Women in Archaic Greece: Maidens

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Women in Archaic GreeceMaidens
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Archaic Greece 8th 6th centuries BCE
Limitations of information Few words from women
usually but in this period, Sappho Much more
information about aristocrats (leisure for art
and poetry) Different social strata reflected in
Homer and Hesiod Imaginary or real social worlds
(i.e. Homers Odyssey) Do goddess stories reflect
real womens lives (Homeric Hymn to Demeter)?
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Alcmans Maiden Song
Alkman (Alcman) Maiden Chorus (Parthenaia) Communa
l activity for females public role for usually
secluded girls does it reflect aristocratic
education? time and place issues eroticism in an
acceptable context
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Alcmans Maiden Song
What are some of the ways girls are described in
this choral poem? What image of the girls
emerges? Are the girls subjects or objects in
the song? Who owns the erotic element of it?
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Alcmans Maiden Song
An Etruscan tomb painting shown young women in a
choral dance what impression does it give?
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(No Transcript)
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Sappho

• love as a key focus
• female experience
• relationship as well as pursuit
• eroticism older and younger women
• different perspectives
• loss and distance
• focus on emotional experience

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Sappho
Honestly, I wish I were dead! Weeping many
tears she left me, Saying this as well Oh, what
dreadful things have happened to us, Sappho! I
didnt want to leave you! I answered her, Go
with my blessings and remember me
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Sappho
Close by my side you put around yourself many
wreaths of violet and saffron and many woven
garlands made from flowers around your tender
neck, And with costly royal myrrh you anointed
And on a soft bed tender you satisfied your
desire
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Sappho
But now she stands out among the Lydian women as
after sunset the rosy fingered moon Surpasses all
the stars the light spreads over the salty sea
equally as over the many-flowered fields. And the
dew glows beautifully liquid But she, roaming
about far and wide, remembers gentle Attis with
desire
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Sappho and Alkman

• What are the relationships between women/maidens
  described in the Partheneia? In Sappho's poetry?
  Are these kinds of relationships common in the
  present day?
• What are your impressions of how women are
  represented in the art of archaic Greece? What
  are the characteristics and attributes that women
  are notable for, as seen in art? What are the
  purposes for which artistic representations of
  women are made in the Archaic period?

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Demeter and Persephone
How are the mother and daughter shown relative to
one another in this religious frieze? How does
that compare to their relationship in the Homeric
Hymn?
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Persephone
She Persephone was having a good time, along
with the daughters of Okeanos, who wear their
girdles slung low. She was picking flowers
roses, crocus, and beautiful violets. Up and down
the soft meadow. Iris blossoms too she picked,
and hyacinth. And the narcissus, which was grown
as a lure for the flower-faced girl by Gaia
Earth. All according to the plans of Zeus.
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Persephone
Hades seized her against her will, put her on his
golden chariot. And drove away as she wept. She
cried with a piercing voice, calling upon her
father Zeus, the son of Kronos, the highest and
the best. But not one of the immortal ones, or of
human mortals, heard her voice.
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Persephone
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Persephone
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Persephone
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• Is this marriage by abduction considered legal,
  appropriate, binding? How does Persephone feel
  about being kidnapped and "married by force"? Do
  you get the sense that this is how people really
  act, or that this is special "divine
  prerogative"?
• Marriage by kidnapping and divine rape of nymphs
  or mortals are common themes in Greek mythology.
  Does Persephones story give you any insight into
  why the ancient Greeks would have had such an
  interest in this story? Does this motif have any
  resonance in the present day?

Persephone
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Persephone
"Helios! Show me respect, god to goddess, if ever
I have pleased your heart ... It is about the
girl born to me, a sweet young seedling, renowned
for her beauty, whose piercing cry I heard
resounding though the boundless aether, as if she
were being forced, though I did not see it with
my eyes
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Persephone
And Demeter was visited by a grief that was even
more terrible than before it makes you think of
the Hound of Hades. In her anger at the one who
is known for his dark clouds, the son of Kronos,
she shunned the company of gods and lofty
Olympus. She went away, visiting the cities of
humans, with all their fertile landholdings,
shading over her appearance, for a long time.
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Persephone

• How is the mother / daughter relationship between
  Demeter and Persephone portrayed?
• Do you get the sense that the mother/ daughter
  relationship was thought of as a particularly
  close relationship for ancient Greek women in
  general?

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Demeter
I do not know what this land is and who live
here. But I pray to all the gods who abide on
Olympus that you be granted vigorous husbands and
that you be able to bear children, in accordance
with the wishes of your parents. As for me, young
girls, take pity. To be honest about it, what I
want is for you to name for me a house to go to
the house of someone, man or woman, who has dear
children to be taken care of. I want to work for
them, honestly. The kind of work that is cut out
for a female who has outlived others her own age.
I could take some newborn baby in my arms, and
nourish him well.
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Demeter
But blond-haired Demeter sat down and stayed in
the temple, shunning the company of all the
blessed ones. She was wasting away with yearning
for her daughter with the low-slung girdle. She
made that year the most terrible one for mortals,
all over the Earth, the nurturer of many. It was
so terrible, it makes you think of the Hound of
Hades. The Earth did not send up any seed.
Demeter, she with the beautiful garlands in her
hair, kept them the seeds covered underground.
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Persephone

• Demeter seems powerless to prevent the marriage
  and keep her daughter though she clearly has
  other forms of power! What information, if any,
  does this give you about the rights and powers of
  real women in ancient Greece?
• What is the relationship between Hades and
  Persephone? Does she have any rights/ powers in
  her marriage?

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Demeter

• The motif of a woman searching for a lost loved
  one recurs in world mythology, notably when the
  Egyptian goddess Isis searches for her lost
  husband Osiris. What meaning does this image have
  in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter? Does this meaning
  resonate with you in the present day?

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"Go, Persephone, to your mother, the one with the
dark robe. Have a kindly disposition in your
breast. Do not be too upset, excessively so. I
will not be an unseemly husband to you, in the
company of the immortals. I am the brother of
Zeus the Father. If you are here, you will be
queen of everything that lives and moves about,
and you will have the greatest honors in the
company of the immortals. So he spoke. And
high-minded Persephone rejoiced.
Persephone
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Persephone
I sprang up for joy, but he, stealthily, put into
my hand the berry of the pomegranate, that
honey-sweet food, and he compelled me by force to
eat of itAs for how it was that he snatched me
away He took me away under the earth in his
golden chariot. It was very much against my will.
I cried with a piercing voice. These things,
grieving, I tell you, and they are all true.
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(No Transcript)
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Artemis the Maiden

• Goddess of the hunt
• Goddess of transitions
• Untamed, wild
• Dangerous to both young women and young men who
  violate her precepts

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Artemis the Maiden
dedications
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Nausicaa
What are the concerns of Nausicaa -- what does
she consider important, what occupies her mind?
How well is she able to manipulate her
environment to make things turn out the way she
wants them?
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finis