Marx and Engels before the goddesses

female representation in Greek mythology

Abstract

This article analyzes both Friedrich Engels' The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State and Karl Marx's Ethnological Notebooks, focusing on his extracts on Morgan. We will discuss passages in which both Marx and Engels present a disparity in the representation of the female in Greek mythology, between the figure of the goddess and that of the woman. We understand that, for the authors, the (female) goddesses were in a position closer to the (male) gods than the women were to the men in the earthly sphere, and            discrepancy could be understood as an inheritance, maintained in religious expression, from a previous historical moment in which women held a more equal, free and influential position in relation to men. In this sense, the notion of “ossification” or “social fossil”, developed by both authors, is revived as an important category for the interpretation of Greek mythology. The aim is to demonstrate what each author has said on the subject, taking into account the historical periods, the literary texts and the characters they invoke to defend their hypotheses, as well as comparing their thinking in order to determine whether or not there is agreement between them on the subject. Thus, the article also aims to contribute to the debate on Marx's and Engels' understanding of the historicity of gender oppression.