Apollo’s claim in The Eumenides that mothers are not true parents. What does his assertion tell us about gender relations in ancient Greece?

The woman you call the mother of the child is not the parent, just a nurse to the seed, the new--‐sown seed that grows and swells inside her. The man is the source of life

-the one who mounts. She, like a stranger for a stranger, keeps the shoot alive unless god hurts the roots. I give you proof that all I say is true. The father can father forth

Without a mother. Here she stands, our living witness. Look-

Exhibiting ATHENA.

Child sprung full‐blown from Olympian Zeus, 675 never bred in the darkness of the womb but such a stock no goddess could conceive!