u/AnthoHeraFan

I've seen "Ares was the protector of women" claims so often that, out of pure spite, I decided to research if other gods did a similar thing to what Ares did, and the answer is positive! Yet no one calls these gods feminist protectors of women. I've made a little list of such instances, where a god either protect a woman from rape or avenges her

Ares

We've all heard about the loser #2 avenging his daughter's rape, and while it's kinda based, it wasn't anything unique, but it's good to start with

>Agraulos [daughter of Kekrops king of Athens] and Ares had a daughter Alkippe. As Halirrhothios, son of Poseidon and a nymphe named Eurtye, was trying to rape Alkippe, Ares caught him at it and slew him. Poseidon had Ares tried on the Areopagos with the twelve gods presiding. Ares was acquitted.

- Apollodorus' Bibliotheca 3.180

>There is a spring [near the Akropolis, Athens], by which they say that Poseidon's son Halirrhothios deflowered Alkippe the daughter of Ares, who killed the ravisher and was the first to be put on his trial for the shedding of blood.

- Pausanias' Description of Greece 1.21.4

Apollo

>Tityos (Tityus) saw Leto when she came to Pytho and in a fit of passion tried to embrace her. But she called out to her children, who shot him dead with arrows. He is being punished even in death, for vultures feast on his heart in Hades' realm.

- Apollodorus' Biblioteca 1.23

>As lay Tityos (Tityus), who sought to force Queen Leto, when she fared to Pytho : swiftly in his wrath Apollon shot, and laid him low, who seemed invincible : in a foul lake of gore there lay he, covering many a rood of ground, on the broad earth, his mother; and she moaned over her son, of blessed Gods abhorred; but Lady Leto laughed.

- Quintus Smyrnaeus's Fall of Troy 3.390

Poseidon

>Poseidon, the myth continues, when he had grown to manhood, became enamoured of Halia, the sister of the Telchines, and lying with her he begat six male children and one daughter, called Rhodos, after whom the island was named. (...) Aphroditê, they say, as she was journeying from Cytherae to Cyprus and dropped anchor near Rhodes, was prevented from stopping there by the sons of Poseidon, who were arrogant and insolent men; whereupon the goddess, in her wrath, brought a madness upon them, and they lay with their mother against her will and committed many acts of violence upon the natives. But when Poseidon learned of what had happened he buried his sons beneath the earth, because of their shameful deed, and men called them the "Eastern Demons"; and Halia cast herself into the sea, and she was afterwards given the name of Leucothea and attained to immortal honour in the eyes of the natives.

Diodorus Siculus' Library of History 5.55

>When Amymone, daughter of Danaus, was eagerly hunting in the woods, she struck a satyr with her dart. He wanted to ravish her, but she begged the aid of Neptune. When Neptune came there, he drove away the satyr, and lay with her himself. From this embrace Nauplius was born. At the place where this occurred, Neptune is said to have struck the earth with his trident. Water flowed out, called the Fountain of Lerna and the Amymonian River.

>Amymone, daughter of Danaus, was sent by her father to get water for performing sacred rites. While hunting for it, she grew weary and fell asleep. A satyr tried to seduce her, but she implored the help of Neptune. When Neptune had hurled his trident at the satyr, it became fixed in a rock. Neptune drove off the satyr. When he asked the girl what she was doing in this lonely place she said she had been sent by her father to get water. Neptune lay with her, and in return he did her a favour, bidding her draw out his trident from the rock. She drew it out and three streams of water flowed, which were called the Amymonian Spring from her name. From the embrace Nauplius was born. The fountain, however, later was called the Fountain of Lerna.

Hyginus' Fabulae 169 and 169A (Idk why he wrote about her twice like that. I know these accounts are a little different, but still)

Dionysus

>As Butes and his companions rushed at the women, these threw away the sacred objects, and some of them fled for safety to the sea, and others to the mountain called Dius; but Coronis, the myth continues, was seized by Butes and forced to lie with him. And she, in anger at the seizure and at the insolent treatment she had received, called upon Dionysus to lend her his aid. And the god struck Butes with madness, because of which he lost his mind and, throwing himself into a well, met his death

Diodorus Siculus' Library of History 5.50

Zeus

Lo and behold! THE rapist of the Greek and Greco-Roman pantheon, hated by every Ares and Hades glazer, has the most myths where he rapes someone, but also he has the most myths where he's pretty anti-rape

>Because Latona [Leto] had lain with Jove [Zeus], Juno [Hera] ordered Tityus, a creature of immense size, to offer violence to her. When he tried to do this he was slain by the thunderbolt of Jove. He is said to lie stretched out over nine acres in the Land of the Dead, and a serpent is put near him to eat out his liver, which grows again with the new moon.

Hyginus's Fabulae 55

>Ixion fell in love with Hera and tried to rape her, and when Hera told Zeus about it, Zeus wanted to determine if her report was really true. So he fashioned a cloud to look like Hera, and laid it by Ixion's side. When Ixion bragged that he had slept with Hera, Zeus punished him by tying him to a wheel, on which he was turned by winds up in the air

Apollodorus' Bibliotheca E1.20

>In the course of the battle [of gods and giants] Porphyrion rushed against Herakles and also Hera. Zeus instilled him with a passion for Hera, and when he tore her gown and wanted to rape her, she called for help, whereat Zeus hit him with a thunderbolt and Herakles slew him with an arrow.

Apollodorus' Bibliotheca 1.36 (personally I consider this one a dick move, but I know Zeus wouldn't actually allow Hera to be raped, but c'mon. I assume it was his way to make Hera like Heracles? Anyway, I'm still putting this on the list)

>When Hera was being raised by her parents, one of the Giants, Eurymedon, raped her and made her pregnant. She gave birth to Prometheus. Zeus later married his sister [Hera], and when he found out what had happened, he threw Eurymedon into Tartaros, and hung Prometheus up in chains (he used the fire as a pretext)"

D scholia on the Iliad 14:295, attributed to Eustathius (personally one of my fav myths about these two, I adore protective Zeus)

>When Pleione once was travelling through Boeotia with her daughters [the Pleiades], Orion, who was accompanying her, tried to attack her. She escaped, but Orion sought her for seven years and couldn't find her. Jove [Zeus], pitying the girls, appointed a way to the stars, and later, by some astronomers, they were called the Bull's tail. And so up to this time Orion seems to be following them as they flee towards the west.

Hyginus' Astronomica 2.21

>Daphne, seeing Apollon advancing upon her, took vigorously to flight; then, as he pursued her, she implored Zeus that she might be translated away from mortal sight, and she is supposed to have become the bay tree which is called daphne after her.

Parthenius' Love Romances 15

There is apparently the Servius' commentary where Zeus striked Adonis with a thunderbolt for raping Erinoma (who was loved by Zeus), but finding any translation for the things Servius wrote is a pain in the ass. And there is also the fact that Zeus allows Hestia, Artemis and Athena to remain virgins if they want, which is pretty nice, but I don't know if it counts.

Does all this stuff makes Zeus the protector of women then?? Is Zeus the feminist king? Or does it simply mean men protecting "their" women (mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, or worshippers in the case of the gods) from other men, while not caring about stranger women, was a normalized thing in such patriarchal societies?

Tldr: Ares, my beloved loser, wasn't a feminist or some special, uniquely progressive god. Ares glazers just don't care about the actual mythology and the historical context. Also, the Mommy of all Mommies Hera was the actual protector of women <3 (but I guess Ares glazers don't really care about women, considering how often they talk shit about every goddess, this lowkey seems like some misogynistic bias)

^(Ps I made this post on mobile, so it may look messy lol)

By well known myth, I mean a myth that every "surface-level" so called myth fan knows, after reading Hesiod, Homer or Ovid, or just Wikipedia pages and Theoi referencing these authors. Not something you can find only in some scholia, Servius' commentary, Vatican Mythographers etc.

Personally I don't like Hephaestus being son of Hera alone, I prefer him being son of Hera and Zeus. Also, Ovid's backstory for Medusa. Not because it's "actually just Roman", but because it was overdone by popculture, and spawned weird, pseudo-feminist hate on Athena