The Pursuit of Loneliness

"The mother-son relationship is the focus of this major study of Greek family and Greek mythology. Greek women married early, were excluded from public life, and had little legal protection; yet females figure prominently in Greek mythology and the maternal goddesses are often represented as powerful and aggressive. It is Slater's contention that women in Greek society exerted a strong matriarchal dominance, which simultaneously encouraged and stymied the exploits of the fable Greed hero. Slater pursues the themes of narcissism and psychological ambivalence as he studies the myths of Zeus, Apollo, Orestes, and Dionysus; and particularly Heracles (literally, 'the glory of Hera'), whose several responses to his persecutory mother, Hera, exemplify every mode of response to maternal threat. In a concluding section, Slater suggests cross-cultural and contemporary parallels to the Greek situation, notably in the life of the American middle class today"--Back cover.