“Any autonomous woman is a candidate for the ‘fear-inspiring goddess.’ Whether maiden or crone, the autonomous woman is feared as one who can emasculate men verbally as surely as Circe transformed unlucky men into lions and wolves with a tap of her wand. The rigid patriarch seems to fear that autonomous women will transform men into mice.”

“Any autonomous woman is a candidate for the ‘fear-inspiring goddess.’ Whether maiden or crone, the autonomous woman is feared as one who can emasculate men verbally as surely as Circe transformed unlucky men into lions and wolves with a tap of her wand. The rigid patriarch seems to fear that autonomous women will transform men into mice.”

— Miriam Robbins Dexter