Classical Elements of Gender: Analyzing Gender as Constructed by Nature in the Iliad

by Emma Powell

The pillars of the natural world are defined as earth, water, air, and fire. In the Iliad, Homer applies gender roles through literary illustration of nature. The seemingly dualistic nature of gender becomes convoluted by the symbolism in elements of the natural environment. By analyzing these ancient features in the Iliad, present readers can better understand and question their own modern conceptions of nature as it relates and represents gender. Although gender roles seem distinctly different, Homer adds complexity to the definition of the gender binary for the Ancient Greeks through the use of symbolism of the surrounding natural world.
Homer’s presentation of the element, earth, asserts the dualism that men interact with the earth outside, whereas women interact with the earth inside. This is demonstrated particularly in the intimate scene between Hera and Zeus that occurs on Mount Ida. According to her treacherous plan to distract Zeus, Hera exclaims “You are eager for bed now, burning to make love, here on Ida’s height for all the world to see?” (Illiad 14.396-397). Despite Hera’s ongoing plan, the passage insuitates that women should interact with the earth indoors, especially when presenting their sexuality. Hera pressures Zeus to bring her inside his chambers rather than have intercourse on the mountain. Before this Zeus is content with intimacy outdoors. Of course, Greek men and women in reality did not perform intercourse on top of mountains like the gods. Still, Homer reveals the societal issue of concealment versus openness in the context of sexual outwardness because he relates symbolism of the mountain differently to Hera and Zeus.
The role the element air, specifically clouds, plays in this scene offers continuous insight into Greek conceptions of the gender binary. When Hera requests concealment, Zeus creates a cloud. The mountain stands as a phallic shape where the “breastling clouds” (14.410) are meant to represent female genitalia. This insinuates that the Greeks believed man is hard and women is soft, and thus man dominates woman both sexually and beyond the bedroom. The clouds hold power in their interaction as well. Homer writes in lines 14.417-18, “Folded deep in that bed they lay round them wrapped a marvelous cloud of gold glistening showers of dew rained down around them both.” The blanket of “cloud” lifts both Hera and Zeus alike. The cloud wrap equally engulfs both Hera and Zeus and asserts that the Greeks believed sex was an enjoyable act for both sexes. A soft sentiment is found in this passage for both genders, at least in that moment. This offers some agency to women; Hera claims power in her quality of softness. After sex, Zeus is exhausted and sleep over takes him, Sleep declares “I’ve covered him over, sent him into a deep, soothing sleep as soon as Hera seduced great Zeus to lose himself in love.” (14.427-428) Accordingly, Hera had the upper hand in this sexual encounter as she used her body to manipulate Zeus. For the Greeks, sex was a mechanism of power for either sex, and in particular women. More interestingly is that Homer employs this through the symbolism of air and clouds in nature, using the surrounding environment to understand gender roles.
The natural elements of fire and water are used by Homer as a vehicle for explanations of gender. This is particularly prominent in Book 21 as Achilles fights the Xanthus (or Scamander) River. The river, according to Homer, takes a “man’s shape” (21.238), and thus the reader would expect the river to be a fierce warrior like the soldiers. Contrastly, Scamander serves as a motherly character; Homer states in Iliad 12.168, “the river seething for all the youths Achilles slaughtered”. The diction of “youths” asserts that Xanthus thinks of the dead bodies inside him as children. The bodies flowing down the river represent the birth canal, and with violence, eventually comes birth. Homer’s presentation of this natural image redefines birth as part of a manly battle for Greek women. Furthermore in this scene, fire while in other contexts of the books (i.e. Achilles rage) seems to represent anger, here, it represents the rage of “Hera’s command.” (21.531) The rage comes from a woman, while the begging and screaming comes from Xanthus, a man. Hera is the same woman who used fire as passion to seduce Zeus in their sexual encounter. (14.403) The use of the natural elements no longer lines up with duality of gender, alluding to the fact that Homer and the Greeks recognized that gender dynamics were not cut and dry.
In both passages, Homer uses the imagery of fire, air, water, and earth as a vehicle to flesh out what defines the gender binary for his Ancient Greek audience. Societal ideas are not separate from the natural world and therefore are expressed in what the senses perceive outside. Overall, Homer uses the personification and imagery of nature to help define what it means to be a woman and a man in Ancient Greece and complicates the gender binary.

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