Tracing The Voiceless Mythological Woman Characters and Liberating Them Through Revisionist Mythology

Abstract Myths have silenced several voices and categorized them as blasphemous or profane, when they go against the norms of mainstream. The free willed woman had always been one such threat to the patriarchal system, for she questions, rather than blind confirmation. Such females were degraded, considered as volatile and deemed as spawns of the devils or as witches who does the forbidden, that is to seek knowledge, think and reason out. Therefore, these systems limited her physical, mental and sociocultural space. The feminist movement of twentieth century brought limelight to these victims and resorted to retell their stories in their own voices. Thus, began a new era, where literature celebrated these once vanquished characters as its protagonists, in a new genre called Revisionist Mythology. The article skims through the myths across the world and looks for the long-lost female characters, whose voices were silenced and overpowered by the phallocentric narrative. Through this, we can arrive at a collection of experiences of women from varied cultures and belief systems, yet connected by a commonality. This commonality is a portrait of subjugated suffering, discrimination, the oppression and the overshadowed individual voice through eons of time. This is where the revisionist mythologists work and they look for victims of phallocratic myths to liberate them and recount their tale by providing them with an individual voice.