Jealousy

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Jealousy
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• This theme is linked to parental investment and
  the ancestral tradeoff.

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• The underlying idea is that most of history has
  been written by males. Thus, we have to look a
  little harder to discover what females were like
  or would be like if they were able to exert their
  own preferences.

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Zeus and Hera
Hera was Zeus wife and sister.
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• When she saw that the Greeks were having a tough
  time in battle because of a promise Zeus had
  made, she looked for a way to distract him and
  help the Greeks.

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• There entering she drew shut the leaves of the
  shining door, then
• first from her adorable body washed away all
  stains
• with ambrosia, and next anointed herself with
  ambrosial
• sweet olive oil, which stood there in its
  fragrance beside her,
• and from which, stirred in the house of Zeus by
  the golden pavement,
• a fragrance was shaken forever forth, on earth
  and in heaven.
• When with this she had anointed her delicate body
• and combed her hair, next with her hands she
  arranged the shining
• an lovely and ambrosial curls along her immortal
• head, and dressed in an ambrosial robe that
  Athene
• had made her carefully, smooth, and with many
  figures upon it,
• and pinned it across her breast with a golden
  brooch, and circled
• her waist about with a zone that floated a
  hundred tassels,
• and in the lobes of her carefully pierced ears
  she put rings
• with triple drops in mulberry clusters, radiant
  with beauty,
• and, lovely among goddesses, she veiled her head
  downward
• with a sweet fresh veil that glimmered pale like
  the sunlight.
• Underneath her shining feet she bound on the fair
  sandals.

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• She then gets some charms from Aphrodite, and
  gets Sleep to help her knock Zeus out, but not
  until she seduces him.

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• Then in turn Zeus who gathers the clouds answered
  her
• Hera, there will be a time afterwards when you
  can go there
• as well. But now let us go to bed and turn to
  love-making.
• For never before has love for any goddess or
  woman
• so melted about the heart inside me, broken it to
  submission,
• as now not that time when I loved the wife of
  Ixion
• who bore me Perithoos, equal of the gods in
  counsel,
• nor when I loved Akrisios daughter,
  sweet-stepping Danae,
• who bore Perseus to me, pre-eminent among all
  men,
• nor when I loved the daughter of far-renowned
  Phoinix, Europa
• who bore Minos to me, and Rhadamanthys the
  godlike
• not when I loved Semele, or Alkmene in Thebe,
• when Alkmene bore me a son, Herakles the
  strong-hearted,
• while Semeles son was Dionysos, the pleasure of
  mortals
• not when I loved the queen Demeter of the lovely
  tresses,
• not when it was glorious Leto, nor yourself, so
  much
• as now I love you, and the sweet passion has
  taken hold of me.

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• There are a couple of points in this story we
  will return to later Zeus had slept with many
  females and Hera was intensely jealous about this.

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Peter Paul Rubens The Death of Semele (1636)
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Jealousy About Female Sexuality?
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Monogamy and Jealousy in Literature

• Othello, and Hera and Heracles

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• As we have already said, Hera, sister and wife
  of Zeus, had no love for Zeus offspring with
  other females. Further Clytemestra, Agamemnons
  wife, shows no love for Cassandra.

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Heracles was one of the many sons of Zeus by a
mortal woman, in this case Alcmena. Zeus wife
and sister, Hera, was never passive in response
to Zeus many affairs. She had a particular
grudge against Heracles.
Third century marble copy by Glycon of Lysippus
mid-fourth century BCE original. Located in the
Baths of Caracalla in Rome.
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• On the day he was to be born, Zeus boasted that
  one of his sons would be born that day and that
  he would rule over men Hera saw to it that
  another one of Zeus relatives, Eurystheus, was
  born.
• When he was one year old, she sent snakes to kill
  him in his crib.
• Later, she sent a madness to him that made him
  kill his first wife and three children.

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Though he had been offered forgiveness by
Theseus, he instead listened to the priestess at
Delphi and went to serve his cousin Eurystheus,
king of Mycenae. With Heras prompting,
Eurystheus developed twelve supposedly impossible
labors
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Gustave Moreaus Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra
(18691876)
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After these, Heracles fulfilled a promise to the
soul of Meleager and married his sister
Deïsneira. To win her, he had to wrestle the
river god Acheloüs for her.
Attic vase of Heracles Fighting Acheloüs for
Deïsneira .
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As he was going home with her, he had to cross
the river Evenus. Because it was such a rapid
river, he took the aid of the centaur Nessus. Of
course, the centaur tried to abduct his wife. So,
Heracles shot him with an arrow.
Guido Renis Deïsneira abducted by the Centaur
Nessus (16201621)
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In the end, Heracles was inadvertently killed by
the jealousy of his wife Deïanira. As the centaur
Nessus lay dying from one of Heracles' arrows, he
convinced Deïanira to take some of his blood,
which would prevent Heracles from loving another
woman as much as he loved her. Of course,
eventually Heracles fell in love with Iole. At
this point, Deïanira gave him a cloak that had
been dipped in Nessus blood. The blood burned
his skin.
Heracles and Deïsneira . Attic Red-figure from
Nola, c. 420 BCE.
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• We remember Heracles primarily because of his
  great Hera-inspired labors. Hence, his name
• Heraclesglory through Hera.

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• For us, the main point is that if we look the
  literature for examples of male promiscuity and
  jealousy, literature provides us examples of
  these from women as well.
• Throughout literature, we have stories of females
  (even married) seducing other men, of arranging
  the deaths of those that oppose them, and of
  responding greatly to jealousy.

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Jealousy
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• We can consider jealousy as a mechanism to
  minimize the loss of what is important to each
  sex. In any discussion of jealousy, it would be
  one sided to assume that females are caviler
  about extra-marital dalliances. Relative to
  males, this might be less important, but that
  does not mean unimportant.
• Pseudo-Demosthenes may have expressed a 4th
  century BCE Greek male view that males need three
  women, We have mistresses for our enjoyment,
  concubines to serve our person, and wives for the
  bearing of legitimate children. Nonetheless, it
  would be a mistake to conclude that the females
  were uniformly content with one or fine with
  males wanting more than one.

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• There are some straightforward implications of
  this dealing with jealousy and commitment. First,
  commitment will be an issue for couples, and
  there is a slight tendency for the sexes to
  experience jealousy differently.

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We can ask one question at the outset about
jealousy Would Othello be as believable if the
Othello was female and Desdemona male?
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• Buss and colleagues examined psychological and
  physical responses in individuals imagining their
  partner becoming interested in another person.
  The participants were asked which would upset
  them most their partner forming an emotional
  attachment to that person or enjoying passionate
  intercourse with that person.
• Sixty percent of the males reported they would be
  more upset by the sexual involvement and 83 of
  females reported they would be more upset at the
  emotional attachment.

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Gender and Jealousy Typical Undergraduate Data
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• Buss and colleagues attempted to replicate this
  finding with physiological measures that have
  been linked to autonomic arousal electrodermal
  activity (EDA, measured by skin conductance) and
  by pulse rate.

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They also obtained a measure of electromyograph
activity from the corrugator supercilii muscle in
the brow, which is often activated when
individuals are displaying negative emotions.
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• The short end of the story is that the data are
  suggestive, but not conclusive. It deserves to be
  said that other studies have been inconclusive as
  well.

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• Part of the problem with finding a relationship
  is that one behavior may imply the other as well.
  That is, sexuality might imply intimacy, and
  intimacy might imply sexuality.