The Glory of Hera. Greek Mythology and the Greek Family: By Philip E. Slater. Boston: Beacon Press, 1968. 513 pp.
Review by: Leonard Shengold
Professor Slater has written a pathography of a culture. He sees Greek family life of the classical period as determined by the ambivalent but predominantly antagonistic relationship between
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a mother and her son: the woman, slighted in a male-dominated society, turns to the son she can dominate in the household for satisfaction and revenge. This mother/son relationship is a narcissistic one that threatens the child's individuation as well as his potency. Greek literature, history, and especially myths are presented to show the central importance, the nature, and the consequences of this family constellation. The author brings in the observations of many psychiatrists, including Freud, to support his rather idiosyncratic views on the psychopathology involved. He concludes, for example, that 'maternal dominance in the home … [generates] with equal facility, homosexuality, schizophrenia and achievement drive'.
All myths, all literatures, all cultures can be scrut
Review by: Leonard Shengold
Professor Slater has written a pathography of a culture. He sees Greek family life of the classical period as determined by the ambivalent but predominantly antagonistic relationship between
- 522 -
a mother and her son: the woman, slighted in a male-dominated society, turns to the son she can dominate in the household for satisfaction and revenge. This mother/son relationship is a narcissistic one that threatens the child's individuation as well as his potency. Greek literature, history, and especially myths are presented to show the central importance, the nature, and the consequences of this family constellation. The author brings in the observations of many psychiatrists, including Freud, to support his rather idiosyncratic views on the psychopathology involved. He concludes, for example, that 'maternal dominance in the home … [generates] with equal facility, homosexuality, schizophrenia and achievement drive'.
All myths, all literatures, all cultures can be scrut
