Gender studies in ancient Greece

We start with a theatre, and two moments of astonishing gender transgression. One happened in a theatre on a hillside in the center of Athens on a spring day in late March of 431 BCE. The second happened there sixteen years later, in March of 415 BCE. Both took place as the audience watched tragedies by the poet Euripides. These plays were about gendered oppression, sexual pain, rape, slavery and the horrors of war.

Eurípides, entre os três tragediógrafos canônicos da Grécia clássica, é aquele de quem a Antiguidade nos legou maior quantidade de material biográfico. Percorrendo esse material, nota-se a persistente caracterização do poeta como misógino (μισογύνης). A palavra figura em dois dos textos biográficos mais importantes em torno do poeta (a Vida anônima anexada aos manuscritos medievais de sua obra e o verbete do Suda), e sua “aversão às mulheres” é aludida direta ou indiretamente em todas as Vidas que chegaram aos nossos dias. Este artigo apresentará essas ocorrências e buscará analisá-las à luz da comédia de Aristófanes, propondo uma articulação entre as paradoxais recepções da obra do poeta na Antiguidade e na modernidade, quando será construída a imagem de um Eurípides “feminista”.

В тази дипломна работа съм се опитал да покажа основното влияние на Древна Гърция върху европейската идея за човешкото тяло. Разгледал съм проблема през призмата на модерната философия на тялото и пола, която съчетава в себе си малко застъпените у нас „gender studies” и „masculinity studies”, които вече представляват утвърдени дисциплини във водещи европейски и северноамерикански университети....

Syllabus for a good class I inherited which fulfills the Diversity Requirement of this campus. It serves as an introduction to Greek and Roman history and culture, plus a look at Diversity-keyed issues such as poverty, ethnicity, inequality, slavery, gender, and "sexual minorities." Finally it looks (critically) at some modern appropriations of the ancient Mediterranean heritage such as the Second Wave Feminist notions of an ancient "Goddess Culture" in Europe; Mussolini's appropriation of Ancient Rome and Hitler's of Sparta; and the Black Athena controversy and Afrocentrist appropriations of Greek philosophy. In rewriting the class, my goal was to take an honest look at these issues (particularly ancient inequality) without the sort of trite and clichéd "P.C." attitude that I often found during my 10 years (BA, MA, and PhD) at UC Berkeley.

This volume argues that ancient Greek girls and early Christian virgins and their families made use of rhetorically similar traditions of marriage to an otherworldly bridegroom in order to handle the problem of a girl’s denied or disrupted transition into adulthood.

In both ancient Greece and early Christian Rome, the standard female transition into adulthood was marked by marriage, sex, and childbirth. When problems arose just before or during this transition, the transitional girl’s status within society became insecure. Walker presents a case for how and why the dead Greek virgin girl, depicted in Archaic through Hellenistic sources, in both texts and inscriptions, as a bride of Hades, and the life-long female Christian virgin or celibate ascetic, dubbed the bride of Christ around the third century CE, provide a fruitful point of comparison as particular examples of strategies used to neutralize the tension of disrupted female transition into adulthood.

Bride of Hades to Bride of Christ offers a fascinating comparative study that will be of interest to anyone working on virginity and womanhood in the ancient world.

The aim of this book is to make The Dialogues of the Courtesans by Lucian of Samosata (c. 120 CE –190) accessible to intermediate students of Ancient Greek. The running vocabulary and grammatical commentary are meant to provide everything necessary to read each page, so that readers can progress through the text, improving their knowledge of Greek while enjoying one of the most entertaining authors of antiquity. These dialogues are another example of Lucian presenting unusual perspectives on Greek culture and literature, this time by creating amusing dialogues that occur mostly among the professional companions, hetairai, who formed a special form of upscale entertainment for elite men in the classical period. The women in these dialogues sometimes interact with male clients, but in most of them we find only women, as they speak of their hopes and fears and the business of love.

This book offers a new interpretation of ancient Greek sacrifice in early Greek myth and poetry. Through close readings of the Theogony, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the Homeric Hymn to Hermes and the Odyssey in conjunction with recent anthropological theory, it demonstrates how sacrifice narratives in early Greek hexameter poetry are intimately connected to a mythic-poetic discourse referred to as the “politics of the belly.” This mythic-poetic discourse presents sacrifice as a site of symbolic conflict between the male stomach and female womb for both mortals and immortals. Ultimately, the book argues that the ritual of sacrifice operates as a cultural mechanism for the perpetuation of patriarchal ideology not just in early Greek hexameter poetry, but throughout Greek cultural history.

On the threshold of separating humans from animals, we can trace not only taxonomic and cognitive issues but also power dynamics through literature and language. Anthropology has long started focusing on the normative function of the zoomorphic images created by these cultural media. In the ancient Greek culture this function can be found in the construction of gender identities, as shown by the very ancient model by which women formed their own génos, conceived in term of a species completely different from the male one, and marked with a specific nóos. Another example can be found in the set of metaphors illustrating the woman as a sort of animal to be tamed. In a specular way, the animal species met with a gender characterization: this is quite clear in the physiognomy, whereby "male" species such as the lion, the wolf and the wild boar, were opposed to "female" species like the leopard, the dog and the swine. This phenomenon could sometimes find an equivalent in the linguistic use, where the semantic gender of some animal names shifts to match the marked male/female features of the species, reinforcing the impression that the gender characterizations of the different species could constitute a coherent and meaningful semantic set, with well defined functions in the building of the social identities man/woman.

Scenes of textile production on Athenian vases are often interpreted as confirming the oppression of women, who many argue were confined to "women's quarters" and exploited as free labor. However, reexamination of the iconography--together with a reconsideration of gender roles and the archaeology of Greek houses dating to the 5th and 4th centuries BC--suggests that these images idealize female contributions to the household in a positive way. The scenes utilize the dual metaphor of weaving and marriage to express the harmonia of oikos and polis, a theme particularly significant under the evolving Athenian democracy.

This chapter investigates the relation between gender and slavery among the Greeks and Romans. It considers the gendered division of labour for enslaved people with a special emphasis on enslaved females and female enslavers in the domestic context. Important topics covered include sexual violence against enslaved individuals, manumission, and prostitutes as enslaved. It argues that enslaved females were most common in domestic contexts and the sex and entertainment industry. Both contexts, however, meant that they were open to sexual abuse, but close contact with the free might also benefit enslaved women by leading to their manumission. Enslaved people frequently appear outside ancient constructions of gender, officially denied socio-political status as husbands, wives, fathers, and mothers, and free from behavioural expectations like male courage and female virtue; but this lack of a gendered identity was likely another element of their oppression.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a preview of the article:

When Helen offers Telemachus a robe she herself has made in book 15 of the Odyssey, she bestows her gift with the hope that it will act as "a monument to the hands of Helen" (μνῆμ᾿ Ἑλένης χειρῶν, 15.126). Helen's peplos attests to the potential for handcrafted objects to immortalize those who have made them. It also serves as a useful reminder that even within Homeric epic, which in itself is an outstanding example of male kleos, various technologies exist for men and women to craft their own kleos. Helen's is the only garment in either epic to have its commemorative function expressly articulated, but other woven textiles are intricately bound up with scenes of recognition and reciprocity, where they implicitly refer to their makers' hands. The connection between aural and material sources of kleos is suggestively drawn by a scholiast to the Iliad who comments that, in representing Helen weaving the Trojan War ( Il. 3.125-8), "the poet has crafted a worthy model for his own poetic enterprise" (ἀξιόχρεων ἀρχέτυπον ἀνέπλασεν ὁ ποιητὴς τῆς ἰδίας ποιήσεως). 2 Helen as a model for Homer? Weaving, as the scholiast's words suggest, is an apt metaphor for the production of epic verse. But insofar as textile makers in the Homeric poems are all female, weaving and its associated products provide what appears to be a unique opportunity for women to circulate their kleos…

Gender studies and queer theory explore issues of sexuality, power, and marginalized populations (woman as other) in literature and culture. Much of the work in gender studies and queer theory, while influenced by feminist criticism, emerges from post-structural interest in fragmented, de-centered knowledge building (Nietzsche, Derrida, Foucault), language (the breakdown of sign-signifier), and psychoanalysis (Lacan).

This book is some sense summarizes a long-lasting discussion about the character of religious community, which was headed by poet Sappho in Lesbos. Since the epithet ‘ιοκολπος (,,with a violet breast“) is attested not only, as is commonly believed, in Sappho's lyrics, but also in an inscription of Athenian Artemis Agrotera's altar (IG II (2), Ν 4573), we can better understand the religious outlook of the poetess as well as the working of the Sapphic guild on Lesbos. A comprehensive analysis of the sources allows us to conclude, that the poetess probably was a priestess of Artemis Agrotera as well as of Artemis Thermia, who was an ancient aquatic divinity of the island. We argue that the poetess had performed songs in a festival of this divinity and that the cult of Artemis in the thiasos of Sappho experienced strong Lydian influence during the life of the poetess. In addition Sappho was linked with Artemis by other varied ties of sacred service.

Herodotus’ view of Blackness is discussed only in relation to his 2.104 passage where he describes the Egyptian physical appearance. This is a consequence of the modern debate on ancient Egyptian racial identity. Inevitably, commentators on 2.104 have been heavily concerned with defending their predispositions about ancient Egyptian racial identity. As a result, there has been no critical engagement with Herodotus’ conceptualization of Blackness. This analysis uses critical race theory to address this methodological problem. Contrary to the consensus in Greco-Roman studies, Blackness was a factor in ancient Greek racial thought. It is evident that Herodotus’ own understanding of Blackness did not differ from the general Greek worldview. Ultimately, this analysis shows that Blackness was a significant aspect of Herodotus’ ethnography for particular racial groups.

This paper aims to reassess the role of sister- and siblinghood in the fragmentary 'Tereus' of Sophocles, a play unusual in its dramatization of a close and collaborative relationship between two sisters. The plot hinges on their recognition and reunion, and the all-female bond of sisterhood is shown to outweigh both wife-husband and mother-son obligations. Finally, a close reading of three fragments suggests that the play was characterized by the language and imagery of siblinghood, reflecting the thematic centrality of sisterhood to this tragedy.

Es ist kein Spezifikum der Antike und schon gar nicht der angeblich besonders aggressiven römischen Art der Kriegsführung, dass Frauen gemeinsam mit anderen verstärkt schutzbedürftigen Gruppen wie Kindern, Kranken und Alten, einer im Krieg und besonders in der Niederlage einer regelmäßig grausamen Behandlung ausgesetzt waren. Der Beitrag behandelt typische Frauenschicksale in antiken Konfliktsituationen, besonders am Beispiel des römischen Belagerungskrieges. Bei dieser einzigen antiken Approximation einer ‚totalen‘ Kriegsführung lässt sich am besten die katastrophale Überschneidung zwischen militärischer und ziviler Welt beobachten. Dabei werden sowohl die antiken literarischen als auch die wenigen vorhandenen ikonographischen Quellen ausgewertet, die sich explizit mit der Behandlung von Frauen auseinandersetzen, wobei vor allem die Themenkomplexe Kriegsgefangenschaft und anschließender Verkauf in die Sklaverei, Vergewaltigung und Mord im Vordergrund stehen.

This is an unpublished master's thesis in Turkish language at the Dokuz Eylül University, submitted by Özge Şimşekdir in 2019. It focuses on shaping of gender and sexuality in ancient Greek and Roman world. Thus, it is a sample study of gender studies in contemporary Turkish archaeology.
The cognitive evolution of human brought with it a new era which human abandoned seeing itself as a part of nature. In the Neolithic period, human became a power that no longer finds its food by coincidentally, producing its own food and thereby capturing the land. The conquest of the mother earth has brought many transformations by itself. The people who can produce their own food, beyond their ability to determine their destiny, the old cones-nomads living in small communities, have already met with resident life, and they have preserved and stored food. Also they have had to create the state organization to protect their food. Social relations have become even more complex and the gender inequalities between the sexes have begun to emerge significantly. The patriarchal period, which still continues its presence, and the matriarchal period which keeping equal fertility of the woman and fertility of soil, the blood bond is determined by the mother is over. The new system brought with the life of the resident, the trail of the woman began to be erased, while the cult of the Mother Goddess continued to exist effectively in such a way that it contradicted it. Although this cult with the Phrygians’ Cybele shows its traces in the Greek and Roman world, a strict male-dominated culture is waiting for us.
Most researchers, thinks gender inequality, which is considered to be the most fundamental problem in the ongoing women struggle emergence in ancient Greece. In fact, when we look at the life styles of the ancient Greeks, women only played a role in the reproduction of men. The woman has always been obliged to be at the behest of her master called kyrios. Kyrios, sometimes the father, sometimes has been another relative or husband; if none of them were alive, the woman had to be subject to the order of her own son. Although they cannot leave the house alone, they are forbidden even with the household to enter into the andron that room of the man. Especially in the periods when men started to play an active role in cities together with democracy, in the feasts organized by the men, even the women living in the households could create a very unpleasant situation. It is observed that the ancient Greek thinkers always see the female body as inadequate as compared to the male and female physiology. That's why women's intelligence is under the intelligence of men and the man has to educate the woman he married.
Hetairas, the only women group in the community, who were respected and acted in a comfortable manner, were able to develop themselves in every field in an interesting way and were able to participate in the men's world, especially in the feasts.
It is not surprising that the male body was blessed and idealized in the Greek society, which was believed to have been woman body created as a curse, especially in the gymnasium where men were engaged in sport activities as naked. It would be wrong for us to expect Greek women to show themselves as athletes in gymansium excluding Sparta. At that time, the Greeks' exposing themselves to young girls in Sparta is considered immoral. In the works of the Greek Archaic Period, it is seen that the kuros men’ statues are known to be naked, while kores the young girls' statues are always dressed. The nakedness of the female body did not appear until the Helenistic period.
In the early period, Rome, which emerged with the loss of the importance of the Greeks now, has begun to show itself with a strict patriarchal system. We see that the father, who is the absolute ruler of the family structure, has the full authority in the Early Imperial Period and intervenes the rights of the individuals in the household, while the woman does not have any right to speak. However, in advance of the process, the woman started to have a voice in and out of the house and even with the emperor in the country's administration, she had a place in it. Homosexuality is also active and passive concept in this society, far away from its current meaning. In Rome, a slave society, passivity is only valid for slaves, and it is not welcomed that a free citizen is passive, and even under laws, it is a matter of sanction.
This study can be summarized as a simple look at the daily life of the peoples of Greece and Rome. In these two successive cultures, women, men, how the institution of marriage works, the place of prostitutes in society, the gods and goddesses who have similar characteristics with people were analyzed briefly.

Course Description: This course offers an introduction to the history of ancient Greece from the Bronze Age to the end of the Hellenistic Age (roughly the 16 th to the 1 st centuries BCE), drawing on both source materials and modern works. This is a student-driven seminar based on readings, presentations, and in-class discussions on the societal, religious, and political developments of the Greek world in antiquity. Students will become familiar with the Bronze, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, and early Roman periods of Greek history. The foundation of this course is the geopolitical history of the expanding Greek world; however, students also will engage the importance of ancient Greek culture, literature, religion, art, and gender roles. Through the investigation of texts, architecture, and archaeology, students will gain an appreciation of not just the ruling classes of the ancient Greek world, but also of the daily lives of normal Greeks and Hellenized native peoples. This will be a reading seminar course driven primarily by student participation. It will focus mostly on modern studies but also will feature a wide array of literary and archaeological source materials. Students will investigate historiographical arguments, lead class discussions, and prepare presentations.

----Cite this: Triaridou, Nina. “Lamia, Sirens, and Female Monsters: Feminist Reframings of Classical Myth in 19th Century Literature.” Antigone Journal, 31 March 2022, https://antigonejournal.com/2022/03/lamia-sirens-keats-andersen/ 

----From Medusa and Lamia to Scylla and the Sirens, Ancient Greek mythology abounds with terrifying female monsters, marked by their bodily hybridity – part human, part not. But what were the gender politics that resulted in monstrosity being linked with human femininity? To tackle this question, I’d like to focus on the origins of two popular female monsters, Lamia and the Sirens, and explore how they became associated with monsters, in both antiquity and more modern literature. For me, their subsequent shift from antagonists to sympathetic female figures in the 19th century emerges is especially interesting: both John Keats’s poem “Lamia” (1819) and Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale The Little Mermaid (1837) can be usefully explored from a feminist perspective, especially because both these works have exerted a positive influence on the representation of female monsters in contemporary culture, including Pre-Raphaelite painting and Disney's The Little Mermaid (Ariel).