The Oedipus Complex, Antigone, and Electra: The Woman as Hero and Victim

Abstract

This paper reinterprets the structural interpretation of Greek mythology presented by Leach and Lévi‐Strauss from a feminist perspective. The reinterpretation approaches the Oedipus myth and Freud's analysis of it from the perspective of Antigone, daughter of Oedipus and a hero of Sophoclean tragedy. Ancient Greek tragedy allowed a few mythic women the role of hero, although women in ancient Greek society were confined to the domestic sphere. The paper discusses Antigone, Electra, and other mythic women in their relations to family and the public domain. The interpretation of Greek mythology differs from previous ones but is not inconsistent with them, [mythology, gender roles, Oedipus complex, myth and social structure, structuralism]