Greek culture, which stressed heroic values, usually relegated women to an inferior
position. However, their love tales of Orpheus and Meleager showed the end of the Greek
heroic tradition. The soft man like Orpheus, and the hard woman like Atalanta were the
unpleasant reverse image of Greek usual standards for the sexes. Greeks seemed to think of
love as a form of intoxication that could ruin a hero.