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VI. Gender

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2016

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Historians and anthropologists use the term ‘gender’ to denote the social meanings and cultural constructions of femininity and masculinity instead of the physical connotations of sex. Although anthropologists have also done some work on concepts of masculinity, recent studies of Greek religion have mainly analysed positions and representations of women, in so far as they have focused on gender differences at all. We will therefore first look at some elements of the female life cycle and daily life (§ 1), then look at representations of women in art and myth and at goddesses as possible role models (§ 2), and conclude with a discussion of the most important women’s festivals (§ 3).

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
New Surveys in the Classics , Volume 24: Greek Religion with addenda , 1999, pp. 69 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1999

Footnotes

1. Scott, J., ‘Women’s History’, in Burke, P. (ed), New Perspectives on Historical Writing (Oxford, 1991), pp. 42–66 ; Gilmore, D., Manhood in the Making. Cultural Concepts of Masculinity (New Haven and London, 1990).

2. No modern history of Greek religion has a separate chapter on gender.

3. Ephippus fr. 3; Nonnus, Dion. 25. 220; Hesch, s.v. stephanon ekpherein. We do not know how widespread this custom was.

4. Calame, Les choeurs de jeunes filles (seminal); Dowden, Death and the Maiden; more elementary, Specht, E., Schön zu sein und gut zu sein. Mädchenbilding und Frauensozialisation im antiken Griechen land (Vienna, 1989).

5. Most recently, Cole, S. G., ‘The Social Function of Rituals of Maturation’, ZPE 55 (1984), 233-44; Brulé, Fille d’Athènes, pp. 179–283; Sourvinou-Inwood, C., Studies in Girls’ Transitions (Athens, 1988); Dowden, Death and the Maiden, pp. 9–47; Lonsdale, Dance and Ritual Play, pp. 169–93. Our knowledge has greatly increased by L. Kahil’s publications of goblets with representations of the rituals: most recently, Comptes rendus de l’Ac. des Inscr. 1988, 799–813 (with bibliography).

6. Corinth: Calarne, , Choeurs 1, pp. 220-3. Ilion: Graf, , ‘Die lokrischen Mädchen’, Studi Storico-Rel. 2 (1978), 61–79 . Keos: Plut. Mor. 249.

7. Sparta: Calarne, Choeurs 1, passim. ‘Lesbian’ love: Calarne, ibid., pp. 433–6; 2, 86–97; A. Lar-dinois, ‘Lesbian Sappho and Sappho of Lesbos’, in Bremmer, From Sappho to De Sade, pp. 15–35.

8. Chios: Athen. 13.566E. Elis: Paus. 5.16, cf. Calarne, C., ‘Pausanias le périégète en ethnographie’, in Adam, J.-M. et al. (eds), Le discours anthropologique (Paris, 1990), pp. 227-50; Serwint, N., ‘The Female Athletic Costume at the Heraia and Prenuptial Initiation Rites’, Am. J. Arch. 97 (1993), 403-22.

9. Helen: Calame, Choeurs 1, 333–50; SEG 26.457f, 35.320 (?); Kahil, L., LIMC IV.1 (1988), s.v. Kanephoros: Brulé, Fille d’Athènes, pp. 301–8. Kallisto: A. Henrichs, in Bremmer, Interpretations, pp. 254–67; Dowden, Death and the Maiden, pp. 182–91; McPhee, I., LIMC VI. 1 (1992), s.v. Contests: Graf, NK, 275.

10. On the ritual and myth see now Brulé, Fille d’Athènes, pp. 79–123; Parker, ‘Myths of Early Athens’, pp. 195f (whom I closely follow); Kron, U., LIMC IV.1 (1988), s.v. Erechtheus; Baudy, G.J., ‘Der Heros in der Kiste. Der Erichthoniosmythos als Aition athenischer Erntefeste’, Antike & Abendland 38 (1992), 1–47 .

11. Holloway, R. Ross, ‘Why Korai?’, Oxford J. Arch. 11 (1992), 267-74; H. Rühfel, ‘Ein frühklassisches Knabenköpfchen’, in Froning, Kotinos, pp. 175–80, notes that girls’ marble statues were often smaller than those of boys. See in general also the observations of Osborne, R., ‘Looking on – Greek style. Does the sculptured girl speak to women too?’, in Morris, I. (ed), Classical Greece: ancient histories and modern archaeologies (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 81–96 .

12. Parker, Miasma, pp. 84f; Cole, S. G., ‘ Gynaiki ou Themis: Gender Difference in the Greek Leges Sacrae ’, Helios 19 (1992), 104-22; H. von Staden, ‘Women and Dirt’, ibid., 7–30.

13. Bremmer, , ‘Why did Early Christianity attract Upper-Class Women?’, in Bastiaensen, A. et al. (eds), Mélanges G. J. M. Bartelink . . . (Steenbrugge and Dordrecht, 1989), pp. 37–47 (Late Antiquity); id., ‘Old Women’, pp. 193f; add Theophr. fr. 486. F. Graf, ‘Dionysian and Orphic Eschatology’, in Carpenter/Faraone, Masks of Dionysus, pp. 239–58 (graves).

14. Supervision: Cole, ‘Gynaikiou Themis’, 113f. Executions: Versnel, , Inconsistencies 1, pp. 115-19.

15. Cf. C. Bérard, ‘L’ordre des femmes’, in id. et al, La cité des images (Lausanne, 1984), pp. 85–104; Lissarrague, F., ‘Femmes au figuré’, in Pantel, P. Schmitt (ed), Histoire des femmes en Occident I. L’antiquité (Paris, 1990), pp. 159–251 ; Shapiro, H., ‘The Iconography of Mourning in Athenian Art’, Am. J. Arch. 95 (1991), 629-56.

16. Mythology: Gould, J., ‘Law, Custom and Myth: Aspects of the Social Position of Women in Classical Athens’, JHS 100 (1980), 38–59, esp. 52–8. Pandora: Rudhardt, J., ‘Pandora: Hésiode et les femmes’, Mus. Heh. 43 (1986), 237-9; Loraux, N., Les enfants d’Athéna (Paris, 1990 2), pp. 26lf.

17. Vases: Sourvinou-Inwood, ‘Reading’ Greek Culture, pp. 58–98. ‘Taming’: Calarne, Choeurs 1, pp. 411–20; Nisbet, R. and Hubbard, M., A Commentary on Horace: Odes Book II (Oxford, 1978), pp. 77–93 ; Ghiron-Bistagne, P., ‘Le cheval et la jeune fille ou de la virginité chez les anciens Grecs’, Pallas 32 (1985), 105-21.

18. Io: Yalouris, N., LIMC V.1 (1990), s.v. Io I. Proitos: Burkert, Homo necans, pp. 168–73; Dowden, Death and the Maiden, pp. 70–95.

19. Leukippides: Calame, , Choeurs 1, pp. 323-33; Prange, M., ‘Der Raub der Leukippiden auf einer Vase des Achillesmalers’, Antike Kunst 35 (1992), 3–18 . ‘Kidnapping’: Bremmer/Horsfall, Roman Myth, p. 110 (Bremmer). Thessaly: Aelian, Nat. An. 12. 34 (tr. A. F. Scholfield, Loeb).

20. Cf. Bernhard, M.-L. and Daszewski, W., LIMC III. 1 (1986), s.v. Ariadne; s.v. Ariatha (F. Jurgeit); Neils, J., LIMC V.1 (1990), s.v. Iason (Medea). Betrayal: Bremmer, ‘Old Women’, p. 204.

21. Eriphyle: Buxton, R., Persuasion in Greek Tragedy (Cambridge, 1982), p. 37 . Sourvinou-Inwood: ‘The Fourth Stasimon of Sophocles’ Antigone’, BICS 36 (1989), 141–65; ‘Myths in Images: Theseus and Medea as a Case Study’, in Edmunds, Approaches to Greek Myth, pp. 395–445; ‘Sophocles’ Antigone as a “Bad Woman”‘, in Dieteren, F. and Kloek, E. (eds), Writing Women into History (Amsterdam, 1990), pp. 11–38 . Old women: Bremmer, ‘Old Women’, p. 203.

22. See now the innovative approach of Blok, J., The Early Amazons (Leiden, 1994).

23. Degani, E., in Bremer, J. M. and Handley, E. W. (eds), Aristophane = Entretiens Hardt 38 (Vandoeuvres and Geneva, 1993), p. 42 .

24. Masson, O., Onomastica Graeca selecta 2 (Paris, 1990), pp. 543-7 (= ZPE 66, 1986, 126–30: Artemis), 605–11 (= Mus. Heh. 45, 1988, 6–12: Bendis).

25. Argive initiates received a shield during the Heraia, cf. Burkert, Homo necans, pp. 163f; Moretti, L., ‘Dagli Heraia all’ Aspis di Argo’, Miscellanea Greca e Romana 16 (Rome, 1991), 179-89.

26. Burkert, , ‘Weibliche und männliche Gottheiten in antiken Kulturen ...’, in Martin, J. and Zoepffel, R. (eds), Aufgaben, Rollen und Räume von Frau und Mann (Freiburg and Munich, 1989), pp. 157-79; Loraux, N., ‘Qu’est-ce qu’une déesse?’, in Pantel, Schmitt, Histoire des femmes 1, pp. 31–62 .

27. See most recently Parker, Miasma, pp. 81–3; Burkert, GR, pp. 242–6; Winkler, J., The Constraints of Desire (London, 1990), pp. 188–209 (also on Adonia); U. Kron, ‘Frauenfeste in Demeterheiligtümern: das Thesmophorion von Bitalemi’, Arch. Anz. 1992, 611–50; Versnel, , Inconsistencies 2, 228-88. I refer to these studies for the sources.

28. Contra Versnel, , Inconsistencies 2, p. 275 .

29. This is problematic, but passages, such as Strabo 1.3.20 (the death of 25 maidens during the Thesm.); Cicero, Verr. 4.99 (women and maidens perform sacrifices for Demeter in Sicilian Catane); Luc. Dial. Meretr. 2.1 (courtesan and virgin attending); Schol. Theocr. 4.25c (maidens and women participating, if in garbled and clearly late [books mentioned!] text), suggest the possibility of local varieties or later developments.

30. On huts and beds see now U. Kron, ‘Kultmahle im Heraion von Samos archaicher Zeit’, in Hägg, Early Greek Cult Practice, pp. 135–47 and ‘Frauenfeste’, 620–3; Baudy, D., ‘Das Keuschlamm-Wunder des Hermes ...’, Grazer Beitr. 16 (1989), 1–28 . I am not sure whether the hiding of a pine-twig under the withy in Miletos was meant to suggest ‘fertility ... not accorded consummation, as Versnel, Inconsistencies 2, p. 248 states, since the text (Didymus, Symp. fr. 6, ed. Schmidt, pp. 374f: with thanks to D. Holwerda and St. Radt) is hopelessly corrupt.

31. Cf. Servius, Aen. 1 (Corinth); Apollodorus FGrH 244 F 89 (Paros); Hdt. 2.171 (Danaids).

32. For the connection of the play with the festival see Zeitlin, F., ‘Travesties of Gender and Genre in Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazousae’, in Foley, H. (ed), ‘Reflections of Women in Antiquity (New York, 1981), pp. 169–217 ; Bowie, Aristophanes, pp. 205–27. For the celebration of the Athenian Thesmophoria only in demes we may expect a study by Kevin Clinton.

33. Versnel, Inconsistencies 2, pp. 242–4.

34. Baubo: Graf, F., Eleusis und die orphische Dichtung Athens in vorhellenistischer Zeit (Berlin and New York, 1974), pp. 170f. Secrecy: Riedweg, C., Mysterienterminologie bei Platon, Philon und Klemens von Alexandrien (Berlin and New York, 1986), p. 11 .

35. Our main source, Schol. Luc. 275.23-76.28 Rabe, probably describes the Athenian festival but the ritual also occurred in other places, cf. Riedweg, Mysterienterminologie, pp. 119f. Megara/magara: Robert, L., Opera omnia selecta 2 (Amsterdam, 1969), pp. 1005-7 and Opera 5, pp. 289f; K. Clinton, ‘Sacrifice at the Eleusinian Mysteries’, in Hägg, Early Greek Cult Practice, pp. 69–80. For the connection with fertility of the land note also the dedications of ploughs and hoes in the Thesmophoreion of Gela: Kron, ‘Frauenfeste’, 636–9.

36. Detienne, M. and Vernant, J.-P. (eds), La cuisine du sacrifice en pays grecque (Paris, 1979), pp. 183–214 . Contra: Kron, ‘Frauenfeste’, 640–3, 650; Osborne, R., ‘Women and Sacrifice in Classical Greece’, CQ 43 (1993), 392–405 .

37. For the Bacchae see now March, J., ‘Euripides’ Bakchai: A Reconsideration in the light of Vase Paintings’, BICS 36 (1989), 33–66 ; Versnel, , Inconsistencies 1, pp. 131–205 , passim.

38. Cf. Kossatz-Deissmann, A., ‘Satyr- und Mänadennamen auf Vasenbildern ...’, in Greek Vases in the J. Paul Getty Museum 5 (Malibu, 1991), 131-99, esp. 175–92.

39. Cf. Bremmer, , ‘Greek Maenadism reconsidered)’, ZPE 55 (1984), 267-86; Bélis, A., ‘Musique et transe dans le cortège dionysiaque’, in Chiron-Bistagne, P. (ed), Transe et théâtre = Cahiers du GITA 4 (Montpellier, 1988), 9–29 .

40. I take these examples from Osborne, R., ‘The ecstasy and the tragedy: varieties of religious experience in art, drama and society’ in Pelling, C. and Sourvinou-Inwood, C. (eds), Tragedy and the Historian (Oxford, 1995: interesting methodological reflections). Dance: see now M.-H. Delavaud-Roux, ‘Danse et transe. La dance au service du culte de Dionysos ...’, in Ghiron-Bistagne, Transe et théâtre, 31–53.

41. Cf. R. Kannicht, ‘Antigone bacchans’, in Froning, Kotinos, pp. 252–5; R. Schlesier, ‘Mixtures of Masks; Maenads as Tragic Models’, and R. Seaford, ‘Dionysus as Destroyer of the Household: Homer, Tragedy, and the Polis’, in Carpenter/Faraone, Masks of Dionysus, pp. 89–114, 115–46.

42. I owe these data to Osborne, ‘The ecstasy’; for representations on the so-called Lenaean vases see now Frontisi-Ducroux, F., Le dieu-masque: une figure du Dionysos d’Athènes (Paris, 1991).

43. Bremmer, ‘Greek Maenadism’, 282–4; but see also Seaford, R., ‘The Eleventh Ode of Bacchylides: Hera, Artemis, and the Absence of Dionysos’, JHS 108 (1988), 118-36.

44. See the survey by Versnel, Inconsistencies 1, pp. 134–50.

45. Burkert, GR, pp. 176f; Versnel, , Inconsistencies 1, pp. 103-5; add to Versnel’s full bibliographies Bremmer, ‘Onder de parfum, in de sla, tussen de vrouwen: Adonis en de Adonia’, Hermeneus 59 (1987), 181–7.

46. Hes. fr. 139; Sappho fr. 140a, 168; Henrichs, A., GRBS 13 (1972), 92-4 (Epimenides); Panyassis fr. 22b Davies.

47. See for one more possible example of Semitic influence Stol, M., ‘Greek Deikterion: the Lying-in-State of Adonis’, in Kamstra, J. H. et al. (eds), Funerary Symbols and Religion (Kampen, 1988), pp. 127f.

48. Baudy, G.J., Adonisgärten. Studien zur antiken Samensymbolik (Frankfurt, 1986), whose initiatory interpretations are not convincing; see also Pilitsis, G., ‘The Gardens of Adonis in Seres Today’, J. Mod. Greek Stud. 3 (1985), 145-66; Hiltebeitel, A., ‘South Indian Gardens of Adonis Revisited’, in Blondeau, /Schipper, , Essais sur le rituel 2, 65–91 ; Heinimann, F., Mus. Heh. 49 (1992), 81f (new testimony).

49. Cf. du Boulay, J., ‘Women – Images of Their Nature and Destiny in Rural Greece’, in Dubisch, J. (ed), Gender & Power in Rural Greece (Princeton, 1986), pp. 139-68.

50. Contra Winkler, Constraints of Desire, pp. 188–209, who draws his modern parallels not from rural areas but from circles which have already come into contact with Western ideas.