Corinna, fr.644 (Apollonius Dyskolus, Pronouns)
“I sing of the virtues of heroes and heroines.”
ἱώνει δ᾿ εἱρώων ἀρετὰς / χεἰρωάδων
In this lecture we turn back to the age of heroes to reconsider myth from the perspective of heroic women. In most cases from the ancient world, the stories of heroic women are told from the perspective of men in narrative patterns that privilege and center male life experiences. Women are mere instruments and objects in their tales. In this lecture, we will try to tell the life stories–the mythical fabula–of some heroic women from beginning to end, trying to understand how their voices and experiences communicate the position of women in Greek culture. In particular, we will consider central and variant traditions of the ‘big three’ from Trojan War Myth: Helen, Klytemnestra, and Penelope.
Ancient Authors Discussed
Homer, Archaic Age
Hesiod, Archaic Age
Semonides, Archaic Age
Alcaeus, Archaic Age
Gorgias, Classical Period
Some Suggested Course Texts
Hesiod’s, Works and Days (Myth of the Ages; Marriage Advice)
Hesiodic Catalogue of Women
Iliad, Book 3
Iliad, Book 6
Odyssey, Book 23
Odyssey, books 19
Odyssey, book 24
Semonides of Amorgos, “Diatribe Against Women”
Gorgias, Defense of Helen
Links to Blogposts
The Reason Helen and her Sisters were Unfaithful
Helen and Penelope were Cousins
Helen’s Serving Girl and the First Sex Manual
Klytemnestra’s First Husband and Child
Other Articles for Additional Reading
Hilary Ilkay, “Mixing Memory and Desire: Helen’s Eidolon in Sappho 16.” Eidolon April 26, 2016.
Phillip Walsh, “The Importance of Being Helen.” Eidolon April 25, 2015
Modern Re-imagining of Heroic Women
Here’s a list of modern receptions of Trojan War narratives on wikipidia. The list below is both more specific (focusing on women’s narrative) and more general (including non Trojan War narratives)
Novels
Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad, 2005
Pat Barker, The Silence of the Girls 2018
Amalia Carosella, Helen of Sparta 2015
Amanda Elyot, The Memoirs of Helen of Troy
Margaret George, Helen of Troy 2008
Sue Goyette, Penelope 2017
Jo Graham, Black Ships (Aeneid) 2018
Kerry Greenwood, The Delphic Trilogy 1995-1997
Emily Hauser, For the Most Beautiful; For the Winner; For the Immortal (2016-2018)
Natalie Haynes, The Furies, and The Children of Jocasta 2014, 1027
Daisy Johnson, Everything Under (Oedipus Myth) 2018
Ursula LeGuin, Lavinia 2008
Madeline Miller, Circe 2018
Francesca Petrizzo, Memoirs of a Bitch 2011
Sarah Ruhl, Eurydice 2011
David Vann, Bright Air Black 2017
Kamila Shamsie, Home Fire (Antigone Reimagined) 2017
Christa Wolf, Cassandra and Medea 1983 and 1996
Poetry [TBA]
Music [TBA]
Things to Read
Barber, Elizabeth J. Wayland and Atchity, Kenneth. 1987. “Greek princes and Aegean Princesses: The role of women in the Homeric poems.” Critical Essays on Homer. 15–36.
Bergren, A. L. T. 1983. “Language and the Female in Early Greek Thought.” Arethusa 16:69-95.
Clayton, B. 2004. A Penelopean Poetics: Reweaving the Feminine in Homer’s Odyssey. Lanham, MD.
Doherty, Lillian E. 1992. “Gender and Internal Audiences in the Odyssey?” AJP 113: 161-177.
Doherty, Lillian E. 2006. “Putting the Women Back in the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women.” In Laughing with Medusa V. Zajko and M. Leonard (eds.) 297–325.
Emlyn-Jones, C. 1984. “The Reunion of Penelope and Odysseus.” G&R 31: 1-18.
Felson-Rubin, N. 1994. Regarding Penelope: From Character to Poetics. Princeton.
Felson-Rubin, N. 1996. “Penelope’s Perspective.” in Reading the Odyssey: Selected Interpretive Essays. S. Schein (ed.). Princeton: 163–183.
Franco, Cristina. 2012. “Women in Homer.” In A Companion to Women in the Ancient World. Edited by Sharon L. James and Sheila Dillon. London: 55–65.
Hernandez, Pura N. 2008. “Penelope’s Absent Song.” Phoenix 62: 39–62.
Holmberg, I. E. 1995. “The Odyssey and Female Subjectivity.” Helios 22: 103–122
Larson, Jennifer. 1995. Greek Heroine Cults. Madison.
Katz, M. A. 1991. Penelope’s Renown: Meaning and Indeterminacy in the Odyssey. Princeton.
Jensen, Minna Skafte. 1994. “Homer’s portrayal of women: a discussion of Homeric narrative from an oralist point of view” Contexts of Pre-Novel Narrative. Roy Eriksen (ed.). Berlin: 27–38.
Lowenstam, S. 2000. “The Shroud of Laertes and Penelope’s Guile.” CJ 95(4):333-348.
Lyons, D. 2011. “Marriage.” The Homer Encyclopedia. M. Finkelberg (ed.): 499.
Marquardt, Patricia A. 1989. “Love’s labor’s lost: Women in the Odyssey.” Daidalikon: Studies in memory of R. Schoder. Robert F. Sutton Jr. (Ed). Wauconda, IL: 239–248.
Mueller, M. 2010. “Helen’s Hands: Weaving for Kleos in the Odyssey”. Helios 37: 1–21.
Murnaghan, S.. 1987. Disguise and Recognition in the Odyssey. Princeton.
Murnaghan, S. 1995. “The Plan of Athena.” The Distaff Side: Representing the Female in Homer’s Odyssey, edited by Beth Cohen. New York: 61-80.
Rabinowitz, Nancy Sorkin. 2011. “Greek Tragedy: A Rape Culture?” EuGeStA 1–21.
Redfield, James. 2003. The Locrian Maidens: Love and Death in Greek Italy. Princeton.
Richlin, Amy. 1991. “Zeus and Metis: Foucault, Feminism, Classics.” Helios 18: 160–180.
Rougier-Blanc, S. 2009. “Héroïsme au féminin chez Homère.” Clio 30: 17–30.
Wagner-Hasel, B. “Marriage Gifts in Ancient Greece.” In The Gift in Antiquity. M. L. Satlow
Some Additional Material
Ruby Blondell. Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, Devastation. Oxford: 2013.
Linda Lee Clader. Helen: The Evolution from Divine to Heroic in Greek Epic Tradition. Leiden: Brill, 1976.
Lowell Edmunds. Stealing Helen: The Myth of the Abducted Wife in Comparative Perspective. Princeton 2016.
R. Farnell. The Cults of the Greek City States. 5 Volumes.
Timothy Gantz. Early Greek myth: a guide to literary and artistic sources. Baltimore.
Robert Fowler. Early Greek Mythography. 2 Vols. 2000 and 2013.
Student Links
[TBD]
Images
Classical Mythology 