Did I ever tell you that I'm half Greek?

My mother was born in Nebraska, but her parents came straight from Greece. It's caused me to be very curious from time to time about my Greek heritage. In my most recent research, I realized how the ancient Greeks viewed the mother tongue and father tongue.

In researching my Greek family, I decided to research ancient Greek family relationships. I found this bit of information rather interesting. In the play, The Eumenides, Apollo speaks of Athena, the daughter of Zeus and goddess of wisdom (and war). This is fitting because Aeschylus is from Athens and is likely expressing his own religious and cultural beliefs.

"Apollo: I will tell you, and I will answer correctly. Watch.The mother is no parent of that which is called her child, but only nurse of the new-planted seed that grows. The parent is he who mounts. A stranger she preserves a stranger’s seed, if no god interfere.I will show you proof of what I have explained. There can be a father without any mother. There she stands,the living witness, daughter of Olympian Zeus, she who was never fostered in the dark of the womb yet such a child as no goddess could bring to birth."
— Aeschylus, The Eumenides, 657–666

Apollo states that "There can be a father without any mother," using Athena as an example (who was born out of Zeus' head). This entire play focuses on the power struggle between men and women, which was a very real issue at the time (about 5th and 6th centuries). Only free, land-owning, native-born men were considered "citizens." Women were not given any voting rights or land-owning rights. Apollo essentially degrades women to only the thing to "preserve a stranger's seed." The ironic thing is Athena is the goddess of WISDOM! Athena, a woman, is, according to ancient Greek theology, the personification of wisdom. Apollo thus seeks to demean Athena by saying she was born of a man without a mother, therefore she (wisdom) is the creation of man only.

In relation to mother and father tongue, it is clear that the general thought at this time in ancient Greece was that the male is greater than the female. The male is great enough that he can even create a female without a co-creator! Athena is wisdom born of a god. The mother tongue is born of the father tongue. The sophistication defeats the mantic. The dichotomy is carried even further. Apollo states that "The mother is no parent of that which is called her child." Do we, also, believe that only the sophisticated father tongue is necessary? Does the mother tongue produce any worth?

As we have all learned, the mother tongue is the base of most knowledge, and the father tongue only adds to that which we know, creating a dichotomy between those who know and who do not know. The personification of all knowledge is appropriately a female. . .the holder of all seeds of knowledge. However, I wouldn't go as far as Apollo as to say that the father tongue is even MORE important.