15 Unique Greek Women – Ancient and Modern

 

“If women didn’t exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning.”

Aristotle Onassis

Since ancient times women have played a major role in Greek society, going way back to the gorgeous Greek Goddesses and bewitching femme fatales of ancient Greece, up until today with  scores of women in high profile positions, such as company directors, lawyers, politicians and of course the Greek matriarch!

The Goddesses were not only beautiful; they were made of stern stuff often having magical powers to boot.

 

1. The Three Graces (Charites)

 

 

 The Three Graces (Charites), beauty, charm and Grace, were minor goddesses or nymphs, daughters of Zeus, who were said to be attendants of Aphrodite and were the inspiration for charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility.

The role of the Three Graces was to bestow beauty, charm, and goodness on young women and to bring joy and the feeling of well being to people.

  They are, from youngest to oldest:

  Aglaea – represents elegance, brightness and splendour

  Euphrosyne – represents mirth and or joyfulness

  Thalia – represents youth, beauty and good cheer

 

2. Aphrodite (Venus)

 

 

Aphrodite, maybe the most famous of Greek Goddesses, is the goddess of love, beauty and procreation, whose famous Knidos statue, the first ancient Greek naked female staue, is the most copied in the world.

Aphrodite is said to be born from the sea foam (foam in Greek is afro) created from the genitals of Uranus which had been severed by his son, Cronus, and tossed into the seas of Cyprus (Other variations have Aphrodite rising from the  foam off the coast of Kythira, a Greek island in the Ionian Sea).

In Greek mythology, Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, god of blacksmiths, but was never faithful to him and had many lovers, in honour of Aphrodite, who was the patron goddess of prostitutes, a festival named the Aphrodisia, was celebrated in midsummer, from this comes the word aphrodisiac.

 

3. Athena (Minerva)

 

 

Goddess Athena, ‘Lady of Athens,from whom the city of Athens takes its name, goddess of  wisdom, handicraft, and warfare, is said to have been born from the head of her father, Zeus, and was his favourite daughter.

 

4. Circe

 

 

Not all of the Greek Goddesses were godly, the evil sorceress Circe, a goddess of magic and witchcraft, daughter of the sun god, Helios, in Homer’s Odyssey, turned all of Odysseus’s men into swine.
All Goddesses had just as much power, if not more, as their male counterparts.

 

5. The Women of Sparta

 

 

The Spartans owe their great strength to the famed strong, hardy Spartan women, the most educated women of Ancient Greece, who bore them, the first woman to enter the Olympic games in 396 b.c and again in 392 b.c with her own chariot…and won both times I might add!, was the sister of a Spartan king.

 

6. Penelope

 

 

Woman take pride of place in Greek mythology, Penelope, never gave up on Odysseus, she kept the home fires burning, weaving away while, waiting for her wandering Odysseus to return, bringing up their son Telemachus alone, fending off a swarm of suitors and ruling an Island nation.

 

7. Helen of Troy 

 

 

 Who doesn’t know the story of Helen of Troy, known also as Helen of Sparta, or, simply Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, the face that launched a thousand ships and started the Trojan Wars while she was at it!

 

8. Sappho

 

 

The first female Greek writer must surely be Sappho, a poet from Lesbos.

 Named the tenth muse by Plato, she ran a school for upper-class ladies, while writing poems that dealt with human emotion and feeling.

Sappho probably wrote around 10,000 lines of poetry, which were well known and admired, her poetry is still considered extraordinary and her works continue to influence other writers.

 Apart from her poetry, Sappho is well known as a symbol of love and desire between women.

 Most of Sappho’s poetry is now lost, or remains only in fragments, except for one complete poem ‘Ode to Aphrodite’.

 

9. Aspasia

 

 

Aspasia was the lover and partner of the famous Athenian statesman Pericles.
She was the first female philosopher to have power and influence over the greatest male philosophers of Athens, who flocked to her feet.

 

10. Bouboulina

 

 

Moving forward a few thousand years we come across Bouboulina Laskarina, known as just Bouboulina, a naval admiral in the Greek war of independence.

She gathered up and organised her own troops, using her own money to feed and arm them, she sailed with eight ships from Spetses to Nafplion to create a naval blockade in 1821.

 

Today’s Great Women of Greece

 

Moving forward again, below are a few famous Greek women, famous not only for their talent but for their strength, their determination.

 

11. Melina Mercuri

 

 

Melina Mercuri, actress,singer and for a time minister of culture, how hard she tried to have the Parthenon marbles (not the Elgin marbles, there is no such thing as the Elgin marbles) returned to Greece.

 Her film “Never On a Sunday” is known world-wide.

 “You know, it is said that we Greeks are a fervent and warm blooded breed. Well, let me tell you something, it is true.”

Melina Mercuri

 

12. Irene Pappas

 

 

Another Great Greek actress, Irene Papa, has made over seventy films, the most well-known being “The Guns of Navarone”, “Zorba the Greek” and “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin”

 She happens to hail from the village of Chiliomodi, Corinthias, the village of my father-in-law, he knew her well!

 Just look at her proud, strong Greek face.

 

13. Maria Kallas

 

 

The diva that put the D in diva…Maria Kallas, opera singer, who sang in the world’s top opera houses.

Maria Callas is also known for her torrid love affair with Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

 Another strong, proud, Greek face.

 

14. Arriane Stassinopoulos Huffington

 

 

And who familiar with blogging and the internet doesn’t know who this is?
Arriane Stassinopoulos Huffington, of the Huffington post.

 

15. The Greek Matriarch

 

 

Finally, we come to the Greek Matriarch, found all over Greece.

They rule their families with a rod of iron, the men may be boss in the market place but in the home it’s “Greek Mama Rules”!

They have been known to make their adult sons quake in their shoes and reduce Daughters-in-law to tears….I know…I have one!!!

My mother-in-law has eight children, four boys and four girls, my husband being number four in line.
She has worked all her life, ran a petrol station single-handed, then ran a bar & cafe, tourist business, as well as bringing ups her large family.

There was always, always the big Sunday lunch gathering and woe betide any member who missed it!

She lived through WWII, the German occupation, a civil war and a dictatorship.

She is a strong, proud Greek woman of ninety five years old, Kyria Konstantina Athanasakou, my mother-in-law.

 

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