Reading Review

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

WARNING

This material has been reproduced and communicated to you by or on behalf of Griffith University in accordance with section 113P of the Copyright Act 1968 (Act).

The material in this communication may be subject to copyright under the Act. Any further reproduction or communication of this material by you may be the subject of copyright protection under the Act.

Do not remove this notice

Course of Study: (HSY204) History of Sex and Sexuality

Title of work: Before sexuality; the construction of erotic experience in the ancient Greek world (1990)

Section: Putting her in her place: Women, dirt and desire pp. 135--169

Author/editor of work: Halperin, David M.; Winkler, John J.; Zeitlin, Froma I.

Author of section: Anne Carson

Name of Publisher: Princeton University Press

PUTTING HER IN HER PLACE: WOMAN,

IRT, AND DESIRE

Anne Carson

Your black veil pulls me open.

-Bedouin song

S MEMBERS of human society, perhaps the most difficult task we face daily is that of touching one another-whether the touch is

physical, moral, emotional, or imaginary. Contact is crisis. As the an­ thropologists say, "Every touch is a modified blow. " 1 The difficulty presented by any instance of contact is that of violating a fixed boundary, transgressing a closed category where one does not belong. The ancient Greeks seem to have been even more sensitive than we are to such transgressions and to the crucial importance of boundaries, both personal and extrapersonal, as guarantors of human order. Their society devel­ oped a complex cultural apparatus, including such rituals as supplication, hospitality, and gift-exchange, which historians and anthropologists are only recently coming to understand as mechanisms for defining and securing the boundaries of everything in the habitable world. Civiliza­ tion is a function of boundaries.

In such a society, individuals who are regarded as especially lacking in control of their own boundaries, or as possessing special talents and opportunities for confounding the boundaries of others, evoke fear and controlling action from the rest of society. Women are so regarded by men in ancient Greek society, along with suppliants, strangers, guests, and other intruders. But the threat which women pose is not only greater in degree than that presented by other transgressors of boundaries; it is different in kind. "Let a man not clean his skin in water that a woman has washed in. For a hard penalty follows on that for a long time," Hesiod advises (Op. 753-55). When we focus on Greek attitudes to and treat­ ment of the female, we see anxiety about boundaries from a particular

1Crawley (1927), 1.78.

136 Carson

perspective-that of hygiene, physical and moral. Considerations of pol­ lution, which do not noticeably predominate in other ruses of contact like gift-exchange or supplication, assert themselves when the crises of contact involve erotic relations between male and female. Why?

TRANSGRESSION

Female transgression begins in social fact. Woman is a mobile unit in a society that practises patrilocal marriage (which Greek society is generally agreed to have done), and man is not. From birth the male citizen has a fixed place in the oikos ("household") and polis ("city­ state"), but the female moves.2 At marriage a wife is taken not just (and perhaps not at all) into her husband's heart but into his house. This transgression is necessary (to legitimate continuation of the oikos), dangerous (insofar as the oikos incorporates a serious and permanent crisis of contact), and creates the context for illicit varieties of female mobility, for example that of the adulteress out of her husband's house, with attendant damage to male property and reputation. Both as subject and object of love, the unstable female presented Greek society with a set of tactical and moral problems that it never quite solved, but which it sought to clarify, during the archaic and classical periods, by recourse to pollution beliefs and the code of conduct governing miasmata ("defilements") in general.3 To isolate and insulate female eras, from society and from itself, was demonstrably the strategy informing many of the notions, conventions, and rituals that surrounded female life in the ancient world. I want to examine this strategy for its logic and its practice by asking, first, what the ancients meant by dirt and why they disliked it; second, what they did with their dirt and their dislike. It will not be possible, for the most part, to distinguish physical from metaphysical, nor concept from cause. But if we look closely at the dilemma posed by female dirt, we will begin to see the outlines of an ideology powerful enough to shape the major details of women's lives, even to the design of their wedding ceremonies.

First, let us consider the logic of female pollution.

2Vernant (1974) has analyzed the mythic world of Greek marriage in terms of space and movement, boundaries and displacement. See also, Visser (1986), 149-53.

3Many societies resort to codes of pollution to regulate and rationalize human situations where order and sense elude them, such as sex. "When moral rules are obscure or contra­

dictory there is a tendency for pollution beliefs to simplify or clarify the point at issue," says Douglas (1966), 141. See, also, Parker (1983).

Ph ysiologicall (Viet. 27) diffi

The female

more inane

Aristotle ma 4.28.88a12-20 inclination of a female to th the left" (GA

It is the con human being i is wisest and b · and unafflicte mind of Zeu 14.165).5 Wet may infer fro to "dry his m· Vesp. 1452; �11 whose psyche i proper percept led by a boy ( dermined by Apollonia, wh(

4W etness and dr

from temperature "women are wet"

ature of the female

but with cultural

authors, relative t and Empedokles,

Aristotle, with a d not surprising, the

follow. What is es

of physiological d tional extremity th a temperature of I

desire. See further volume.

5Onians (1951),

1s of pol­ ,f contact crises of

r?

unit in a ociety is the male is (" city­ just (and 1se. This Le oikos), �rmanent )f female 's house, ts subject :y with a ut which recourse miasmata ·os, from ng many 1le life in c and its rvhy they :e. It will :al from ly at the 1es of an n's lives,

f space and

1 situations

or contra­

ssue," says

Putting Her in Her Place 137

WETNESS

physiologically and psychologically, women are wet. 4 Hippokrates

(Viet. 27) differentiates male from female as follows:

The female flourishes more in an environment of water, from things cold and wet and soft, whether food or drink or activities. The male flourishes more in an environment of fire, from dry, hot foods and mode of life.

Aristotle makes a similar distinction (Prob/. 4.25.879a33-34; cf. 4.28.88a12-20), and suggests that this difference may arise from the inclination of the fetus in the case of a male embryo to lean to the right, a female to the left, given that "the right side of the body is hotter than the left" (GA 4.1.765b2).

It is the consensus of Greek thought that the soundest condition for a human being is dryness, provided it is not excessive dryness. "A dry soul is wisest and best," Heraklitos asserts (B118 VS). Mature men in a sound and unafflicted condition are dry. In Homer, the efficiently functioning mind of Zeus is characterized as "dry" (<ppEai. 1TE1.JKOlALµ11m, Iliad 14.165). 5 Wetness of mind is an intellectually deficient condition, as we may infer from a passage of Aristophanes where a man speaks of the need to "dry his mind" if he wants to "say anything smart" (Eq. 95-96; cf. Vesp. 1452; �1)poi 7p01TOL), and from Heraklitos who describes the man whose psyche is wet with drunkenness as devoid of both self-control and proper perception, for he stumbles, doesn't know his way, and must be led by a boy (B 117 VS). The dry state of mental alertness may be un­ dermined by wine, sleep, or self-indulgence, according to Diogenes of Apollonia, who proposed in the fifth century that the conscious element

4Wetness and dryness, as appears from the citations below, are rarely considered apart

from temperature, in the context of human physiology. But whereas the statement

"women are wet" can be demonstrated fairly universally in ancient examples, the temper­

ature of the female body is not so easily generalized. We are dealing not with physical fact

but with cultural and rhetorical artifact; imputations of heat and cold vary in various

authors, relative to the thrust of particular arguments. Disagreement between Parmenides

and Empedoklcs, for example, on whether women are hotter than men, is examined by Aristotle, with a discussion of the ambiguities of the term "hot" (PA 648a29-649b). It is

not surprising, then, if some inconsistency on this point emerges in the testimonia that

follow. What is essential for our analysis is to note a clear trend in ancient interpretations

of physiological data: women are presumed at home in conditions of physical and emo­

tional extremity that discomfit male flesh and protocol, however these sort themselves as a temperature of life from one rhetorical moment to another in the ancient exegesis of

desire. See further the researches of D. Halperin and A. Hanson (esp. at note 115) in this

volume. 5Onians (1951), 31; on 'lTEUKOI.ALfLO� see Chantraine (1968-1980) 3.893.

138 Carson

in man consisted of air and that an individual's intelligence depended on the dryness of this air: "Understanding is the work of the pure and dry air. For moisture hinders intelligence, wherefore in sleep and in drunk­ enness and in surfeit understanding is diminished" (Al 9 VS). 6 The as­ sault of emotion was also thought to be an endangering wetness. Emo­ tion pours into a person and melts, loosens, dissolves him. Fear is "wet" (irypov, 122.4 W)7 and causes Anakreon to "drip" (avaami\.vi;w, 395.4 PMG). Painful anxiety "falls in drops" within the minds of Aiskhylos' chorus ( a-rai;EL, Ag. 179-80). 8 Envy melts the eyes and heart of the envious in a Hellenistic epigram (AP 11.193). The emotions of eri5s are especially liquid and liquefying. Eros pours, drips, heats, softens, melts, loosens, cooks, boils, dissolves. 9 Men pride themselves on being able to resist such assaults on their physiological and psychological boundaries. A fragment ofSophokles instructs us, "The chest of a good man does not soften" (fr. 195 P). Ancient medical theory endorses the view that dry­ ness is best and is a masculine prerogative. According to Hippokrates, the maturity of the male physique is achieved when it attains and keeps its proper dry form, which occurs when the element of fire within "is no longer overmastering but standing still and the body no longer trembles with growth" (Viet. 33).

This condition of dry stability is never attained by the female phy­ sique, which presumably remains cold and wet all its life. 10 Partly by virtue of her innate wetness, woman is more subject than man to lique­ fying assaults upon body and mind, especially those of emotion. Aris­ totle tells us that the female is softer than the male (µai\.aKWTEpov) and much more easily moved to tears, pity, jealousy, despondency, fear, and rash impulses (HA 9.1.608b); Empedokles calls woman "IToi\.vKi\.av-rwv ("much in tears," B62.1 VS). Semonides catalogues the subjection of women to gluttony, extravagance, instability of mood, and sexual desire (7 W). Women are assumed to be markedly more open to erotic emotion than men and sexually insatiable once aroused. A long tradition concern­ ing female lewdness derives from this assumption, of which a few ex-

6Kritias says that, in drunkenness, memory is melted out of the mind by forgetfulness, and the mind stumbles (B6.12 VS).

7The epithet is Valckenauer's conjecture for the unmetrical A.v-ypov and is printed by most editors, although opinions remain divided on the wetness of fear: Kamerbeek in fact pro­ poses o:fuv ("dry"). See Renehan (1976), 37-38.

8See Frankel, ad lac., and cf. 1121; Eur., Suppl. 79-80. 9ln the absence of any satisfactory etymology for Ep&w ("I desire") applied to one moved

sexually, Onians suggests an original derivation from Ep&w ("] pour out"), related to EpCT'T] ("dew") and signifying in the middle voice "[ pour myself out, emit liquid, am poured out." He compares CT'l"U')'EW ("! hate") which began in the physical "I freeze, stiffen at": Onians (1951), 202 n. 4.

10Cf. Aristotle, GA 728a19-22; Prob/. 879a; see also above, n. 4.

amples may be m a woman who ha rjw; avopos TI 'YE-y "ready to dare a Sophokles observ of childbirth cann a frequent joke in 20; Nub. 553ff .

. ,

voracity as a "Rh will swallow him Plato (Tim. 91c) explanation of fem trollable longing f, as a consequence O, marrying girls off In the Greek histo of affairs managed feature total female ing for traditions traced their descent intercourse casuall granted that, unres to complete wanto

What is the conn ness makes women than men. Second, cessive heat and dry the Dog Days, for those "phlegmatic tery men," but it ca ')'Olp avat'TJPOlLOV'TOlL Problemata. He asks mtercourse in sum natures collapse in s Now a man is hot a

11Sce Dover (1973), 60 istically crisp: "A certain t to sexual temptation reli (1973), 62.

12See Pembroke (1967) identify matriarchal situat evidence, or in the face o (1970).

e depended 011 : pure and dry and in drunk­ VS). 6 The as­ vetness. Em0_ Fear is "wet"

TOlAU{W, 395.4 of Aiskhylos'

:l heart of the ons of eras are ,oftens, melts, 1 being able to :al boundaries. I man does not view that dry- 1 Hippokrates, ains and keeps � within "is no mger trembles

e female phy­ fe. 10 Partly by man to lique­

:motion. Aris­ llKWTEpov) and �ncy, fear, and '1TOA1JKA.O'.'UTWV

· subjection of d sexual desire erotic emotion lition concern- 1ich a few ex-

I by forgetfulness,

is printed by most :rbeek in fact pro-

•lied to one moved "), related to E'.pc:rl] iquid, am poured freeze, stiffen at":

Putting Her in Her Place 139

amples may be mentioned. Aiskhylos warns against the "blazing eye" of

a woman wh�o has once "tasted man" (yuvmKOS .. . cpAE-ywv cH.p0aA.µ6s 'Jl'l"lS avopos 1l'YE'YEVµEVT), fr. 243 Nauck) and deprecates female license as ''ready to dare anything" for love ('1TaVT6Aµovs Epw,-as, Ch. 594). Sophokles observes that even women who have sworn to avoid the pain of childbirth cannot resist sexual desire (fr. 932 P). The lust of women is a frequent joke in Aristophanes (e.g., Thesm. 504ff.; Ekkl. 468-70; 616- 20; Nub. 553ff.; Lys. 553ff.).11 Alkiphron characterizes female sexual voracity as a "Kharybdis" (1.6.2), warning another man that his hetaira will swallow him whole (3.33). Both Hippokrates (de Morb. Mui. 1) and Plato (Tim. 91c) promote the theory of the "wandering womb," an explanation of feminine hysteria which is predicated on women's uncon­ trollable longing for sex. Aristotle takes female incontinence for granted as a consequence of feminine weakness (EN 7. 7.1150b6) and a reason for marrying girls off not later than the age of eighteen (Pol. 7.14.1335a29). In the Greek historians, whenever mention is made of a society or state of affairs managed by women, it is assumed that such situations would feature total female promiscuity. For example, Philo of Byblos, account­ ing for traditions of matrilinear descent in antiquity, explains: "They traced their descent on the mother's side because women at that time had intercourse casually with any man they ran into." Philo takes it for granted that, unrestrained by an alternate system, women would incline to complete wantonness.12

What is the connection between wantonness and wetness? First, wet­ ness makes women more vulnerable to Eros' onslaughts in psychic form than men. Second, female wetness gives women a weapon against ex­ cessive heat and dryness which men do not possess. The parching heat of the Dog Days, for example, is said by Hippokrates to be beneficial for those "phlegmatic by nature," a class which includes "women and wa­ tery men," but it causes the generality of men to "wither right up" (ALTJV -yap avatTJpOL(ovTm, Aer. 10.85f.). Aristotle pursues this matter in his Problemata. He asks the question, "Why are men less capable of sexual intercourse in summer but women more so?" and answers, "Because hot natures collapse in summer by excess of heat, while cold ones flourish. Now a man is hot and dry but a woman is cold and moist. So the power

11See Dover (1973), 60-63; (1964), 31-32. Dover's account of this attitude is character­ istically crisp: "A certain tendency to regard women as irresponsible and ever ready to yield to sexual temptation relieved a cuckolded husband of a sense of shame or inadequacy" (1973), 62.

12See Pembroke (1967), who discusses this tendency on the part of Greek writers to

idencify matriarchal situations with female promiscuity on the basis of little evidence, no evidence, or in the face of contradictory evidence. Also Pembroke (1965); Vidal-Naquet (1970).

140 Carson

of a man is diminished at that time but a woman's power flourishes because it is balanced by its contrary" (4.25.879a31-35).

We find in poetry too this concern for the withering effect of the Dog Days on the masculine physique. In a poem modeled on Hesiod (Op. 582-96), Alkaios represents the time of Seirios' rising as a season of blistering heat which parches men to incapacity while encouraging the license of women to burgeon (fr. 34 7 LP). As the poem shifts delicately from weather to sexuality, it becomes clear that the focus of male con­ cern (and perhaps resentment) here is not a summer heat wave but the unwitherable appetite and capacity of the female sex:

TE''/'YE '1TAE1Jf.LOVU<; o'lv4:>, TO -yap &cnpov 'lTEplTEAAETm, a o wpa XUAE'lTU, 'lTUVTU OE oCljim<; 'll'lTO'. KU1Jf.LUTO<;, Ol,XEl o EK 'lTETUAWV &oEa TETTLt 'lTTEpii-ywv o {ma KUKXEEl Al-yiipav '1T1JKVOV aoi:oav, 0Epo<; O'lT'lTOTa <pX.6-ywv tKa0E-rav Em'lT-r<iµEvov KaTa1JoECTJt &v0El OE CTKOA1Jµo<;· vuv OE -yiivmKE<; f.Llapw-ra-rm, AE'lTTOl o &vopE<;, E'lTEL OT] KE<pUAUV KUL -y6va 2,ELplO<; &CToEl.

(347 LP)

Wet your lungs with wine for the Star is coming round. The season is harsh, all things thirst beneath the heat. From the leaves the cricket sends sweet noise, pouring down from its wings one shrill song after another, whenever in blazing summer . the artichoke is blooming. And now is the time when women are at their most polluted but men are delicate, for the Dog Star parches head and knees.

One word calls for particular attention in this passage: µUllpWTOLTm in line 6. Editors of the text generally advise us that we cannot know exactly what Alkaios means by "most polluted" here, and they reduce the word to a term of nonspecific abuse like "abominable" or "most pestilential. "13 However, Alkaios' style of abuse in other poems is any­ thing but nonspecific, and a powerful clue to his meaning is contained in the passage of Hesiod on which he has very explicitly based this poem. In almost identical terms, Hesiod describes a midsummer scene where

13LSJ make a special category, "= µ,&x/\os," for this passage. Page maintains "the usual

meanings of µ,tacp6s are inappropriate here" and renders "confounded," "damnable." Bur­

nett (1983), 133, reminds us that Powell "gallantly proposed an emendation, <ptacpwTacTm

'plumpest."' See also Wilamowitz (1913), 63, n. 1.

artichokes b fat, wine is completely &vopE<;, Op. are parched in it, encour sage Hesiod

Hesiod, in th metaphors of power itself "roasts her m '.°anly strengt 1mpotence.14

Woman is the For she burns

youth too s

And the archaic iambic verses:

14West (1978) add

;ver flourishes

:ct of the Dog 1 Hesiod (Op. .s a season of couraging the 1ifts delicately , of male con­ wave but the

:n,

,P)

md. t.

.uapw,-aTcu in cannot know

td they reduce Jle" or "most poems 1s any­ is contained in ;ed this poem. :r scene where

,intains "the usual "damnable." Bur­ ttion, <pu,pw-rocrm

Putting Her in Her Place 141

artichokes bloom, crickets pour forth song after song, goats are rich and fat, wine is perfect, and women are "at their most wanton, while men are completely enfeebled" (µaxA6'l'a,-m OE yuvaiKES, &<.pavp6'l'a'l'OL oE ,-m &vopES, Op. 586). Both poets agree on the physics of the situation: men are parched to impotence by the heat; women seem somehow to thrive in it, encouraged to burgeon alongside flora and fauna. In another pas­ sage Hesiod puts his anxiety more plainly.

OU µEv -yup TL ')"IJVOllKO<; UVTJP /\Tj(�E'r' &µELVOV TT)<; u-ya0fJ<;, 'l''T]', O airrE KaKfJ<; OU f)L')'WV 0'.1\/\0, OELTIVO/\OXT]'>' TJ ,.

, &vopa Kai 't<.p0Lµ6v TIEP E.Ov'l'a

EVEL O'.'l'Ep oa,\oCo Kai wµ{j', -yfJpai: OWKEV. (Op. 702-5)

For a man wins no better prize than a good woman, and none more chilling than a bad one­ always hunting something to devour. And no matter how strong he is, she roasts her man without fire, and hands him over to a raw old age.

Hesiod, in the midst of giving advice on choosing a wife, abandons metaphors of weather and identifies the withering factor as female sexual power itself. The voracious woman, by her unending sexual demands, "roasts her man" in the unquenchable fire of her appetite, drains his manly strength and delivers him to the "raw old age" of premature impotence. 14 We find a similar complaint in a later poet:

EO'TL ')"IJVT] Tl'lJpo<; UVTL000ECO'a owpov, UVLTJPOV 'l'OV Tl'lJpO<; UVTLOOTOV·

&vopa -yap EKKaLEL rnC<; <.ppovT(O'LV T]OE µapa(vEL Kai -yf]pa<; TIPOTIETE<; Tfj VEOTTJTL <.pEpEL.

(AP 9.165.1-4; cf. Hesiod, Op. 57)

Woman is the wrath of Zeus, a gift given in place of fire-cruel countergift! For she burns a man with cares and withers him up and brings old age on

youth too soon.

And the archaic poet Arkhilokhos summarizes the female threat in two iambic verses:

Tfj µh uowp EO'<.pOpEL ooAo<.ppovfouua XELPC, 0TJ'l'EP'fl oE wp.

(fr. 184 W)

14West (1978) adduces parallels ad Hes., Op. 700-5. See, also, Detienne (1977), 120.

142 Carson

She came carrying water in one hand

the tricky-minded female, and fire in the other.

The Greek poets find sexuality in women a fearsome thing; 15 it threatens the very essence of a man's manliness. The foundations of the threat appear to be two.

Congenitally more susceptible to the inducements of appetite than men, women do not experience either of the constraints which check the male. Women feel no physical need to control desire since, by virtue of innate wetness, female capacity is virtually inexhaustible. In addition, the female nature lacks the sophrosyne ("soundness of mind" or "sobriety and self-control") by which men subject desires to rational mastery from within. Sophrosyne, the essence of the power to keep one's physical and psychological boundaries intact, is a word of rich and varying overtones in its application to masculine exemplars, but feminine sophrosyne always includes, and is frequently no more than, chastity. 16 From its first uses in Homer, sophrosyne is the activity of checking some natural impulse or closing the boundaries of the phrenes ("wits") by will. The resulting "soundness" of phrenes is closely associated in Greek thought with aidos ("shame"): both virtues concern self-containment. "What the classical sophrosyne shares with the Homeric aidos is chiefly a fear of overstepping boundaries," says Helen North. Aristotle concedes sophrosyne to women but insists on defining it differently for female and for male, as for master and slave. For the man, sophrosyne is rational self-control and resistance to excess; for the woman, sophrosyne is dutifulness and obedience. A woman cannot control herself, so her sophrosyne must consist in submit­ ting herself to the control of others (Pol. 1260a20-24; 1277b20-24). Ar­ istotle also denies to women a full measure of aidos; the female is anaides­ teron ("comparatively shameless," HA 608b12).17 Exempt from shame as from all fear of drying up, woman goes at sex like a hippomaniac mare. 18

15 A man and woman in Theokritos debate this fear: 27.27-28. 16North (1966), 1. 17North concludes, "This view of feminine arete aligns Aristotle with most of the Greeks

except Sokrates and Plato. When the word sophrosyne begins to mean 'chastity' for men as well as women (from the second half of the fifth century) masculine and feminine chastity prove to be differently defined: masculine chastity derives from self-control, the opposite

of hybris, feminine chastity from obedience": ibid., 76, n.105; see also 206; Dover (1978), 67-68; Freud, in a letter to Eduard Silberstein cited by Grosskurth (1980), 889: "A thinking

man is his own legislator and confessor, and obtains his own absolution, but the woman, let alone the girl, does not have the measure of ethics in herself. She can only act if she keeps within the limits of morality, following what society has established as fitting. She is never forgiven if she has revolted against morality, possibly rightly so."

18"In eagerness for sexual intercourse," Aristotle explains, "of all female animals the mare comes first, next the cow. Mares become horse-mad and the term derived from this

Aristotle tells ical condition The fern.ale an mount the bul 572a30-b4)_ 19 wish to stop. si5phrosyne, the

The unfailin pattern, part 0 nature in gene worn.an is able power. Man from. this w�r estranged from with which he whereby rnan c order on the c speaking of his of confinement mesticated eno

one animal is applie (HA 572a8-13).

19Cf. Arkhilokhos KW\L'T1]µEpa / CT7r0U blind pups / in hot

20It is noteworthy womb," the factor deprivation (De mor thought to be nouris primary of all subs ta is proved by the fact (Qu. conv. 687a; 696 moisture and moistur dry and moist" (Met

21Male homosexua to the same degree as from silence; the poe

connection with paed thought to share the

pleasure in relations the sophrosyne innate i1 ever, hand in hand wi his beloved boy: "Do

other things, this is t Kharikles, for my sak 8.21; Dover (1978), 52

: threatens the threat

etite than check the 'virtue of :lition, the briety and tery from ysical and overtones 1ne always rst uses in c11pulse or resulting

with aidos e classical :rstepping :o women for master resistance dience. A n submit- 1-24). Ar­ is anaides­ l shame as ac mare. 18

,f the Greeks r' for men as aine chastity the opposite over (1978), "A thinking the woman, t if she keeps She is never

animals the ed from this

Putting Her in Her Place 143

Aristotle tells us that "the warmer the weather and the better their phys­

ical condition," the more eagerly do mares and cows seek intercourse.

The female animal in heat cannot restrain herself; a bull-struck cow will

mount the bull herself, warns Aristotle; no herdsman can check her (HA S72a30-b4). 19 Similarly, once initiated, women revel in sex and do not wish to stop. Being innately moist, they do not need to stop. 20 Having no

sophrosyne, they do not think to stop. 21

The unfailing moisture and sexual drive of woman is part of a larger pattern, part of a larger harmony between women and the elements of nature in general. United by a vital liquidity with the elemental world, woman is able to tap the inexhaustible reservoirs of nature's procreative power. Man, meanwhile, holds himself fiercely and thoughtfully apart from this world of plants, animals, and female wantonness-doubly estranged from it, by his inherent dryness of form and by the si5phrosyne with which he maintains form. Marriage is the means, in the Greek view, whereby man can control the wild eras of women and so impose civilized order on the chaos of nature. Thus we find a fifth-century bridegroom speaking of his bride as a wild animal which became, only after a period of confinement and kind treatment, "submissive to my hand and do­ mesticated enough to make conversation" (Xenophon, Oec. 3.7-10).

one animal is applied by way of abuse to women who are inordinate in their sexual desires" (HA 572a8-13).

19Cf. Arkhilokhos' eugenic anxiety in the Cologne Epode (39-41): 8€8otx' &rrw<; µ-ri TU<pl\a KaAL-rftµEpa / <T1Tou8fl E'lTEVYOfLEVTJ / -rw<; WCT'lTEp TJ KVWV TEK'fl- ("I fear she'll give birth to blind pups / in hot haste like a bitch").

20It is noteworthy that, in Hippokratic theories about female hysteria and "the wandering womb," the factor which threatens to dry women is not sexual indulgence but rather deprivation (De morb. mul. 1; cf. Plato, Tim. 91c). Indeed, wetness itself may have been thought to be nourished by the heat of love. Plutarch proposes that "moisture, the most primary of all substances in nature, is the element that provides nourishment for heat. This is proved by the fact that flames increase when oil is added. Fire naturally feeds on liquid" (Qu. conv. 687a; 696b). Theophrastos takes a similar view: "Fire burns so long as it has moisture and moisture is its only food. Flame is made by the constant interchange between dry and moist" (Meteor. 2.2).

21 Male homosexual activity seems not to have been regarded as drying and debilitating to the same degree as relations with a woman. Evidence mainly amounts to an argument from silence; the poets do not generally express this fear on the part of a male lover in connection with paederasty. Boys themselves, being comparatively moist creatures, were thought to share the feminine capacity for sex, but they were not similarly motivated by pleasure in relations with males and were presumably checked, even when pleasured, by the si5phrosyne innate in the male disposition. Risk of dessication entered the picture, how­ ever, hand in hand with marriage plans, or so we may infer from Achilles Tatius' plea to his beloved boy: "Do not destroy the bloom of your youth before its time; for, among other things, this is the catastrophe of marriage: it dries up the prime of life. I beg you, Kharikles, for my sake, don't wither!" See also Hippokrates, Viet. 33; Xenophon, Symp. 8.21; Dover (1978), 52; 67.

144 Carson

The notion of female savagery persists in Greek thinking from pre­ historic through classical times. "Woman is one great bestiality!" says Menander (µ€-yurrov ean 0fipwv -yuvfJ, fr. 488 Kock). The Greeks were neither the first nor the last to subscribe to this notion; what is important for our purpose is to see where the notion led. The words of a later author, the second-century sophist Aelian, give some indication. In his treatise On the Nature of Animals, Aelian concludes his discussion of poisonous vipers by telling us that the asp is the most poisonous of all. Then he adds, "But a wild animal even more polluted [µuxpwTEpov] than an asp is the woman who dabbles in poisons!" (NA 1.54).

The assimilation of woman to the world of raw nature is a coin with two sides. Its standard is sexuality. The presexual or asexual female in Greek thought is part of the wilderness, an untamed animal who, given a choice, prefers the wild life of Artemis, roaming the woods undo­ mesticated and unloving of men. 22 The sexually initiated woman, on the other hand, soon proceeds through her licentiousness to bestialization, for to let oneself go in eros is a bestializing experience. 23 We find these ideas put to full and precise use by Greek society, as part of a conceptual complex aimed at validating and perpetuating the civil institution of monogamous marriage and family life. This complex included the fol­ lowing notions: that a woman's life has no prime, but rather a season of unripe virginity followed by a season of overripe maturity, with the single occasion of defloration as the dividing line; that marriage is the means whereby a woman can be cleansed of bestiality and complete

22The unwed maiden is a"{p6-repa (Pindar, Pyth. 9.6; Homer, II. 21.471; Xenophon, Cyr. 6.13; Pausanias, 1.19.6), or &8µTfTO<; (Homer, Od. 6.383; 4.637; 6.109; Sophokles, El. 1239), or am-upwrn<; (Aiskhylos, Ag. 245; Aristophanes, Lys. 217). She is a fawn (Anakre­ on, 408 PMG), a heifer (Epikrates, fr. 9 Kock), a filly (Anakreon, 417 PMG), a viper (Sophokles, Ant. 531), a gazelle (AP 5.292), an unfledged bird (Aristophanes, fr. 582 Kock), a swelling bean (Aristophanes, ibid.), a ripening apple (Sappho, 105a LP).

23The mature and sexually active woman is a wild sow pawing to be loosed (Aris­ tophanes, Lys. 683), a horse in need of tight reining (Plutarch, Coniug. praec. 1396), a bitch (Homer, II. 3.180; 6.344; 6.356; Od. 11.424; 11.427; 8.319; 19.154; Arkhilokhos, Col. Ep. 35), an ass (Semonides, 7 W), a weasel (ibid.), a brood mare (Pindar, fr. 122 S-M). Pros­ titutes take their names from insects or animals; Anaxilas offers a compendium of such names (fr. 22 Kock), e.g., Phryne ("Frog"), Lykaina ("Wolf"), Muia ("Fly"). The word L'IT'ITO<; ("horse") is an idiom for "lecherous woman"; Themistokles once yoked four pros­ titutes to a chariot and drove them into the marketplace (FGrHist 2.491; Athen., 533d). Plutarch tells us that Philip lost his enthusiasm for sleeping with Olympias when he entered her chamber one night to find a huge serpent stretched out beside her on the bed. "This more than anything else abated Philip's ardor" (Alex. 2.4-5). Woman, as we have seen, is a tame or tameable animal in Aristotle (GA 77564-7) and in Xenophon (Oec. 7.10); for Aelian, "a wild animal more polluted than an asp" (NA 1.54; see further below). Many agricultural and animal metaphors for the female genitalia are enumerated by Henderson (1975), 117. See also duBois (1988); Golden (1988), 1-12.

herself as a hu woman, espec from all variet is from "pla "work" does consider these

It is one of the that it leaves When her inte swers, "Well r'xH' OUK E(Tra some of the w and see wheth

Anakreon p

The word 'ITE1T (in Latin, matu 3.6.9), or of dis like figs ripe up boys who are ' 1TE1TELpo<;, AP 1 synonym for KV up and all but r

24To derogate a bl its positive degree, 'ITE'ITClLTEpO<;, 7.120), "Theocritus is perhs in this fruit"), but w' usage. The boy in q ( erotic aloofness is following verse by falling," Gow rende female &v0o<; falling Theokritean passage

m pre­ !" says :s were JOrtant a later In his

:ion of of all.

v] than

n with nale in , given undo- on the zation, :l these :eptual :ion of he fol­ tson of ith the : is the mplete

on, Cyr. kles, El. Anakre- a viper

2 Kock),

d (Aris­ ,, a bitch Col. Ep.

[). Pros- of such

he word ,ur pros- , 533d). : entered :I. "This � seen, is .10); for ). Many :nderson

Putting Her in Her Place 145

herself as a human being; that the procreative act of sex between man and woman, especially within the context of marriage, is to be distinguished

from all varieties of sexual flirtation, seduction, and dalliance as "work" is from "play"; that sexual "play" pollutes a woman while sexual "work" does not and may in fact retrieve her from pollution. Let us consider these notions in closer detail.

RIPENESS

It is one of the complaints urged against war by Aristophanes' Lysistrata

that it leaves girls aging alone in their maiden apartments (Lys. 593).

When her interlocutor retorts, "Do not men also age?" Lysistrata an­ swers, "Well yes, but the word doesn't mean the same thing!" (µ01 6-C, aAA.' ouK E(1ra<; oµowv). Let us test Lysistrata's assertion by examining some of the words used in Greek to describe women, and women's age, and see whether they mean the same thing when used of men.

Anakreon puts into a woman's mouth the plaintive words:

KVUS-Y] TL<; TJOT] Kai '1TE1TELpu -y(voµm CTT]V OL<X µup-yoITTJVT]V.

(432 PMG)

I am becoming a wrinkled, rotten thing

as a result of your debauchery!

The word 1TE1TELpa ought to mean "ripe," "at the peak," "in its prime" (in Latin, maturus), as it does when used of fruit (Theophrastos, H.P. 3.6. 9), or of disease (Hippokrates, Acut. 390), or of young boys who are like figs ripe upon the tree and in danger of being despoiled (AP 12.185), boys who are "good-looking" (KaAot) and "ripe for lovers" (<plA.EOVO"l 1TE1TELpo<;, AP 12.9).24 Anakreon, however, appears to use 1TE1TELpa as a synonym for KvvifJ, a word which Herodian suggests means "shrivelled up and all but rotten," as of fruit ready to fall to the ground. The word

24To derogate a boy who is past his prime, Theokritos uses the adjective 'ITE1THpct not in its positive degree, but in the comparative formulation "riper than a pear" (6mCmo 1TE'ITctLTEpos, 7.120), a phrase whose exact reference remains unclear (Gow, ad foe., suggests "Theocritus is perhaps thinking of the rapidity with which ripeness passes into rottenness in this fruit"), but which in its context precisely underscores our argument for a misogynist usage. The boy in question is overripe by virtue of his actual years, not his sexual experience (erotic aloofness is the point of his lover's complaint), and his &vOos is described in the following verse by a verb (cmoppEi:) in the present indicative tense: "Thy fair bloom is falling," Gow renders. Nowhere do we find, for it would be a contradiction in terms, the female &v0os falling in the present tense: woman's peak is a perfective experience. This Theokritean passage was brought to my attention by David Halperin.

146 Carson

1TE1TELpa here must mean not "ripe" but "overripe" and the cause of this condition is clearly stated: O"'fJV oux µap-yo01JV'Y)V. Sexual indulgence brings the woman not to her peak but past it. Aristophanes uses this adjective as a synonym for -ypaLa ("old woman," Ekkl. 876 and schol.), and Arkhilokhos applies it dismissively to the Neoboule whose "insane" sexual license (K6pov µmvoALS) has relegated her to the undesirable cat­ egory (Col. Ep. 26-31). Proof ofNeoboule's insatiable appetite for sex is straightforward: &v0os o' a1rEppu'Y)KE 1rap0EVTJLOV ("her maiden flower has fallen"). Her "overripeness" consists in this same fact. Its result is to deprive her of charm and render her a subject for curses. Clearly, here as in Anakreon's poem, 1TE1TELpa is used without approbation in a way that somewhat distorts its lexical meaning.25 And behind the distortion lurk some assumptions-namely, that a woman's first sexual experience cat­ apults her into uncontrolled sexual activity and out of the category of desirable sex-object, for she is past her peak the moment the &v0os (flower) falls.

A comparable distortion can be seen in Greek usage of the word 61rwpa. This word means "fruit-time," "the time between the rising of Seirios and of Arktouros when the fruit ripens," and also the fruit itself. When used metaphorically of males, 61rwpa signifies "the bloom of youth" or "ripe manhood," and does not exclude the pursuit of sexual fulfillment. 26 But when used of females, 61rwpa means virginity and is to be withheld from all erotic experimentation. Danaos warns his daugh­ ters:

TEpEw' O'lTWpot o' EUcpiJl\otKTO<; ouootµ,w<;. (Aiskhylos, Suppl. 998)

The tender fruit-time is by no means easy to safeguard.

and they piously reply:

Eµ,ft<; o' o'lTwpas ouvEK' Eil ep&uEL, 'lTUTEp· (1015)

Don't you worry about my fruit-time, father!

When not thus guarded, a woman's 61rwpa becomes blackened (as an overripe fruit?), undesirable and accursed:

25 A similar ambiguity perhaps contributes to confusion between opv1rE1rfi, ("ripened on the tree" of figs, e.g., Aristophanes, Lys. 564) and opv1rE'Tfi<; ("overripe, ready to fall" of prostitutes, e.g., Aristophanes fr. 141 Kock) which are constant variant readings for one another in manuscripts (see LSJ).

26E.g., Pindar, Isthm. 2.4-5: OOTL<; icwv Kcx/1.o<; ElXEV 'A<ppooCrn,/ E'u0p6vou µv&aTELpcxv ®LO'Tcxv inrwpcxv ("whichever beautiful boy attained the sweet season of ripeness, wooer of fair-throned Aphrodite").

He

The word men it means nophon says, prove with ag means virginit three times: t "prime of life' to have been he found out served her blo

Within thes with voraciou female life. Im i�g" are comp vigorous ripe sexually untrie includes sexua plucked" (Tj l3a impassioned pr marriage. As s lated to the slip of time!" wails

The analogy

27 A fragment of could carry the con into 'lTETIELpcx. The tophanes, Vesp. 134 Ekkl. 884, 1098) o nounce a woman as Euµop<pov 'lTOLEL· / 'lT makes her putrid, t shapeliness.") It is a or self-respect). Li decay. Plausibly, as I forfeiture is a conse priate to a maiden" sexual activity rots

I 28Pindar sees the K

swiftest possible m foot-race, lest midd

I

,f this gence s this hol. ), sane" e cat­ sex is lower t is to .ere as y that a lurk :e cat­ )ry of &veo-;

word ,ing of itself.

Dill of sexual Ld is to laugh-

998)

l015)

(as an

pened on ) fall" of s for one

&a'l"ELpav

wooer of

Putting Her in Her Place 147

EppE'l"W µEll.mv' 0'1Twpa· mien -yap xapciE'l"OlV

(Alexis, fr. 165 Kock)

Her fruit-time is past: all gone black. To hell with her!

The truth is, she hands out her favors to everyone.

The word 1JALKL<X is also used differently of men and of women. For men it means a mature time of life during which they become, as Xe­ nophon says, "useful" or "good" (XPfJ<nµoL) and then continue to im­ prove with age (E'lTL TO f3EATlOV E'lTLOLMmnv, Gee. 2.10). For women it means virginity. Aiskhines, as an example, uses the word 1JALK(cx twenty­ three times: twenty-two times of men in the sense "time of life" or "prime of life" or "bloom"; once of a woman, discovered by her father to have been unchaste and so walled up in a house with a horse, "since

he found out that his own daughter had been ruined and had not pre­ served her bloom [ 1JALK(cx] until marriage. "27

Within these usages is operating an identification of female sexuality with voracious promiscuity and of virginity with the best moment of female life. Implicit here is a denial that free sexual activity and "bloom­ ing" are compatible for a woman. There is no such thing as sexually vigorous ripe womanhood in the Greek view. At her peak a woman is sexually untried, whereas the 'YJALKL<X or 61rwpcx of a man emphatically includes sexual activity. "May the flower of my youth remain un­ plucked" (-ri f3cx<; o' &veo-; &opE'lTTOV EO"TW, Aiskhylos, Suppl. 663) is the impassioned prayer of the daughters ofDanaos: they are praying to avert marriage. As soon as she lets her &v0o<; (flower) fall, the female is trans­ lated to the slippery slope of overripeness: "A woman's prime is an inch of time!" wails Lysistrata (TTJ<; OE ')'UV<XLKO<; µLKpo<; o Kmp6-;, 596).28

The analogy from nature, which we have noticed pervading Greek

27 A fragment of Philemon suggests that the adjective amrpo<;, when applied to a woman, could carry the connotations of excess and moral discredit which we have seen imported into 'ITE'ITEtpa. The adjective aa1Tp6<; (in Latin, putridus) means "rotten" of a rope (Aris­ tophanes, Vesp. 1343-44) and "too old for sexual activity" of an aging woman (ibid. 1380; Ekkl. 884, 1098) or an old man (Plut. 1086; Pax 698). Philemon's verses, however, de­ nounce a woman as aa1Tp6<; without any hint that she is old: O"a'!Tpuv -yuvai:Ka o' o 1"p61To<; Euµ.opq,ov 'ITOtEL· / 'ITOAU -yup Ota<pEpEL O"Efl.VO'l"T]<; Euµ.opq,Ca<; (fr. 170 Kock). ("Her way of life makes her putrid, though she has a fine shape. For self-respect is a far different thing than shapeliness.") It is a way of life characterized by the absence of O"EfLVO'l"TJ<; (personal dignity or self-respect). Like Neoboule, she has forfeited charm, replacing "shapeliness" with decay. Plausibly, as for Neoboule and the anonymous woman of Anakreon, fr. 432, this forfeiture is a consequence of sexual license, and O"EfLVO'l"TJ<; has the sense "modesty appro­ priate to a maiden" (cf. Euripides, IA 1344). The overall purport of these jibes is clear: sexual activity rots a woman.

28Pindar sees the Katp6<; of female life as so fleeting a thing that Danaos must arrange "the swiftest possible marriage" (WKvra'!"ov -y&µ.ov) for his fifty daughters, in the form of a foot-race, lest midday overtake them unwed (Pyth. 9.114).

148 Carson

notions of female eros, underwrites these obliquities of diction. A woman who is being compared to an apple on a tree or a flower in a field can be said to wither the moment she is "plucked." Plucking is defloration. Sappho demonstrates this in two swift images, probably from a wedding song, comparing the bride to an apple and then to a hyacinth:

oZov TO -y/l.uKvt,w:/1.ov E.pEV0ETm &Kp<p br' ucro<p OlKpov E.'lT' OtKpOTU'T(p, /I.E/l.a0ov'TO OE µ,a/l.oop6m)E<;· O"\J µ,av E.K/I.E/l.a0ovT', a/1./1.' 01JK E.OVVav-r' E.1TlKE<T0m·

(105a LP)29

As a sweet apple reddens on a high branch high on the highest branch, and the apple pickers forgot­ well no, they didn't forget: weren't able to reach.

o'Lav TOlV 1J<XKLv0ov EV wpEL 'lTOLj.i,EVE<; &vopE<; 1T6crcrL KaTaCTTE(l30L<TL, x&µ,m OE TE 1T6pqiupov &v0o<;·

(105c LP)

As a hyacinth in the moutains that shepherds trample underfoot, its purple flower on the ground.

An epigram ascribed to Plato (Diog. Laert. 3.32) puts similar sentiments upon an apple thrown as an invitation to love:

µ,f]/1.ov E.-yw· J3a/l./l.EL f.1.,E <pL/1.WV CTE TL<;· a/1./1.' E.'lTlVElJCTOV, Eav0L'lT'lT'T)" Ka-yw Kai CTU µ,apmv6µ,E0a.

I am an apple, tossed by someone who loves you: now you, Xanthippe, nod your head 'Yes!' You and I are both withering.

A Hellenistic epigram telescopes the female situation sourly:

'lTCX<Ta 'YlJVT] xo/1.o<; E.CTTLV" EXEL o' a-ya0u<; 01JW wpa<;· -r-r1v µ,Cav Ev 0all.aµ,<p, TTJV µ,(av EV 0av&T<p.

(AP 11.381)

Woman is bile, and that's all. Her good seasons are two: marriage bed and death bed.

29Himerios (Dec/am. 9.16) comments on this poem: "Sappho compared a virgin to an apple, allowing those who would pluck it before its time not even to taste it with their fingertips, but he who would pluck it in the right season might watch its beauty grow." Female beauty grows until the moment of plucking.

Somewhat at 0 life, however, i function which c putrefaction, so Greek society s riage by means rounding both t ceremony. Here and reinforces a of work and pla

Generally thr that engenders all other varietie land to produc produce childr ("work") or th defined the pur 'TT]', 'TEKVW(TEW<; betrothal formu ')'VTJCTLWV <.T7TOp ' ( ')'VTJCTLWV 1T01(o

contexts the ve frequently used In Homer, the a "love-work" (<p creation of Epa Ep-yov KOLL -r6o' , describes the act flesh by meltin of sex, the Gree for his land and remam savage a

Distinct fro ("play") of ero tramarital, horn take the form o

3°Cf. Xenophon, 31Woman, like t

discussion of duBoi

)man m be .tion, !ding

nents

n to an :h their grow."

Putting Her in Her Place 149

WORK AND PLAY

Somewhat at odds with the notion that virginity is the prime of female life, however, is the socially indispensable image of marriage as that function which can secure for a woman, against the ravages of time and putrefaction, some measure of fulfillment, personal and sexual. Ancient Greek society succeeded in recommending the institution of civil mar­ riage by means of a complex machinery of cultural propaganda, sur­

rounding both the progenitive act itself and the rituals of the wedding ceremony. Here, as with the ideal of "ripeness," linguistic usage reflects and reinforces a cultural program. Consider, for example, the metaphor of work and play.

Generally throughout Greek literature, the act of sexual intercourse that engenders or aims at engendering offspring is called "work," while all other varieties of erotic activity are "play." As he must labor with his land to produce food, so the Greek husband labors with his wife to produce children, by means of the 7r6vos ("labor") or the Ep-yov ("work") or the K&µvos ("toil") of the sexual act. 30 Thus the Spartans defined the purpose of marriage as "for the work of begetting" (E7rL TO 'T'YJS 'TEKVWO"EWS Ep-yov, Plutarch, Comp. Lye. cum Num. 4.77). Ancient betrothal formulas specify this Ep-yov as that of "sowing" (E7rL 7rOLL8wv ')'V'YJO"Lwv a7r6p<p, Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.23) or "ploughing" (-yv'Y]a(wv 'ITOLLOwv E7r' ap6,-p<p, Menander, Perik. 435), while in comic contexts the verb "to hoe" (aKOLAEUHV, or its cognate O"K01A010iJpELv) is frequently used of sexual intercourse (Aristophanes, Pax 440; Ekkl. 611). In Homer, the act of love which engenders "splendid offspring" is called "love-work" (cpLAO'TTJO"LOL Ep-y01, Od. 11.246). Aiskhylos refers to the pro­ creation of Epaphos as "this work of Zeus, this engendering" (Lltoc; ,-68' Ep-yov KOLL ,-68' &v -y€vos, Suppl. 588; cf. 1034-37). When Hippokrates describes the activity of sexual intercourse as an exertion that reduces the flesh by melting, he terms it 7r6voc; (Viet. 2.58). By means of the 7r6vos of sex, the Greek husband domesticates his wild bride and, just as he does for his land and the beasts on it, brings to fruition what would otherwise remain savage and unproductive.31

Distinct from the 7r6voc; of sex in Greek diction we find the 7rm8(01 ("play") of erotic dalliance. Erotic "play" may include premarital, ex­ tramarital, homosexual, or even marital relations, provided these do not take the form of coitus for procreative purposes. What generally distin-

3°Cf Xenophon, Mem. 2, 1. 11. 31Woman, like the Greek soil, reverts to wilderness if not "worked": see the extended

discussion of duBois (1988).

150 Carson

guishes the two terms in Greek erotic theory is product. Erotic "play" produces pleasure. Erotic "work" can generate offspring.32 Thus a poem of the Anthology designates as 1Tai:-yvux ("games") the foreplay that pre­ cedes sexual Ep-ya proper:

E<T'TW 1rpoilvELKOl 1rpwTa 0vyij µ,a Ta

KOlL 'TCX 1rpo Ep-ywv TIOlL'YVLOl.

(AP 12.209)

Let there be lewd touching first

and games before the work.

Note the implication here that erotic "play" is lewd by definition (1TpOiJVELKa). This sentiment becomes overt moral theory in Plutarch, according to whom a "whorish" (ETmpLKo<;) woman is distinguishable from a proper wife by her use of myrrh and rouge (instead of olive oil and soap) and her willingness to "play with her husband" (1Tpo<; Tov &vopa 1Tai:tai: n, Coniug. praec. 142a). Elsewhere Plutarch expresses the view that the pleasure of sexual dalliance is not an aim of marriage but in fact has a debilitating effect, for women who "gain mastery of their husbands by means of sexual pleasure" (xapouµEvm ot' iioovfis) render them degenerate fools, just as Kirke did Odysseus and his men (ibid. 139a).

As far as women were concerned, Greek society made use of the work/play distinction in two ways. First, to exclude the female from erotic "play" and confine her to the utilitarian "work" of love within a domestic context. Second, to bracket together (as did metaphors of ste­ rility and wildness drawn from nature) the prostitute and the virgin in one category, in order to oppose this category to that of legitimate wife, for the recommendation of the latter. Both the KOP'TJ and the ha(pa are outside marriage, outside work. Both represent unproductive, unserious conditions, not to be lingered in.

Unwed girls are 1TOlLOE<; (" children") and are thought to spend their

32Huizinga (1949), 52, shows the same distinction operating in the Blackfoot language of

the Algonquin Indians, where the verbal stem koani has two major usages, to designate all

children's games and to designate illicit erotic relationships. German has Spielkind for a child born out of wedlock. Huizinga lists other examples (Dutch, Old English, Sanskrit) of

a widespread and fundamental equation between play and erotic activity, especially in illicit

contexts. "It is not the act as such that the spirit of language tends to conceive as play; rather

the road thereto, the preparation for and introduction to 'love' . . . but it would be erroneous to incorporate the sexual act itself, as love-play, in the play category. The

biological process of pairing does not answer the formal characteristics of play as we

postulated them. Language also normally distinguishes between love-play and copulation.

The term 'play' is especially or even exclusively reserved for erotic relationships falling outside the norm" (pp. 62-63). Cf. Achilles Tatius, 1.10.

lives largely playing at t ball (6.100), spend their 1 · only domest ments") Wit word used b Epode (13). I not been take with her play 18.13-14). T Helen's unpr treeless gard spinning, we young girls la life and descr

C

The Greek her "wild" da before the wed rites (1TpoaiJh and consecrate number of epig following, a gi garments to A

33Plutarch tells o tion, then prompt!

pation like a garme a quiet existence w·

34With the (Hpa(p his adjective EpmH

ball's conventional is especially useful without incurring t

or a proferred gift

y" :rn :e-

on :h, )le oil ov

he m �Ir ler id.

he rn La :e- 1n :e, 1re us

of all ' a of cit ter be he Ne Ill.

ng

Putting Her in Her Place 151

lives largely in play. With the image of Nausikaa and her handmaidens playing at their laundry (Homer, Od. 6. 92), and then playing with their ball (6.100), we may contrast the married women of epic who seem to spend their lives at the loom. 33 The eccentric K yrene of Pindar spurns not only domestic work but also passing time in TEplj,ull<; ("play" or "amuse­ ments") with the girls of her house (Pyth. 9.18-19); TE.plj,ull<; is also the word used by Arkhilokhos for his sport with the maiden of the Cologne Epode (13). In his epithalamium of Helen, Theokritos says that, had she not been taken in marriage, the bride could have "played until deep dawn with her playmates" ('TI'()lLQ{)( ... (TUV 'TI'OlLCTL ... 'TI'{)(LCTOELV ES [3a0uv op0pov, 18.13-14). Theokritos goes on to describe how marriage will transform Helen's unproductive virgin state (likened to a cornfield without corn, a treeless garden, an untamed horse) into the ep-ya of the fruitful wife: spinning, weaving, childbearing, and song. In a fragment of Sophokles, young girls lament the abrupt difference that marriage makes in a female life and describe the carefree prenuptial period:

a.'l vEm µ,Ev EV 71'<:xTpo<;

11 OUTTOV, of µ,m, �WfJ.,EV cxvflpc,)7TWV (3Cov. TEp7TVW<; -yap O'.El 7TCXLOa<; avo(a TpE(pEL.

(fr. 583.3-5 P)

We young girls have the sweetest time of our life in the house of our father, I think: carelessness keeps us delightedly children, day after day.

The Greek wedding ceremony dramatizes the bride's transition from her "wild" days of play to the civilized work of married life. On the day before the wedding, Pollux informs us, the bride performed preliminary rites ('TI'poauA.La or 'TI'pOTEA.ELa) in which she said farewell to her girlhood and consecrated her toys to Artemis (Pollux, 3.39; Pausanias, 2.33.1). A number of epigrams in the Anthology commemorate such an event; in the following, a girl dedicates her tambourine, ball, 34 headdress, and childish garments to Artemis with the words:

33Plutarch tells of the K yrenaian heroine Aretephile, who saved her city from destruc­ tion, then promptly reentered the women's quarters and put on her proper female occu­ pation like a garment of days: "And for the rest of her life she worked at the loom, leading a quiet existence with her friends and relatives" (Mui. virt. 257e).

34With the cnpo.ipo. (ball) of6.280 we should compare Anakreon, 358 PMG and construe

his adjective lcpo.TEWTJ, usually translated "lovely," as a quasi-technical term referring to the ball's conventional use as a mechanism of seduction and flirtation. The ball, like the apple,

is especially useful in love-play as a means of challenging another person's boundaries without incurring the risk and responsibility of personal contact by hand or gift. A touch or a proferred gift demands a response; a tossed ball may be missed or ignored without

152 Carson

ADl'Ty)Ol, TU OE 1rmOo<; imi:p TLµapETELOl<;

0l]KOlµEVOl, (T(l),OL<; ....

(AP 6.280)

Daughter of Leto, accept these offerings

from the child's hand of Timareteia

and keep her safe. . ..

An alternative ritual is mentioned by Photios, who says that as part of the wedding rite the bride's father sent to her new oikos gifts of gold and little dishes containing "the playthings of her girlhood" (1r0lp6Evw. 'lTOlL"fVLOl, Photios, s.v. AEKOlVL<;). Catullus' hymeneal chorus closes its song at the door of the nuptial chamber with the instruction: "Now we have played enough, it is time for you two to go to work!" (Lusimus satis. At bani coniuges ... exercete, 61.225-28).

The wedding ceremony ritually replaces the bride's childhood toys with symbols of her new working life. Vase paintings show us that members of the wedding procession carried domestic utensils from the repertoire of women's work (spindles, pestles, sieves, winnowing baskets, loaves of bread), and Pollux records that the bride herself carried out of her house a pestle and a sieve, "symbols, obviously, of her own proper labor" (a'Y]µELOl, w<; ELKO<;, Olurnup-y(Ol<;, 3.37-38) to be hung above the door of the nuptial chamber. Solon ordained that brides should carry a vessel for roasting barley ( cppu-ye-rpov) in the wedding procession "as a symbol of barley work" (a'Y]µEi:ov &X.cpL-rovp-y(Ol<;, Pollux, 1.246). The wedding ceremony also dramatizes the shedding of virgin "wildness" and transition to civilized wifehood. The bride completes her preliminary rites by offering the Ol'lTOlPXOlL (first fruits or primal offerings) of her hair to Artemis, perhaps to symbolize trimming the wild foliage of her head in final tribute to the goddess of the wild condition. 35 After marriage she will wear her hair bound; loose or tossed hair is the sign of the bacchante or the prostitute. 36 The bride then takes her nuptial bath. The bath is a crucial moment in her transition from girlhood to wifehood. Girls in the Troad waded into the River Skamandros to wash off their wildness with the words: "Take, Skamandros, my virginity" (A&f3e µov, IK&µOlvope, TTJV 'lTOlp6EVLOlV, ps.-Aiskhines, Epist. 10.3.680).37

dishonor. Once she graduates to married work, the girl will have no further use for such tools of erotic play.

350n the haircutting ceremony, "a fusion of marriage custom and mourning custom," see Barrett (1964), 2-3; Reckford (1972), 416-18.

36E.g., Arkhilokhos, 31 W; Euripides, Bakkh. 695; AP 6.275; 276; 281. 37It is a familiar dogma of ancient thought, anthropologists tell us, that moments of

transition from one state of life to another are high points of danger, especially vulnerable

The" ·1 W1 d work/play dis female :may tr kosmos of life. ture needs the regards the fe "insufficiently lessness of pla discourage wo asceticis:rn. Th choices. This when a young guests, offerin KOlKov, El)pov & So the thorny c have been salva

Women, we ha u-yp6v) is that w readily be boun bounded by a b (De gen. et corr. gender in the Ji ferentiated from as content from from pure, and t

The image of explicitly in the mother, in his

to spirits, agencies, in the air of human soci (1966), 96. At such cri measures to wash off dard. Transition is als clothes. An illicit or i gressor is one who d

celebrate entry into ti

mistress "without feas ritual bathing as a nup

38Zenobios, 3. 99; S (1901), 99; Detienne (1

le le )(,

le :d ni

rs

lt

Le

g If

1g

:s

g

,[ e r )" :,

:l

:l

Putting Her in Her Place 153

The "wildness" of women, then, is a notion that cooperates with the work/play distinction to recommend marriage as the context wherein a female may transform savagery, sterility, and uselessness into a fruitful kosmos of life. Even biologically, according to Aristotle, the female na­ ture needs the "work" of sexual relations with a man to fulfill itself: he regards the female menses as semen which is deficient by virtue of being "insufficiently worked on" (oEoµEVov Ep"fa.CTLO'.S, GA 728a). The fruit­ lessness of play and the futility of wild nature reinforce each other to discourage women from both self-indulgent eroticism and self-absorbed asceticism. The bride is fortunate to escape her wilderness of barren choices. This conviction is given point during the wedding ceremony when a young boy crowned with thorns circulates among the wedding guests, offering bread from a sieve and repeating the formula: Ec.p1!"fOV Ka.Kov, E-i1pov &.µELvov ("I have fled evil, I have found what is better"). 38 So the thorny child bride graduates to domestic productivity, grateful to have been salvaged for civilization by her husband's cultural insight.

WOMEN LEAK

Women, we have observed, are wet. Aristotle tells us that the wet (To V"fp6v) is that which is not bounded by any boundary of its own but can readily be bounded, while the dry (To �11p6v) is that which is already bounded by a boundary of its own but can with difficulty be bounded (De gen. et corr. 329631-33). If we consider the ancient conception of gender in the light of this distinction, we see that woman is to be dif­ ferentiated from man, in the ancient view, not only as wet from dry but as content from form, as the unbounded from the bounded, as polluted from pure, and that these qualities are necessarily related to one another.

The image of woman as a formless content is one that is expressed explicitly in the philosophers. Plato compares the matter of creation to a mother, in his Timaios, for it is a v1rooox11 ("receptacle," "reservoir,"

to spirits, agencies, influences, and the whole "bacteria of invisible mischief" that swarm

the air of human society, as Crawley puts it (1927), 1.19. See Gennep (1960), 26; Douglas

(1966), 96. At such crisis points, rituals instigated as safeguards usually include purificatory

measures to wash off the past and assimilate new strength for the future. Baths are stan­

dard. Transition is also marked by fire, fumigation, feasting, anointing, or exchange of clothes. An illicit or impure transition is one not marked by such ritual, an illicit trans­ gressor is one who does not trouble to wash off the pollution of the old status so as to

celebrate entry into the new. Thus the adulterer (J.LOLXO<;) invades the chamber of his

mistress "without feasting or washing his hands" in a fragment of Sophokles (1127 P). On ritual bathing as a nuptial necessity, see Ginouves (1962), esp. 265-82.

38Zenobios, 3. 99; Souda s. v. E<pvyov KO:Kov; Haropkration, s. v. 1'LKvoq,6po<;; Samter

(1901), 99; Detienne (1977), 174, n. 83; and see further below.

154 Carson

"admission," 49a, 50d) which is "shapeless" (&µop(po<;), "viewless" (av6pmo<;), "all-receiving" (1TOlVOEXTJ<;) and which "takes its form and activation from whatever shapes enter it" (KLVoiJµEv6v TE KOlL OLOlCTX'flfl,OlnioµEVov u,ro TWv ElcrLovTwv, 506). Aristotle accords to the male in the act of procreation the role of active agent, contributing "motion" (KLV"fjO"L<;) and "formation" (')'EVECTL<;) while the female pro­ vides the "raw material" (uA.11), as when a bed (the child) is made by a carpenter (the father) out of wood (the mother) (GA 716a6-7; 727631- 34; 729615-21). Man determines the form, woman contributes the mat­ ter. Aristotle expresses a similar view about -UA"fj in his Physics (192a20- 25), and we might note that the Pythagorean table of oppositions sets 1TEpw; ("boundary" or "limit") and &ppEV ("masculine") against 01.1TELpov ("the unbounded") and 0fJAv ("feminine") (Aristotle, Met. 986a22ff).

The assumptions about women that underlie the views of Plato, Ar­ istotle, and the Pythagoreans can be traced to the earliest legends of the Greeks. In myth, woman's boundaries are pliant, porous, mutable. Her power to control them is inadequate, her concern for them unreliable. Deformation attends her. She swells, she shrinks, she leaks, she is pen­ etrated, she suffers metamorphoses. The women of mythology regularly lose their form in monstrosity. Io turns into a heifer, Kallisto becomes a bear, Medusa sprouts snakes from her head and Skylla yelping dogs from her waist. The Sirens and the Sphinx accumulate unmatching bestial parts, while Daphne passes into leaf and Pasiphae into a mechanical cow. The Graiai make themselves repellent by sharing one human form amongst them, passing an eye and a tooth back and forth as needed. Salmakis merges her form with that of Hermaphroditos to produce a bisexual monster. The Hydra generates heads as fast as they can be lopped off. 39 And of course the Amazons, as their name (a negative prefix attached to the word for "breast") implies, owe their fearsomeness to the zeal with which they adapt personal form-their own.

39There are male shape-changers too (e.g., Proteus in the Odyssey, Dionysos in Eurip­ ides' Bakkhai, and the amorous Zeus of various legends), but it is notable that men who shift shape seem generally able to shift it back at will-that is, to command form even within change. That Zeus can pass through bestialization (e.g., as a swan for Leda) or feminization (e.g., as a mother of Athene and Dionysos) to recovery of his proper form seems an assertion of his self-control, in sharp contrast to the helpless case of many of his paramours. Mortal men who transgress boundaries as adulterers, on the other hand, appear frequently to be feminized in the process, as Aigisthos is "Woman!" to the old men of Agamemnon's household (Aiskhylos, Ag. 1625). Athenaios tells us that the Lydian men "became thoroughly effeminate in their souls and adopted the life of women" after a certain outrageous act of public adultery, thereby bringing upon themselves the tyranny of Omphale, famed in myth as the woman who put Herakles in a dress (515f-516). From Aelian we learn that adulterers at Gortyn were made to wear a crown of wool "to indicate they were unmanly, womanish and lecherous" ( VH 12.12).

At the sa forms and b they are to! Danae) or d Althaia does ers themselv spring out of takes Dion . ys while Kronos Rhea 4o Ev · en submit mascu vital lock fro hands, Medeia and Gaia gives Mythical wo fatal formlessn that has no bo covers HerakJe that eats the fo her own body: !J,EiJoo<; )'AVKv female action' t rodite herself genitals. And it typical crime 0 Daughters of D their bridegroo to spend eternit is a u tensi1 that feminine symbo hellish image all boundaries. 41

This same myt not only in the a also in the acts 0 society, and the cannot or will no awfully adept at c to search for the

4°Kronos' motives a some disesteem for the flEEw, "to flow, strea 41On the Danaids, s

wless" m and E KO'L to the

buting .e pro­ le by a nb31- .e mat­ J2a20- ns sets TIElpov 2ff). :o, Ar- of the

le. Her �liable. 1s pen­ gularly omes a ;s from bestial 11 cow. t form teeded. ,duce a can be egative meness

n Eurip- 11en who 1rm even Leda) or per form ny of his l, appear l men of lian men a certain

ranny of S). From > indicate

Putting Her in Her Place 155

At the same time, the women of myth are notorious adaptors of the

forms and boundaries of others. They repeatedly open containers which

they are told not to open (e.g., Pandora, the daughters of Kekrops,

Danae) or destroy something placed in a container in their keeping (as

Althaia does the psyche of Meleagros). They prove unreliable as contain­

ers themselves; both Zeus and Apollo find it necessary to snatch off­

spring out of a mother's womb and internalize it for safekeeping (as Zeus takes Dionysos from Semele, Apollo rescues Asklepios from Koronis), while Kronos swallows his children alive as soon as they emerge from

Rhea. 40 Even more distressing are the numerous women of myth who submit masculine form to personal and violent revision. Skylla clips a vital lock from her father's head, Agave beheads her son with her bare hands, Medeia pulls the plug on Talos, K ybele unmans Attis with an axe, and Gaia gives her son a sickle to abbreviate his father in the same way. Mythical women deny male boundaries by enveloping male form in a fatal formlessness, as Klytemnestra encloses Agamemnon in a "garment that has no boundaries" (a1rHpov uq:,auµa, Eur., Or. 25), as Deinaneira covers Herakles in a "cloud of death" (q:,ov(q. VE<pEA.q., Soph., Tr. 831) that eats the form of his flesh, as Nephele entraps Ixion in the delusion of her own body: "He lay with a cloud-sweet lie!" (vE<pEA.q. ,rapEA.E�aTO ljJEuboc, ')'A.VKV, Pind., Pyth. 2.36-37). Love is the principal motivation for female action throughout these legends; nor should we forget that Aph­ rodite herself was born from the sea-foam around Ouranos' castrated genitals. And it is significant to note that Greek myth confers upon the typical crime of women a stereotypical punishment in the story of the

Daughters ofDanaos. These forty-nine girls find it expedient to murder

their bridegrooms on their wedding night and are therefore condemned to spend eternity in the underworld, gathering water in a sieve. The sieve is a utensil that we will encounter more than once in our investigation of feminine symbology. The sieve of the Danaidai sums up in a single hellish image all that is problematic in the relation between women and boundaries. 41

This same mythological groundwork of assumptions can be discerned not only in the arguments of philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, but also in the acts of legislators, the images of poets, the conventions of society, and the rituals of religion: women are formless creatures who cannot or will not or do not maintain their own boundaries and who are awfully adept at confounding the boundaries of others. When we begin to search for the aetiology of this conception, we encounter a deep and

4°Kronos' motives are admittedly hostile, yet the action, structurally viewed, implies some disesteem for the female container. Rhea's name is pertinent, derived from the verb f)EELV, "to flow, stream, pour, gush out."

410n the Danaids, see the recent survey by Garvie (1969), 234-35.

156 Carson

abiding mistrust of 'TO iryp6v ("the wet") in virtue of its ability to trans­ form and deform.

We have already noted that Greek men ascribe to the female in general a tendency to "let herself go" in emotion or appetite, a tendency encour­ aged by her wet nature and by the liquid or liquefying nature of emotions and appetites themselves; men take pride in resisting such dissolution. This putative distinction between male and female tendencies was given early expression in Greek society by the legislation of Solon, which restricted the walks, feasts, trousseaux, mourning, food, drink, and sex­ ual activity of women, and also later by the institution of the yu­ vmKov6µm ("supervisors of women"), special magistrates appointed to maintain feminine eukosmia ("decency" or "good order").42 For whereas the male nature credited itself with possessing sufficient sobriety and self-control to maintain its own eukosmia, the female nature was not so credited. Solon's legislation is but one well-publicized example of a com­ plex array of restrictions on the movements and attire and actions of woman, on the spaces and gestures and garments within which she lived. A similar resolve informs all these restrictions: since woman does not bound herself, she must be bounded. This is achieved by organization of her space, prescription of her gestures, ordering of her rituals, imposition of headgear, attendants, and other trappings.

A good woman does not exceed the boundary of her oikos. 43 On the shield of Akhilleus a wedding procession is depicted, moving past local matrons each standing in the doorway of her own house (II. 18.490f; cf. Hesiod, Scut. 270f.). At news of the defeat at Khaironeia, the women of Athens ventured as far as their front doors to inquire after husbands, fathers, or brothers, and even this was considered unworthy of them and of their city, according to the orator Lykourgos (Against Leokrates 40). In Pheidias' statue at Elis, Plutarch says, the tortoise on which Aphrodite rests her foot symbolizes a woman's life, closed upon itself in its own domestic space (Is. et Os. 75). Within the oikos chaste women are lodged in the upper or inner rooms (111TEpwt0v or yuvmKwvi:n<;), and this is the space to be penetrated by lovers (e.g., Il. 16.134f.). Men are habitually leaving the house to confront the outdoors in war, commerce, political life, friendship, the fields, the sea, the agora. Man is made for V1Tm0p(cx Ep')'cx E�W ("work outside in the open air") and woman for 'TOL hoov ("things within"). 44

Neither the body nor the speech of a "chaste and sensible" (sophron)

42Wehrli (1962), 33-38; RE, s.v. gunaikonomoi. 43See especially Woodbury (1978), 296-97, with references. 44Xenophon, Oec. 7.20, 22, 30; cf. Demosthenes, Contra Neaer. 59.122; Plato, Rep.

9.579b. On distinctions of space, see further Vernant (1974), 124-70; Nagler (1974), 78; Padel (1983), 3-19.

woman is "fo feelings, chara 142d; cf. Thou of women's vi

Th

for

but

mu!

A fragment of s concealed:

Coope

wome

Herodotos inclu the Egyptians (2. from left to righ men stay home

451n Xenophon's v work indoors in shad inate (4.2). See also (Kharm. 163b; Phdr. 2 full of shadow, Dem the maternal role in h V1JOUOS (Eum. 665); c doors" and in the pass Aemi/. 31; Persius, S environments where with which she is c "Women are prone to dark places and resist b prefers to take cover Pindar's Ninth Pythian) naturally in such matt feels both desire and feminine specialty (see matters as particularly

f

t

f 1

e ll

,f

d n :e n d 1e y al ,0/.

)V

i)

:p.

18;

Putting Her in Her Place 157

woman is "for the public" (o'Y)µ,ocrws), Plutarch says; moreover, her feelings, character and disposition must be kept hidden (Coniug. praec. 142d; cf. Thoukydides, 2.45). Euripides distinguishes the hidden nature of women's virtue from the public nature of man's:

µt-ya -n 011pEvELv apET&v, ')'VVO'.L�L µEv K0'.'1'0'. Kv'lTpLV KplJ'lT'l'Oi.V, EV &.vop&<n 8' ail K6aµoc; hwv 6 µvpw'lTA.1]0i]c; µEii;;w 'lTOA.LV o:u�EL.

(IA 568-72)

The quest for virtue is a great thing:

for women it is a secret quest concerned with love,

but for men, the good order innate in each nature

multiplies to make the city thrive.

A fragment of Sophokles warns women to keep their own shame closely

concealed:

O"U')'')'VW'l'E Kav&axEa0E aL-ywaav ,.o -yap ')'VVO'.L�LV o:laxpov O'lJV ')'VVO:LKO: ()EL O''l'E')'ELV.

(fr. 679 P)

Cooperate, restrain yourselves in silence:

women have an obligation to cover up womanly shame.

Herodotos includes among his details of the bizarre, reversed world of the Egyptians (2.35) that these people knead dough with their feet, write from left to right, and send their women out for marketing, while the men stay home and work at the loom. 45

451n Xenophon's view it shames a man to stay at home (Oec. 7.2; 7.30); only artisans work indoors in shadow, sitting by the fire like women, and they are consequently effem­

inate (4.2). See also Plato, who specifies shadow-filled interiors as the domain of women (Kharm. 1636; Phdr. 239c); the Homeric Hymn to Demeter shows us women living in rooms full of shadow, Demeter sitting in shadow (98ff, 105ff); the Aiskhylean Athene dismisses the maternal role in her birth using the phrase "in the shadows of the womb" EV CTKOTOLCTL v11ofo� (Bum. 665); cf. the verb CTKux-rpo<p€w, which means "to rear in the shadow within doors" and in the passive "to live a sheltered, effeminate life" (e.g., Plato, Rep. 556d; Plut., Aemil. 31; Persius, Sat. 4.18.33). There appears to be some link between the shadowy environments where woman is at home and the deceit, doubleness, ambiguity, and OC'ITciT'I') with which she is continually charged, from Pandora (Hesiod, Th. 570ff.) onwards. "Women are prone to secrecy and stealth," says Plato, "they are accustomed to creep into dark places and resist being dragged into the light" (Laws 6.781c). In Iliad 14, it is Hera who

prefers to take cover for lovemaking, while Zeus is at ease in the open (cf. Apollo in

Pindar's Ninth Pythian). Aristotle relates the incontinence of woman to the fact that "she is naturally in such matters weaker than a man: a man's love is passionate and open; woman feels both desire and cunning" (EN 1149614-19). Craftiness in general is regarded as a

feminine specialty (see Aiskhylos, Ag. 1636; Plutarch, Mui. virt. 2566), and deceit in sexual matters as particularly the province of women, whose typical arts are metaphors for the

158 Carson

Xenophon describes the female slave quarters of the house as "set off

from the men's by a bolted door so that nothing could be carried off fr om

inside which should not be carried off and so that the male servants might

not beget children without our knowledge" (Oec. 9.5). Here we arriv e at

the core of male alarm on the subject of the pliancy and porousness of

women. The core is sexual. A woman's sexual porousness poses a threa t

to the integrity of the oikos of which she is a part and to the integrity of

the polis that encompasses this oikos. For this reason, adultery laws for­

bade a husband who had caught his wife in adultery to continue living in

the same house with her. For this reason, women guilty of adultery w ere

debarred by law from the public sacrifices. And this exclusion was ne c­

essary, Demosthenes explains, "in order that there not be pollutions n or

sacrileges in the holy places" ('l va J.L'YJ µuiaµma µ110' &aE[3T]µam -y (:y­

VE'rm EV TOL<; LEpoi:<;, Contr. Neaer. 59.86). Clearly there is more involv ed

in such a stipulation than outrage to male amour propre. Demosthenes is

talking about the topography of sacred and profane. Adulteresses pose a

spatial threat to the public hygiene of his city; their dirt is something th ey

carry with them like a contagion.

WOMEN AS DIRT

What is pollution and how do women come by it? Dirt may be define d

as matter out of place. The poached egg on your plate at breakfast is not

dirt; the poached egg on the floor of the Reading Room of the British

Museum is. Dirt is matter that has crossed a boundary it ought not to

have crossed. For the ancient Greeks, as for many other cultures wit h

complex systems of pollution belief, impurity is mixture. That which

confounds categories or transgresses boundaries is polluting, that which

is so confounded or transgressed is polluted and threatens to pollute

others. Mary Douglas calls pollution "a particular class of dangers which

are not powers vested in humans but which can be released by human

action" and she describes a polluting person as one who "has crossed

some line which should not have been crossed and this displacement

unleashes danger for someone. "46

Women are pollutable, polluted, and polluting in several ways at once.

They are anomalous members of the human class, being imperfect men,

as Aristotle informs us (GA 728a18-20; 737a25-35; 775a15). They are

intimate with formlessness and the unbounded in their alliance with the

ensnaring wiles of love (weaving, spinning, cooking). "Desire is crafty, l ike Aphrodite"

says Aristotle (above). See also Padel (1983); Vernant (1974), 124-70. 46Douglas (1966), 113.

wet, the Wil formless the are, as social ily and oikos chological e� leakage.

In sum, the the female ill< defilement all more polluted with its poiso 1.54). The fe · slightest conta,

Women, the' bounds, to los tells us that th fulfillment or woman most This porous se of entry to oiko possibilities of controlling ins unbounded mu on it. A house contain the leak as the ancients proverbially lea potes who was to sail with him leaking, others t Hippotes then l '

47 Abhorrence of gling of male and fe (µC-yvuµL). The act i ("pure") prepubertal marriage," Laws 840

1 who commit themse1 &.vopo, c:ruvouaCa,, structs cleanliness an ( &.-yvEuovrn,) by ext a1T6po,) may be "as p particularly attracts I readily mingles and is

et off from night tve at :ss of hreat ity of , for­ ng in were : nec­ .s nor l "{1/'{­ olved ries is 1ose a ; they

:fined is not ritish lOt to

with vhich vhich :lllute vhich llman ossed :ment

once. men, :y are :h the

:odite"

Putting Her in Her Place 159

wet, the wild, and raw nature. They are, as individuals, comparatively formless themselves, without firm control of personal boundaries. They are, as social entities, units of danger, moving across boundaries of fam­ ily and oikos, in marriage, prostitution, or adultery. They are, as psy­

chological entities, unstable compounds of deceit and desire, prone to

leakage. In sum, the female body, the female psyche, the female social life, and

the female moral life are penetrable, porous, mutable, and subject to defilement all the time. So, when Aelian labels a woman "a wild animal more polluted than as asp," he goes on to explain that "an asp destroys with its poison but a woman has only to touch her victim to kill it" (NA

1.54). The female touch is a deadly crisis: pollution leaks out at the slightest contact. 47

Women, then, are polluted because of a special tendency to go out of bounds, to lose their boundaries, to ally with the unbounded. Aristotle tells us that the unbounded is abhorrent because it is CT'TEAE<; (lacking in fulfillment or completion, GA 715615-16). It is in her erotic life that woman most vividly lacks completion. Sexually the female is a pore. This porous sexuality is a floodgate of social pollution, for it is the gate of entry to oikos and polis. As soon as a maiden's zone is loosed, immense possibilities of danger arise, upon which focus the alarm of men and the controlling instincts of society. The pores must be kept closed. The unbounded must be bounded. The purity of all that lies within depends on it. A house or a society that does not take adequate measures to contain the leakage of its women is sailing the sea of life in a Melian boat, as the ancients might say. The expression "Melian boat," connoting a proverbially leaky vessel, first arose in connection with a certain Hip­ potes who was sent out to found a colony. But the Melian men refused to sail with him. "They made excuses, some saying that the boats were leaking, others that their wives were unwell, and so they stayed behind. Hippotes then laid a curse on them: that they should never find a boat

47 Abhorrence of mixture naturally surrounds the sexual act, "that loathsome commin­

gling of male and female" as Parmenides calls it (B12 VS). To engage in sex is "to mingle"

(µC'YvuµL). The act itself defiles by mixing, Plato implies when he designates as CT"/VOL

("pure") prepubertal animals and humans who are a:KfipaTOL "f&µwv ("not tainted by

marriage," Laws 840d6). Demosthenes records the oath taken by priestesses ofDionysos,

who commit themselves to lives "clean of congress with men" (6:-yuTTEUW ... Kai &err'

&vopo<; cruvouCTCa<;, Contr. Neaer. 59-78). For Plutarch, diversity of sexual partners ob­

structs cleanliness and holiness. He urges married couples to keep themselves unpolluted

(6:-yvEUOVTO'.<;) by extramarital relations in order that the "nuptial sowing" ('Yaµfiil.w<;

CTTropo,) may be "as pure as possible" (lEpWTO'.To<;, Coniug. praec. 144b). Feminine sexuality

particularly attracts loathing and mistrust, to the degree that the feminine nature more

readily mingles and is mingled.

160 Carson that was watertight, and that they should be ruled by women forever. "48 Hippotes' curse is a blow aimed at the very essence and sociocultural precondition of the ancient cosmos. Woman out of control is the danger, a boat filled with holes is its image. Hippotes is condemning Melian civilization to chaos. PUTTING THE LID ON THE BRIDE

According to one ancient cosmology, the cosmos was first assembled out of chaos when Zeus threw a veil over the head of the goddess of the underworld and married her. So Pherekydes tells us (fr. 54 VS), and he goes on to describe the veil, on which were embroidered earth, ocean, and the houses of ocean-that is to say, the contours of the civilized world. Once veiled by her bridegroom, the dark and formless chthonic goddess was transformed and renamed Ge, goddess of the visible world, decorous and productive wife of Zeus. I call attention to the cosmology of Pherekydes because it concerns the wedding of Zeus, important for our purposes insofar as the ancient wedding ceremony is one place where the theory of female pollution and the practice of pollution control can be seen to converge. We are intro­duced directly, in this cosmology, to the vestiary code that regulates female decency in the ancient world and informs the sacred symbolism of the marriage rite. The head is its focus. Headgear is crucial to female honor, an index of sexual purity and civilized status. 49 No decent woman is seen in public without her headdress; only children, prostitutes, and maenads run about unveiled. The most common Greek word for female headgear is KpTJOEµ,vov, whose symbolic force can be read from its three­fold usage. Properly signifying a woman's "headbinder" (e.g., Il.22.470), KPTJOEµ,vov is also used to mean "battlements of a city" (e.g., Il.16.100) and "stopper of a bottle" (e.g., Od. 3.392). It is plain what these 48Aristotle, fr. 513 Rose; Pembroke (1967), 32. Pembroke interprets the proverb as

corresponding to the more general stipulation "that the earth shall bear no fruit and the sea shall be impossible to sail" in conventional curses, but it seems likely that specific sexual alarm is not far beneath the surface of this story. In a society so "unwell" that wives dictate public policy, what man can navigate the waters of everyday life, what husband can even be sure he is the father of his children? Cf. the Odyssean situation: nineteen years of woman's rule in a house that lets in suitors like a sieve provoke from Telemakhos the comment "No one ever knows his own begetting!" (Od. 1.215; cf. 4.387; Lysias, Era/. 1.33; Euripides, fr. 1015 Nauck). A corollary reference to female menstruation is likely; cf. Aristotle on female imperfection: GA 728a; 737a.

49Nagler (1974), 44-60. Sappho adds that the Graces despise a woman whose head is without a <TTE<pcxvo<; (81 b LP) and associates the lack of a head-binder with exile and loss of civic status (986 LP).

three have in coare vessels whoseon certifies puritPutting the lidof the ancient WeZeus marries thecosmic map of hKekrops' invent" . 10 imposed on a chaKekrops' trans formasculine organizdescent through t�having intercourse!.was, no father whlrops accordingly Jsexual license and c was regarded as a into civilization" ( 1 SON 1 _ ag er (1974), 67, h on either side") who ace

18.182-84) similarly b surrogate personal boun A woman deprived of su Demeter 5; Homeric HyJ Nausikaa even sleeps wJ unprotected by veil (cas maintains personal boun This seems a variation u the veil up in front or 0 whore perverts this gest Matron, cited by Nagler cheeks her filthy veil" (&v decided to abandon chasti the veil, e.g., Medeia, m association of a decent implied by the word tha covering: XELp6µcxKTpov, (1927), 1.273, discusses t infected by evil influences. Veiling practices in conte e.g., Abu-Lughod (1986)· (1975); Sharma (1978). I 51Cf. Latin nubere, "to literally "to veil oneself" (0 n. 33; Neumann (1965) 85] 52See Patterson (1986), received from anthropolog

forever. "48 ociocultural the danger, ting Melian

,embled out ldess of the VS), and he trth, ocean, he civilized :ss chthonic ,ible world,

oncerns the the ancient >llution and e are intro­ tt regulates mbolism of l to female ent woman titutes, and

I for female m its three­ ' (e.g., II. v" (e.g., II. what these

ie proverb as 1it and the sea ,pecific sexual wives dictate

,and can even teen years of lemakhos the as, Brat. 1.33; is likely; cf.

vhose head is ile and loss of

Putting Her in Her Place 161

three have in common. A corked bottle, a fortified city, a veiled woman

are vessels whose contents are sealed against dirt and loss. To keep the lid

on certifies purity. so Putting the lid on female purity was the chief concern and ritual point

of the ancient wedding ceremony.51 So, in the cosmology ofPherekydes, Zeus marries the goddess of the underworld by bestowing on her a

cosmic map of her own boundaries. So also, in the Attic legend of Kekrops' invention of marriage, we see masculine clarity and control imposed on a chaos of female promiscuity. 52 This invention was part of Kekrops' transformation of the Athenian democracy into an exclusively

masculine organization, and of Athenian society into a patriarchy with descent through the male line. For Kekrops "found men and women having intercourse at random, so that no son could tell who his father was, no father who was his son" (schol. Aristophanes, Plut. 773). Kek­ rops accordingly devised the institution of marriage, to put an end to sexual license and clarify the lines of patrilineal descent; for this service he was regarded as a culture hero, who led the Athenians "out of savagery into civilization" (cmo Ol')'pLOTY)TOS ELS T]µEpOT'T]T<X, schol. Aristophanes,

50Nagler (1974), 67, has proposed that the two 6.µq,(1ToAOL ("attendants" or "ones going on either side") who accompany a respectable woman everywhere (e.g., JI. 24.90-94; Od. 18.182-84) similarly betoken chastity, as if the two attendants were regarded as a

surrogate personal boundary. An encircled woman is bounded against contact or leakage. A woman deprived of such encirclement is prey to seizure and rape (e.g., Homeric Hymn to Demeter 5; Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 117; 120; Moskhos, Eur. 28-32). The decorous Nausikaa even sleeps with a handmaid on either side. When she must confront Odysseus unprotected by veil (cast off at 6.100) or companions (left behind at 6.139), Nausikaa

maintains personal boundaries by "holding herself" (crrfJ o' &v·m uxoµiv11, Od. 6.141). This seems a variation upon the conventional feminine gesture of aidos which is to "hold the veil up in front or on either side of the face" (e.g., Od. 18.210). The sham aidos of a whore perverts this gesture as it pollutes the veil she wears; so (according to the parodist Matron, cited by Nagler (1974], 67, n. 5) a hetaira enters the room "holding up to her cheeks her filthy veil" (&VTo: 1To:prniwv uxoµ€v11 plmo:p& KPTJ0Eµvo:). The woman who has decided to abandon chastity compromises herself with oblique visual contact and action of the veil, e.g., Medeia, moved by desire for Jason (Apollonios Rhodios, 3.444-45). The association of a decent woman's headgear with her battle against pollution is further implied by the word that Sappho (110 LP) and Hekataios (FGrHist 1.25) use for such covering: XELp6µo:K-rpov, primarily "a cloth for wiping the hands after washing." Crawley (1927), 1.273, discusses the use of veils as protection against infecting others or being infected by evil influences. On the female KpTJ0Eµvov, see further Marinatos (1967), 20-22. Veiling practices in contemporary society are a subject of current anthropological interest, e.g., Abu-Lughod (1986); Anderson (1982); Makhlouf (1979); Mason (1975); Mernissi (1975); Sharma (1978).

51Cf. Latin nubere, "to marry," probably cognate with nubes, "cloud," and meaning literally "to veil oneself" (OLD). On the Roman "pudicitia-gesture," see Nagler (1974), 50 n. 33; Neumann (1965) 85-89.

52See Patterson (1986), 49-67, for a useful corrective to the treatment this myth has received from anthropologists.

162 Carson Plut. 773). So too, in historical time, we find Plutarch describing the Boiotian wedding ceremony in these terms: "After veiling the bride they put on her head a crown of asparagus, for this plant yields the sweetest fruit from the roughest thorns" (11ourrov EK TPOlXUTO'.TTJ<; aKav0iJ-; Kap1T6v), and so may the bride, if properly managed, provide "a civilized and sweet contribution to her husband's life" ('T]µEpov Kai ')IAVKELOV (J'1Jµl3(wow), despite her original "roughness and sourness" (xaAE­'IT01'T)1'0l Kai OlT)OLav, Coniug. praec. 138d). The ancient wedding undertook, systematically, to redeem woman from her original roughness and sourness, and to purify her of chaos, by means of certain very specific ceremonies aimed at the dramatization and reinforcement of female boundaries. So we find in the marriage rite much emphasis on doorways, thresholds, lintels, exits, entrances, and the whole ceremonial apparatus whereby the bride is relocated from her father's house to her husband's house, from maidenhood to married status. The wedding so conceived, as a rite of passage between house­holds, has been the subject of much study by historians, anthropolo­gists, and others.53 But I think we can better articulate the meaning of this rite if we pay attention not so much to the boundaries of houses as to the boundaries of the bride herself, and insist upon one special moment in the ceremony-the climax of the whole proceeding, the moment when pollution danger 1s most acute and ritual counter­terstrategy most outspoken. The ancient wedding begins in the house of her father with preliminary rites carried out by the bride, including a formal farewell to her girlhood and a nuptial bath. After the bath she is dressed in nuptial attire and veiled in a veil that must cover her face. Sacrifices are offered to the divinities of marriage (Zeus Teleios, Hera Teleia, Aphrodite, Artemis, Peitho), and then a feast is spread where all the wedding guests share with the bride her last meal in the house of her father. During this feast the women all sit together on a special couch on the right side of the doorway, facing the men, who sit together to the left of the door. At some point in the feasting, a child crowned with thorns goes among the guests offering bread from a sieve and repeating the formula E(!)V')IOV KaK6v, E'iJpov &µEwov: "I have fled evil, I have found what is better." This action, which prefigures the climax of the ceremony, is a significant one for our interpretation. It symbolizes, as we observed above, that the thorny and savage bride is about to be salvaged for civilization by the nuptial function. And it represents that redeeming

53van Gennep (1960); Douglas (1966), 114; Redfield (1982). Lesbia, hesitating upon a

creaking sandal in the doorway of adultery, is discussed by Baker (1960). The gods prepare for Hebe's wedding by rubbing the door of heaven, Catullus tells us (68.115-16).

function 1· n t bread is ca rnfrom the leaand the d. lStr( 'ITavi, OlKpLf3 ,end of thesem?ment whebr�degroorn ave1l. s4 This action the whole fir;consecration 0 married. The ethis stage Werbut they hadPollux tells usfor taking aw�j' 49 Kock). In other wor decisive sacral Jthe first time, t�contact of visiexposure was

anakalypteria. "I) why the bride rJbridegroom frolonger parthenosThe bride at hthe wedding cer for the hand of h. of the hearth. Einteraction and mercy of the op sanctuary," Pitt- 54A red-figure loutr

tified as depicting this 55Sources of inform

Harpokration, Hesykh IA 718-26; Bekker (1 (1904), 64; Cunningha (1982); Roberts (1978), Professors John Walsh

56'Av8p&cnv opcxOijv

:scribing the 1e bride they the sweetest 11s aKOlV0TJs e "a civilized OlL -yi\vKEiov ,ess" (XOlAE-

eem woman of chaos, by atization and narriage rite ttrances, and ted from her l to married ween house- anthropolo­

: meaning of 1es of houses 1 one special iceeding, the ual counter-

father with al farewell to ;ed in nuptial es are offered ., Aphrodite, �dding guests ·. During this right side of

f the door. At es among the mula E.c.pv-yov 1at is better." emony, is a we observed salvaged for

at redeeming

1esitating upon a The gods prepare 1.115-16).

Putting Her in Her Place 163

function in the relation between the leaky vessel (the sieve in which bread is carried) and the good gift of bread itself that ritual calls forth from the leaky vessel. We should note that throughout the feasting

and the distribution of bread, the bride remains very strictly veiled

('ITO fVU aKpLl3ws E'YKEKOlAvµµh11, Lucian, Conv. 8), for it is not until the

end of these events that the climax of the ceremony occurs. This is the moment when the bride rises or turns in her place and, facing her

bridegroom and the men of his household across the room, takes off her

veil.54

This action, called the anakalypteria ("unveiling"),55 gives its name to the whole first stage of the wedding ceremony. It signifies the official

consecration of the marriage: henceforth, the bride is considered to be married. The elaborate gifts given to the bride by the bridegroom at

this stage were generally called "unveiling gifts" (Ta aVOlKOlA.1J'1TTTJPLOl); but they had an alternate name, Ta OLOl'1TOlp0EvLOl, and were so called, Pollux tells us, because they were regarded as "gifts given in exchange

for taking away the virginity of the bride" (Pollux, 3.39; Amphis, fr. 49 Kock).

In other words, as far as the bride is concerned, the anakalypteria is the decisive sacral action of the wedding. At the moment of unveiling, for the first time, the intact boundary of her person is violated by contact: the contact of vision. Ancient lexical sources leave no doubt that visual exposure was the function and official point of the ritual of the anakalypteria. "In order that she may be seen by the men" is the reason why the bride rises and unveils. 56 Once she has done so, the glance of the bridegroom from across the room penetrates her opened veil. She is no longer parthenos ("maiden"). She is touched.

The bride at her anakalypteria, as a participant in the cultural game of the wedding ceremony, may be compared with the suppliant reaching for the hand of his supplicand or the fugitive seating himself in the ashes of the hearth. Each of these is someone who flouts the rules of social interaction and propriety in order to submit himself or herself to the mercy of the opponent in the game. "The essence of the notion of sanctuary," Pitt-Rivers says, "is that it is a place where the 'normal'

54A red-figure loutrophoros in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts has recently been iden­ tified as depicting this moment in the wedding: Oakley (1982).

55Sources of information on the anakalypteria include the lexical entries for this term in

Harpokration, Hesykhios, Pollux, and the Souda; Lucian, Conv. 8; Men., Dysk. 855ff; Eur.,

IA 718-26; Bekker (1814-1821); Hiller von Gaertringen in RE, s.v. See also Bruckner

(1904), 64; Cunningham (1984), 9-12; Mark (1984); Mayo (1973); Oakley (1982); Redfield

(1982); Roberts (1978), 185-87; Sutton (1981); Toutain (1940), 345-53. I am indebted to Professors John Walsh and David Armstrong for various of these references.

56' Avl\p&cnv opa,0fjvm: Souda; Harpokration, s. v. cxva,KO'lt1J1rTiiPLO'.

164 Carson

rules of aggression and retaliation are laid in abeyance. "57 Thus the sup­ pliant or the fugitive deliberately takes up a position of utter abjectness, renouncing his power to affront the house, renouncing all agonistic re­ lations with the owner(s) of the house, renouncing self-respect. Similarly, the bride voluntarily abases herself at the anakalypteria, exposing to the glance of her bridegroom the virgin state that veils have hidden until this moment. The relinquishing of her own honor lays a claim upon his honor. He is no less responsible than he would be to a suppliant or a guest to play out his side of the game by taking her into his hearth and restoring the honor that she has freely forfeited. 58 She has opened to him her bound­ aries; it is his charge to take her in and seal them anew. He does so immediately by offering her gifts, then by leading her away to his own oikos and enclosing her there. 59

We see in the ancient ritual of the wedding, then, the chief means by which the danger of women was used and defused. The act of marriage flouts boundaries of personal isolation that seal each person into his skin and each family into its oikos. To touch across boundaries means serious, dangerous leakage. Ritual defuses the danger by declaiming it, celebrat­ ing it, facing it head on. "Taboo against connection is broken by making the connection," as Crawley puts it. Ritual invites and enacts the para­ doxes of a dangerous situation in order to exploit and reverse them, from isolation to contact, from exclusion to inclusion, from pollution to pu­ rity. The enactment is a cultural game in which someone from outside the oikos deliberately transgresses and pollutes it in order to provoke the oikos into absorbing him or her within it. Both players have winning cards to play (pollution of the oikos, sanctuary of the oikos), but virtuoso techniques of exploiting the rules allow each to play to a draw satisfying for all concerned. Readjustment of boundaries is the formal mechanism of such ritual gamesmanship. So the ancient wedding rite contrives to bring the inviolate bride into contact with her bridegroom, to touch what was untouchable, to veil and seal what was an exposed pore, to civilize and purify what was wild and polluted. Save for this ritual, ancient woman would be left hopeless as a Danaid in the underworld, with no prospect of sanctuary in a useful life, drops of water running down her hands.

57Pitt-Rivers (1970), 867. 58 An admonition found in lamblikhos' Life of Pythagoras, and also in the pseudo-Aris­

totelian Oikonomika, expresses this responsibility of the husband to his bride: "It is not right for the woman to pursue the man. For she is a suppliant. Therefore we do the leading from

the hearth and the gesture of acceptance with the right hand" (58C4 VS). 59The nuptial ceremony of the K<YTCV.)(UCTf.l,<YTa undertakes to accomplish this, as I have

argued in another context: Carson (1982).

Abu-Lughod, L. (Berkeley).

Allen, T. W., W (Oxford).

Anderson, J. 198, Baker, S. 1960. , Barbu, Z. 1960 Barrett, W. s., ·e Beare, J. I. 1906. Bekker, I. 1814- --- 1831-187 Bethe, E. 1907. ,

23:438-50. Boardman, J. 195 Bourdieu, P. 1977 Braswell, B. K. 1

Ode." Mnemosy Brown, C. "The

losophy: Studies Calif.).

Bruckner, A. 190 46.

Burkert, W. 1970. --· 1977. "Ai

97-109. Burnet, J. 1902-1 Burnett, A. P. 198 Callois, R. 1959. Campbell, J. K. 1� Canetti, E. 1966. Carriere, J. 1962. Carson, A. 1982.

121-28. ---· 1985. Eros Chantraine, P. 196

(Paris). Coulon, V. 1967-1 Crawley, E. 1927. Crook, J. H. 1980. Cunningham, M. L Damste, 0. 1927. '

Damste a discipulis Darcus, S. 1977. "

22:175-90.

the sup­ >jectness, nistic re­ ,imilarly, 1g to the until this is honor. st to play :)ring the r bound-

does so , his own

neans by marriage ) his skin s senous, celebrat­ y making the para­ �m, from m to pu­ n outside >voke the wmmng

: virtuoso satisfying echanism 1trives to to touch pore, to

1is ritual, lerworld, : runmng

seudo-Aris­ t is not right eading from

is, as I have

Putting Her in Her Place 165

* BIBLIOGRAPHY *

Abu-Lughod, L. 1986. Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society

(Berkeley).

Allen, T. W., W. R. Halliday, and E. E. Sikes, eds. 1954. The Homeric Hymns (Oxford).

Anderson, J. 1982. "Social Structure and the Veil." Anthropos 77: 397-420. Baker, S. 1960. "Leshia's Foot." CP 55:171-73. Barbu, Z. 1960. Problems in Historical Psychology (New York).

Barrett, W. S., ed. 1964. Euripides: Hippolytos (Oxford). Beare, J. I. 1906. Greek Theories of Elementary Cognition (Oxford).

Bekker, I. 1814-1821. Anecdota. 3 vols. (Berlin; repr. Graz, 1965). ___ . 1831-1870. Aristotelis Opera. 49 vols. (Berlin). Bethe, E. 1907. "Die dorische Knabenliebe, ihre Ethik und ihre I dee." RhM

23:438-50.

Boardman, J. 1958-1959. ''Old Smyrna: The Attic Pottery." BSA 53-54: 152-81. Bourdieu, P. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Tr. R. Nice (Cambridge, Eng.). Braswell, B. K. 1976. "Notes on the Prooemium to Pindar's Seventh Olympian

Ode." Mnemosyne 29:233-55. Brown, C. "The Bridegroom and the Athlete": 38-41 in Greek Poetry and Phi­

losophy: Studies in Honour of Leonard Woodbury, ed. D. E. Gerber (Chico,

Calif.). Bruckner, A. 1904. "Anakalypteria." Archaologische Gesellshafi zu Berlin 64:144-

46. Burkert, W. 1970. "Jason, Hypsipyle and New Fire at Lemnos." CQ 20:7-16.

___ . 1977. "Air-imprints or Eidola: Democritus' Theory of Vision." ICS2: 97-109.

Burnet, J. 1902-1906. Platonis Opera. 6 vols. (Oxford). Burnett, A. P. 1983. Three Archaic Poets (Cambridge, Mass.). Callais, R. 1959. Man and the Sacred. Tr. M. Barash (Glencoe, Ill.). Campbell, J. K. 1964. Honour, Family and Patronage (Oxford). Canetti, E. 1966. Crowds and Power. Tr. C. Stewart (New York). Carriere, J. 1962. Theognis: Poemes Elegiacques (Paris). Carson, A. 1982. "Wedding at Noon in Pindar's Ninth Pythian." GRBS 23:

121-28. ___ . 1985. Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay (Princeton). Chantraine, P. 1968-1980. Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue grecque. 4 vols.

(Paris). Coulon, V. 1967-1972. Aristophane. 5 vols. (Paris). Crawley, E. 1927. The Mystic Rose. 2 vols. (New York). Crook, J. H. 1980. The Evolution of Human Consciousness (Oxford). Cunningham, M. L. 1984. "Aeschylus' Agam. 231-247." BICS 31:9-12. Damste, 0. 1927. "De matrimonio atheniensi": 31-35 in Strena Petro Helberto

Damste a discipulis oblata, ed. 0. Damste (Lugdunum). Darcus, S. 1977. "Daimon Parallels the Holy Phren in Empedocles." Phronesis

22:175-90.

166 Carson

Darwin, C. 1904. The Expression of Emotion in Men and Animals (London). Deonna, W. 1939. Euodia. Croyances antiques et modernes: L'odeur suave des dieux et des elus (Geneva). Detienne, M. 1977. The Gardens of Adonis. Tr. J. Lloyd (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.).Detienne, M., and]. P. Vernant. 1978. Cunning Intelligence in Greek Culture and Society. Tr. J. Lloyd (Sussex). Deubner, L. 1900. "Epaulia." ]dI 15:144-54. ___ . 1978. "Kcmxxuaµarn und Munzzauber." RhM 121 :240-54. Devereux, G. 1967. "Greek Pseudo-Homosexuality and the 'Greek Miracle."' so 42:69-92. Diels, H. 1965. Doxographi Graeci (Berlin). Dodds, E. R. 1951. The Greeks and the Irrational (Berkeley). ___ , ed. 1960. Euripides: Bacchae (Oxford). Douglas, M. 1966. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London). Dover, K. J. 1964. "Eros and Nomos." BICS 44:31-47. ___ . 1973. "Classical Greek Attitudes to Sexual Behaviour." Arethusa 6:59-70. ___ . 1978. Greek Homosexuality (Cambridge, Mass.). duBois, P. 1988. Sowing the Body: Psychoanalysis and Ancient Representations of Women (Chicago). Edmonds, J. M., ed. 1931. Elegy and Iambus ... with the Anacreon/ea. 2 vols. (London). Erdmann, W. 1934. Die Ehe im alten Griechenland (Munich). Fasce, S. 1977. Eros: Lafigura e il culto (Genoa). Fischer, E. 1973. Amor und Eros: Eine Untersuchung des Wortfeldes "Liebe" im Lateinischen und Griechischen (Hildesheim, Germany). Foster, B. 0. 1899. "Notes on the Symbolism of the Apple in Classical Antiq-uity." HSCP 7:32-41. Frankel, E. 1950. Aeschylus: Agamemnon (Oxford). Fustel de Coulanges, N. D. 1882. La cite antique (Paris). Gaisford, T., ed. 1822. Ioannis Stobaei Florilegium. 4 vols. (Oxford). Garvie, A. F. 1969. Aeschylus' Supp/ices: Play and Trilogy (Cambridge, Eng.). Gaselee, S., ed. 1917. Achilles Tatius: Clitophon and Leucippe (New York). Gennep, A. van. 1960. The Rites of Passage. Tr. M. B. Vizedom and G. L. Caffee (Chicago). Gernet, L. 1954. "Observations sur le mariage en Grece." RD 468-90. Ginouves, R. 1962. "Balaneutike." BEFAR 200:265-82. Girard, R. 1977. Violence and the Sacred. Tr. P. Gregory (Baltimore). Goffmann, E. 1956. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Edinburgh). Golden, M. 1988. "Male Chauvinists and Pigs." EMC 32:1-12. Gould, J. 1973. "Hiketeia." ]HS 93:74-103. Gow, A. S. F., ed. 1952. Theocritus. 2 vols. (Cambridge, Eng.). Grosskurth, P. 1980. [Review of Ronald W.,Clarke, Freud the Man and the Cause.] Times Literary Supplement August 8:887-90.

Harrison, A. R(Oxford). Henderson, J. 1Haven and L Huizinga, J. 19Innis, H. 1951. Ireland, S., andWorks of HoJarcho, V. N. 1112:147-72. Jebb, R. C. 138Johansen, F. 19 Keane, A. H. Religion and Lacey, W. K. 1Lasserre, F. 194 Latacz, J. 1985. , cpa(VE'Ta( J.10l , Littlewood, A. Literature." Lucas, D. W., e Macdowell, D. Makhlouf, C. 1 (London). Mannhardt, W. Marinatos, S. 1 (Gottingen). Mark, I. S. 198 53:291-334. Mason, J. P. 197 Rite in a Liby Mayo, M. E. 19 Mernissi, F. 197. Monro, D. B., Moulinier, L. 19 (Paris). Murray, G. 1911 __ . 1937. A Nagler, M. 197 (Berkeley). Nawrath, A. 19 dis." Dissertat" Neumann, G. 19 North, H. 1966. (Ithaca).

,ondon). ve des dieux et

c Highlands,

•k Culture and

;4_

:k Miracle.'"

· Pollution and

husa 6:59-70.

,resentations of

on tea. 2 vols.

is "Liebe" im

assical Antiq-

.). :lge, Eng.). York).

l G. L. Caffee

3-90.

e). burgh).

ind the Cause.]

Putting Her in Her Place 167

Harrison, A. R. W. 1968. The Law of Athens. Vol. 1: The Family and Property, (Oxford).

Henderson, J. 1975. The Maculate Muse: Obscene Language in Attic Comedy (New Haven and London).

Huizinga, J. 1949. Homo Ludens (London). Innis, H. 1951. The Bias of Communication (Toronto).

Ireland, S., and F. L. D. Steeles. 1975. "Phrenes as an Anatomical Organ in the Works of Homer." Ciotta 53:183-94.

Jarcho, V. N. 1968. "Zurn Menschenbild der nachhomerischen Dichtung." Phil. 112:147-72.

Jebb, R. C. 1883-1896. Sophocles. 7 vols. Repr. (Amsterdam, 1962). Johansen, F. 1951. Attic Grave Reliefs (London). Keane, A. H. 1915. "Air and Gods of the Air": 1.255-56 in Encyclopaedia of

Religion and Ethics (New York). Lacey, W. K. 1968. The Family in Classical Greece (Ithaca). Lasserre, F. 1946. La figure d'Eros dans la poesie grecque (Lausanne). Latacz, J. 1985. "Realitat und Imagination: Eine neue Lyrik-Theorie und Sapphos

qia(vE'Ta( µ,oL Kfjvo<;-Lied." MH 42:67-94. Littlewood, A. R. 1967. "The Symbolism of the Apple in Greek and Roman

Literature." HSCP 72:147-81. Lucas, D. W., ed. 1968. Aristotle: Poetics (Oxford). Macdowell, D. M. 1978. The Law in Classical Athens (Ithaca). Makhlouf, C. 1979. Changing Veils: Women and Modernisation in North Yemen

(London). Mannhardt, W. 1884. Mythologische Forschungen (Strasbourg). Marinatos, S. 1967. Kleidung, Haar- und Barttracht. Archaeologia Homerica, 1.2

(Gottingen). Mark, I. S. 1984. "The Gods on the East Frieze of the Parthenon." Hesperia

53:291-334. Mason, J. P. 1975. "Sex and Symbol in the Treatment of Women: The Wedding

Rite in a Libyan Oasis Community." American Ethnologist 2:649-61. Mayo, M. E. 1973. "The Gesture of Anakalypsis." AJA 77:210 -21. Mernissi, F. 1975. Beyond the Veil (Cambridge, Mass.). Monro, D. B., and T. W. Allen. 1920. Homeri Opera. 5 vols. (Oxford). Moulinier, L. 1952. Le pur et l'impur dans la pensee des Crees d'Homere a Aristote

(Paris). Murray, G. 1913-1915. Euripidis Fabulae, 3 vols. (Oxford). ____ 1937. Aeschyli Septem Quae Supersunt Tragoediae (Oxford). Nagler, M. 1974. Spontaneity and Tradition: A Study in the Oral Art of Homer

(Berkeley). Nawrath, A. 1914. "De graecorum ritibus nuptialibus e vasculis demonstran­

dis." Dissertation, Breslau. Neumann, G. 1965. Gesten und Gebiirden in der griechischen Kunst (Berlin). North, H. 1966. Sophrosyne: Seif-Knowledge and Self-Restraint in Greek Literature

(Ithaca).

168 Carson

Oakley, J. H. 1982. "Anakalypteria." JdI 97:113-18. Onians, R. B. 1951. The Origins of European Thinking about the Body, the Mind, the

Soul, the World, Time and Fate (Cambridge, Eng.). Padel, R. 1983. "Women: Model for Possession by Greek Daemons": 3-19 in

Images of Women in Antiquity, ed. A. Cameron and A. Kuhrt (London). Page, D. L., ed. 1955. Sappho and Alcaeus (Oxford). Parker, R. 1983. Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion (Ox­

ford). Patterson, C. 1986. "Hai Attikai: The Other Athenians": 49-67 in Rescuing

Creusa: New Methodological Approaches to Women in Antiquity, ed. M. Skinner. Helios 13.2.

Pembroke, S. 1965. "Last of the Matriarchs." Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 8:219-47.

___ . 1967. "Women in Charge: The Function of Alternatives in Early Greek Tradition and the Ancient Idea of Matriarchy." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 30:1-35.

Peristiany, J. G. Honour and Shame: The Values of Mediterranean Society (Chicago). Pfeiffer, R., ed. 1953. Callimachus. 2 vols. (Oxford). Pitt-Rivers, W. 1970. "Women and Sanctuary in the Mediterranean": 862-75 in

Echanges et communications: Melanges ojferts a Claude Levi-Strauss, ed. J. Pouillon and P. Maranda. 2 vols. (Paris and the Hague).

Preller, L., and C. Robert. 1894-1921. Griechische Mythologie. 2 vols. (Berlin). Quinn, K., ed. 1970. Catullus: The Poems (London). Reckford, K. 1972. "Phaethon, Hippolytus, Aphrodite." TAPA 103:401-12. Redfield, J. 1975. Nature and Culture in the Iliad (Chicago). ___ . 1982. "Notes on the Greek Wedding." Arethusa 15:169-90. Renehan, R. 1976. Studies in Greek Texts (Gottingen). Robbins, E. 1968. "The Concept oflnspiration in Greek Poetry from Homer to

Pindar." Dissertation, Toronto. Roberts, S. R. 1978. The Attic Pyxis (Chicago). Roscher, W. H. 1884-1937. Ausfarliches Lexicon der griechischen und romischen

Mythologie (Leipzig). Rudhardt, J. 1958. Notions fondamentales de la pensee et actes constitutifs du culte dans

la Grece classique (Geneva). Samter, E. 1901. Familienfeste der Griechen und Romer (Berlin). Schneider, J. 1971. "Of Vigilance and Virgins." Ethnology 10:1-24. Seaton, R. C., ed. 1900. Apollonii Rhodii Argonautica (Geneva). Sharma, U. 1978. "Women and Their Affines: The Veil as a Symbol of Separa­

tion." Man 13:218-33. Shorey, P., ed. 1930. Plato's Republic. 2 vols. (New York and London). Snell, B., and H. Maehler, eds. 1970. Bacchylidis Carmina cum Fragmentis

(Leipzig). ___ . 1975-1980. Pindari Carmina cum Fragmentis (Leipzig). Solmsen, F. 1970. Hesiodi Theogonia, Opera et Dies, Scutum (Oxford). Speier, H. 1952. Social Order and the Risks of War (New York). Spies, A. 1930. "Militat Omnis Amans." Dissertation, Tiibingen.

Stanford, W Steuding, B ·Studniczka F Sutton, R.. 'F ·Attic Red-FiTaillardat, J. l Toutain, J. 194Tucker, T. G -· 1903·

, Turner, v. 196 Vernant, J. P. 1--1973." --1974."

vement chez 1Vidal-Naquet 1, ' utopie": 6l-(Paris). Visser, M. 1986

versus Conjuga Greek Tragedy E. Fanthan, an Voigt, E. M., ed.Vygotsky, L. s.

(Cambridge, EWehrli, C. 1962. West, M. L., ed. -· 1978. He Wilamowitz-Moe] -· 1924. He/Williger, E. 1922.

Hellenisch-HellenWolff, H.J. 1944. , Traditio 2:29-48.

Woodbury, L. 197 20." TAPA 108:

1d, the

-19 in

(Ox-

scuing . nner.

Social

::;reek g and

:ago).

-75 in uillon

rlin).

-12.

rier to

1ischen

·e dans

,para-

mentis

Putting Her in Her Place 169

Stanford, W. B. 1963. Sophocles: Ajax (London). Steuding, H. 1884 -1937. "Windgotter": 6.511-516 in Roscher (1884 -1937). Studniczka, F. 1927. Beitrage zur Geschichte der altgriechischen Tracht (Berlin). Sutton, R. F. 1981. "The Interaction between Men and Women Portrayed on

Attic Red-Figure Pottery" Dissertation, North Carolina. Taillardat, J. 1962. Les images d'Aristophane (Paris). Toutain, J. 1940. "Le rite nuptial de l' anakalypterion." REA 42:345-53. Tucker, T. G., ed. 1901. The Choephoroi of Aeschylus (Cambridge, Eng.). ___ . 1908. The Seven against Thebes of Aeschylus (Cambridge, Eng.). Turner, V. 1969. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (Chicago) . Vernant, J. P. 1965. Mythe et pensee chez /es Crees (Paris). ____ 1973. "Le mariage en Grece archaique." La Paro/a de/ Passato 28:51-74. ____ 1974. "Hestia-Hermes: Sur !'expression religieuse de l'espace et du mou-

vement chez les Grecs": 1:124-70 in Vernant (1965), 4th ed. Vidal-Naquet, P. 1970. "Esclavage et gynecocratie clans la tradition, le mythe,

l'utopie": 61-85 in Recherches sur /es structures socia/es dans /'antiquite classique (Paris).

Visser, M. 1986. "Medea: Daughter, Sister, Wife and Mother: Natal Family versus Conjugal Family in Greek and Roman Myths about Women": 149 -66 in Greek Tragedy and Its Legacy: Essays Presented to D.J. Conacher, ed. M. Cropp, E. Fanthan, and S. E. Scully (Calgary).

Voigt, E. M., ed. 1971. Sappho et Alcaeus: Fragmenta (Amsterdam). Vygotsky, L. S. 1962. Thought and Language. Tr. E. Hanfmann and G. Vakar

(Cambridge, Eng.). Wehrli, C. 1962. "Les Gyneconomes." MH 19.33 -38. West, M. L., ed. 1971-1972. Iambi et Elegi Graeci. 2 vols. (Oxford). ____ 1978. Hesiod: Works and Days (Oxford). Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, U. von. 1913. Sappho und Simonides (Berlin). ___ . 1924. Hellenistische Dichtung in der Zeit des Kallimachos. 2 vols. (Berlin). Williger, E. 1922. Hagios: Untersuchungen zur Terminologie des Heiligen in den

Hellenisch-Hellenistichen Religionen: RC VV 19 (Giessen, Germany). Wolff, H.J. 1944. "Marriage Law and Family Organization in Ancient Athens."

Traditio 2:29-48. Woodbury, L. 1978. "The Gratitude of the Locrian Maiden: Pindar, Pyth. 2.18-

20." TAPA 108:285 -99.