active and articulate defiance and moral complexity. Medea's strength lies in her refusal to be silenced, even berating her husband Jason when he displays misogynistic ideals of the time, constantly challenging his world. Despite this, her portrayal is still heavily driven by male authority, she is illogical and overly emotional. Her passionate emotional volatility is portrayed as dangerous, even monstrous; her assertiveness is weaponised, revealing deeply embedded patriarchal anxieties of female power.
‘Of all creatures that can feel and think, we women are the worst treated things alive’ - Medea.
This reflects common patriarchal fears of the time, that the female psyche (in its fluctuating state) could one day lead to a rise in female domination. Rather than offering a liberating and feminist female narrative, Medea’s portrayal reinforces that female strength and autonomy, when unchecked, can lead to chaos. Hence, the female archetype of the villain embodies the male anxiety surrounding female power and autonomy. Most often in tragedies, women were depicted as mothers and nurturers, unlike the menacing villains of Medea and Clytemnestra. This aligns more closely with the societal expectations of the time, although these characters aren’t necessarily deemed revolutionary feminist icons, they still serve an important purpose in understanding societal perceptions of women and female bodily autonomy. A character who embodies this ‘Pacifist Mother Archetype’ is Andromache, the widow of Hector. She is idealised for her grace as a grieving wife and a devoted mother; she is gentle and kind. Her quiet suffering reflects a socially acceptable form of female strength, passive and not outward, relying on her husband and remaining devoted to him.
‘Hector, you are my everything now: my father, / my mother, my brother – and my beloved husband. / Have pity on me. Stay with me here on the tower.’ - Andromache, The Iliad.
In contrast, an example of a female character who challenges the suffering mother or caregiver trope is Hecuba in the Trojan Women; Hecuba, the former queen of Troy, is portrayed as a devoted and grieving mother. After losing her children and her city in the Trojan War, she becomes a symbol of maternal suffering and later, resilience. Hecuba complicates this categorisation; rather than conforming to the passive, Madonna-like maternal figure, she adopts the role of a “warrior-mother”.
In The Trojan Women, her grief and passion are not passive; it is laced with anger and a deep yearning for justice. This duality allows Hecuba to slightly deviate from the typical maternal role. She is not only a victim but also a commentator on the brutality of war and the vulnerability of women in a patriarchal society.
"There is no end to my sickness, no term. One disaster comes to vie with another."- Hecuba
While her strength is undeniable, it is once again rooted in suffering, a recurring motif in ancient Greek representations of women. Essentially, even the nurturing mother character is not immune to the limitations imposed by the male playwrights of the time. Her role is shaped by male-led commentary on war, loss, and the human condition. Moreover, Shannon E. French (an American Scholar) in her analysis of classical literature, identifies this figure as the ‘Pacifist Mother Archetype’, a trope which venerates women for their emotional resilience but ultimately confines them to roles driven by grief and loss. Even the nurturing mother Archetype is limited by notions set by male playwrights. Hecuba’s identity is thus shaped less by agency and more so by male narratives surrounding war, loss, and suffering. French contends that these representations underscore societal expectations as they portray women as silent and helpless in the larger public and political arenas, and they reinforce the idealised expectations of women as kind, patient, and morally pure.
Greek tragedies also feature women as objects of desire or sex symbols in stark opposition to maternal and iniquitous representations previously mentioned. These women are generally reduced to their sexual availability and are valued only for their desirability. Such a portrayal highlights patriarchal ideologies of women valuable solely for their appearance, not their intelligence nor their morality. Phaedra in Hippolytus is overwhelmed with lust for her stepson, this desire is rightfully portrayed as unnatural and destructive. However, these portrayals reflect cultural fears that women’s unchecked sexuality posed a threat to male authority. In this archetype, the influence of the ‘male fantasy’ becomes prevalent, as women occupy overly sexualised roles, overcome with perverted passions, reinforcing the notion that female sexuality must be suppressed due to its immoral nature.
"What can reason do? Passion, passion rules." - Phaedra in Hippolytus
A quote that encapsulates the idea that female worthiness is solely within the realm of the male gaze is ‘It is the greatest glory of a woman to be least talked about by men, whether they are praising her or criticising her.' Reinforcing the notion that women must be silent and passive, making the archetype of the sex symbol all the more shocking, exposing the deep-rooted male anxiety of the time, that women may be capable of agency, desire, and disruption. Just like the other archetypes, the ‘sex symbol’ is a window into the societal values held by ancient Greek men and how Euripides articulated those anxieties into theatrical pieces.
To Summarise, Greek theatre frequently reduces female characters to villains, nurturers or objects of sexual desire, reflecting multiple layers of patriarchal views. Feminist analysis allows for a better understanding of the social structures that influenced these depictions by unmasking how ancient stories both subtly question and are limited by traditional gender roles. Ultimately, most of these dramatic depictions of women were not grounded in women’s lived experiences but rather a projection of male fears of the time, surrounding female agency. A result of the societal constraints forced on women of the time as their single role was to perform domestic duties, and they were excluded from public, legal, and political life. Hence, this restricted view of female experience can be attributed to their lack of involvement in the creative process and male misunderstanding.
