| Its extremely hard to tell what is and what is not rape in Greek mythology.
This is because the Greek word for "rape" had a very different meaning. For the ancient Greeks a woman was "raped" if a man had sex with her who was not her husband. Whether or not she consented was irrelevant to the Greeks. The crime of "rape" was regarded first and foremost as a crime against the woman's father or her husband (if married), since women were regarded as the property of men.
So the Greeks spoke of the "rape of Helen" even though Helen willingly eloped with Paris of Troy. She was the property of her husband Menelaus, and did not have the right to consent to have sex with another man. So from the husband's perspective she was "raped."
It was a very, very mysoginistic culture!!
And yes, often rape is rape. When Daphne runs away from Apollo she is trying to escape rape. Mythology even twists these stories, the girl runs away because she is scared how her father will react if she loses her virginity. Again the woman's perspective is given second place to the man's.  |