Playing the other: gender and society in classical Greek literature

Abstract

Relations between the sexes was a concern of ancient Greek thought and literature, extending from considerations of masculine and feminine roles in domestic and political spheres to the organization of the cosmos in a pantheon of gods and goddesses. This study explores the diversity and complexity of these interactions through the influential literary texts of the archaic and classical periods ranging from epic (Homer) and didactic poetry (Hesiod) to the theatrical productions of tragedy and comedy in 5th-century Athens. The author demonstrates the workings of gender as a major factor in Greek social, religious and cultural practices and in ideas about nature and culture, public and private, citizen and outsider, self and other, and mortal and immortal. Focusing on the prominence of female figures in these male authored texts, she enlarges perspectives on critical components of political order and civic identity by including issues of sexuality, the body, modes of male and female maturation, and speculations about parentage, kinship and reproductive strategies. Along with considerations of genre, poetics and theatrical mimesis, she points to the powerful myth-making capacities of Greek culture for creating memorable paradigms and dramatic scenarios that far exceed simple notions of male and female opposition and predictable enforcement of social norms.