We'll be reading and discussing Roman literature from the late Republic and early Principate. Despite the strong patriarchal traditions of Roman society, we see considerably more liberal attitudes both in and toward women during the crucial period of the first century BCE. After a series of civil wars destroys the republic and brings on the ascension of Octavian/Augustus as the first emperor, things begin to change. One of Augustus' chief concerns is the reform of Roman morals, and to that end he encourages a more traditional atmosphere and even introduces legislation regulating marriage.

You will be reading poetry of this conflict-ridden era, poetry that reflects all these changes in Roman life and attitudes.

WCW Chapter 10: Of the poetry reproduced there, which tends to present a traditional patriarchal view of women, and which seems to present a different viewpoint?

ALSO please:

• READ (from packet): Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid, and Ovid's "Dido to Aeneas" from Heroides
  
• CONSIDER: Study questions given below, and
  
• COME to class ready to contribute your answers to these questions (and other observations you may have)

BACKGROUND TO THE AENEID:
Publius Vergilius Maro (popularly known as Virgil) was still at work at his great national epic, the Aeneid, when he died in 17 BC. Virgil tells the traditional tale of the wanderings of the hero Aeneas. Aeneas, son of a noble Trojan and the goddess Venus, fled from Troy after Trojan war, and eventually turned up in Italy where his descendants became the leaders of the Latin people (who later founded the city of Rome and made it their capital). In Virgil's telling, even before he leaves Troy the fates have promised Aeneas a new kingdom in Italy. Getting there is the problem, however. The gods who were hostile to Troy remain hostile to Aeneas; and though they cannot alter what is fated, they make sure Aeneas doesn't have an easy time getting to his new homeland.

At the beginning of the epic Aeneas and his followers wash up on the shore of the land of Carthage, a city recently founded by Dido, a fugitive Phoenician noble lady. Dido had fled her native city of Tyre because her brother, the ruler of Tyre, had treacherously killed her beloved husband. In grief over her husband, Dido vows never to marry again. When the Trojans arrive at her city she hospitably entertains them, and offers either to help them get back on their way to Italy or to let them settle as equals in the new land of Carthage.

As Aeneas and the other Trojans rest and relax in Carthage, and entertain their hosts with tales of the Trojan war and of their wanderings, two goddesses in heaven hatch a plot. Venus (Aeneas' mother) and Juno (who hates all things Trojan) conspire to make Dido fall in love with Aeneas. Venus hopes that this will keep Aeneas safe in the hostile city of Carthage, while Juno hopes that it will delay Aeneas from erecting a new Troy on Italian soil.

The upshot of this divine plot is spelled out in Book IV, one of the most popular and interesting parts of the Aeneid. The story told in it is not just a classic tale of star-crossed love, it is also an important episode in the development of Aeneas' character. He finds himself faced with the dilemma of choosing between his feelings for Dido and his allegiance to the destiny in Italy that the gods have laid out for him. The choice he ultimately makes provides a mythological explanation for the historical hatred between Rome and Carthage, which culminated in the bloody series of three "Punic Wars".

Virgil's patron was Maecenas, a wealthy sophisticate who was also a close friend of the first emperor Augustus. Although it's fairly clear that neither Augustus nor Maecenas ever told Virgil what he had to write, it's also fairly certain that Virgil was strongly affected by the new emphasis on propriety and morality that Augustus was trying to foster. The focus on Aeneas' sense of duty (pietas) that Virgil emphasizes throughout the epic is one example of this. It's also interesting to read in this light Virgil's treatment of a topic that had been the favorite of Roman poets, an illicit love affair.

Questions to Consider:
1. As sole ruler of the great city of Carthage, Dido is arguably the most politically powerful mortal female in Greek or Roman literature. Does Vergil's treatment of her indicate a greater capacity for acceptance of the idea of a woman in power, or is the image of a matriarchal society presented as a dangerous sort of "Other" against which the Romans can define and justify themselves?
2. Is Dido, after all, a powerful woman?
3. Does this view of a love affair support or subvert the new focus on morality and feminine respectibility introduced by Augustus, the patron of Vergil's patron?

Also read Ovid's later take on this story, written as a letter from Dido to Aeneas, and consider these questions:
1. Are there any substantial discrepancies between Ovid's and Virgil's accounts?
2. Does Ovid do a good job imagining the woman's point of view in this poem, or are the thoughts and sentiments he ascribes to Dido more on the order of a male fantasy?

For 2/22

COMEDY: See remarks below about drama in general. The same religious festivals that had performances of tragedies also had performances of comedies. As with tragedy, comedy was performed by masked and costumed male performers with a chorus. While tragedy brought the Athenians face-to-face with the things they feared most, the function of comedy seems to have been to provide relief of tension by skewering as many sacred cows as possible. Politicians are roasted, eggheads deflated, generals humiliated, sons beat their fathers, slaves hoodwink their masters, wives turn the tables on their husbands. Famous men like Socrates and Euripides are portrayed on stage acting like buffoons. Famous women like Sappho and Aspasia are brought on and associated with all manner of lewdness -- you may recall that we discussed how this is (unfortunately) one of the main ultimate sources of information about these two women. There is much slapstick and much ribaldry of all descriptions. If you think there's a lot of excretory, erectional and and ejaculatory humor in There's something about Mary then you haven't read Greek Comedy.

The description above pertains mostly to the earliest known phase of Athenian comedy, referred to as old comedy. In the early fourth century, comedy became tamer and less risquŽe, and we move into a period known as 'middle comedy' (from which no complete plays survive), and then, at the very end of the classical period, into 'new comedy', from which we have the writings of a single author, Menander. (good report topic alert: women in the plays of Menander). By the time of Menander comedy has become a much more gentle thing: no one is lampooned, no one's ox is gored; you just have charming situational comedies (i.e. sit-coms) where realistic characters find themselves in amusing predicaments and have to get themselves out in ways that are amusing but also, sometimes, touching, poignant, etc. It is this sort of comedy upon which Roman comedy was later based, and it has remained the dominant sort of comedy in the tradition of Western literature up to the present day (though the spirit of old comedy never completely disappeared, and is currently enjoying something of a renaissance).

Nothing much touching or poignant about the topsy-turvy world of Old Comedy, and it is that which we will be reading this week. The only author of Old Comedy who left behind works that have survived to the present day is Aristophanes (ca. 450 - 385 BCE), a younger contemporary of Euripides, Sophocles, Socrates, Pericles, and who makes merciless fun of all those figures in his plays.

Since Old Comedy takes the basest facts of life as its material, it is one of the better sources we have for some aspects of everyday life and common attitudes, including those that have to do with women. In addition, the three plays you are reading for this week all show women getting the better of men in one way or another.

As you read, keep your mind on these two questions:

• What evidence does your play provide for the everyday facts of women's life in Athens? and
  
• By having women get the better of men, is Aristophanes trying to make a serious critique of male-dominated society, or is it simply for the laugh value of portraying a situation that, given the way Athenian society is structured, is completely ridiculous and impossible?

For 2/8

Sappho’s is the clearest woman’s voice that we have from antiquity, but interpreting what she has to tell us is notoriously difficult. For one thing, since she comes from a very early period in the history of Greek writing (ca. 600 BCE), there are no contemporary factual accounts that mention her. The accounts that survive from antiquity date from much later, and are based largely of a) biographical information extrapolated from her poems and b) references to her in comedies and other lat er writings. Of these two sources, (b) is clearly unreliable and (a) assumes that when Sappho wrote her poems she was always speaking truthfully about herself and never adopting a different persona or imagining situations that didn’t actually happen. Many of the "facts" that are typically presented as being known about Sappho (including those mentioned in the chapter by Snyder that I’m having you read) of this sort, so caution and skepticism is in order. Likewise we know little for sure about so ciety on the island of Lesbos in Sappho’s day, aside from what is suggested in Sappho’s poems and in the poems of her male Lesbian contemporary Alkaios (=Alcaeus).

Keep in mind that with one or two exceptions, we have no complete poems by Sappho. Many of her poems seem short and cryptic. This is not because Sappho intended them to be that way but because all we have left of the poems are fragments: bits of poetry on scraps of papyrus or one or two lines quoted by another author. For this reason determining the context of many of her remarks is highly problematic.

Nevertheless, a few things are clear from her poetry: Sappho sometimes writes in her own voice (naming herself) and sometimes adopts the point of view of others (As Alcman clearly does in the partheneia). She writes some poems that are addressed to individuals, some hymns addressed to the gods (most frequently to Aphrodite, the goddess of love), some poems that seem to be written for girls choruses, some for public celebrations involving men and women (including a large number of w edding songs [epithalamia].

When Sappho addresses individuals, they are almost always other women. When Alkaios addresses individuals, they are almost always men. This suggests that men and women on Lesbos enjoyed separate social lives, similar to what we know from Athens. Unlike the typical upper-class Athenian woman, however, Sappho was clearly literate and well-educated, and had a number of intimate acquaintances outside of her own household. Some of the women she addresses apparently come from, or live in, places far removed from Lesbos.

Sappho speaks of her own erotic feelings for other women and of the love other women feel for her and for each other. Hence, of course, the modern connotation of the word "Lesbian". Female homoeroticism seems to be a normal and accepted aspect of the s ociety Sappho writes in, just as male homoeroticism seems normal for Alcaeus and for Athenian male society. Although "Lesbianism" is not known to be a prevalent feature of Athenian, Spartan or other Greek societies, Sappho’s poetry was read an d appreciated in Athens and elsewhere without any hint of scandal or outrage.

1) What sort of topics does Sappho write on? What sort of imagery does she frequently use?

2) How would you describe the way Sappho writes about her relationships with other women? With joy? sadness? frustration? with different emotions in different poems?

3) Based on what you've read of Greek literature so far, does Sappho express herself differently from the way a Greek male would express himself on the same subjects?

4) Is Sappho a feminist? Does anything she writes call into question the values and customs of a male-dominated society?

5) On p. 13-15 of Women in the Classical World you will find poems called Partheneia (Maidens' choruses), written by the Spartan poet Alkman, a near-contemporary of Sappho. Though written by a man, these were made to be sung by girls in S partan religious festivals. Do you find any similarities and differences between this poetry (a man speaking through women's voices) and Sappho's (a woman speaking for herself?

6) Pick the one Sappho poem that you think is most interesting. Be ready to tell us why.

Introduction to GREEK DRAMA in general, and to the first three plays you're reading for 2/8 in particular

Greek Drama, though ancestral in many ways to modern plays, movies and TV shows, was altogether different from these modern varieties of play-acting. Greek Drama consisted of musical/poetical performances for the public at festivals in honor of the god Dionysus. In Athens (from where all our surviving examples come) these performances were held in huge open-air theatres where a large portion of the citizen body would crowd in to watch. In addition to actors playing individual roles, each of the pla ys involved a CHORUS, which sang and danced musical interludes (marked by the dancing terms STROPHE and ANTISTROPHE in your translations), and interacted with the main characters. The chorus represented various peoples and groups in different plays, but g enerally represented the common person, giving the common person’s reaction and commentary to the events going on in the play. All the performers in Greek drama were male (characters and chorus both); they all wore masks and costumes which allowed th em to take on any appearance or gender.

There were two main types of drama in ancient Athens, Tragedy (which generally had a serious theme, and involved legendary kings and heroes from the distant past) and Comedy (which had light, humorous themes and had contemporary every day people as characters).

Performances of dramas were huge communal events that the majority ancient Athenians took very seriously. As such, one might suspect that they tended to support, rather than openly subvert, the social status quo in Athens. At the same time, however , drama, particularly Tragedy, was expected to stir the audience’s emotions, so they quite often portrayed societal norms and customs under attack or under question. They also frequently highlighted the contradictions and injustices within the societ al status quo without necessarily advocating any solutions to them.

Perhaps because the Athenians felt it desirable for tragedy to address problems in their social system, female characters play an extremely prominent role in this form of literature. Nearly every tragedy we have includes at least one strong female character whose actions are crucial in the story of the play. What this would have meant in a society like Athens, where real women's lives were constrained, is a fascinating question.

One thing that we don't know for sure is whether Athenian women would have been allowed to attend these plays. They are part of a religious festival, and religious festivals seems to be a time when women were expected to play a more public role. What little direct evidence we do have seems to suggest that they were allowed to attend, but the evidence is not very good one way or the other.

ALCESTIS: One of Euripides’ earliest surviving plays. King Admetus of Pherai must die unless he finds someone to die in his place. All of his relatives refuse him, until finally his wife, Alcestis, agrees to die for him. Interest ing questions: What is foremost on Alcestis’ mind as she dies? Why is she willing to die for her husband? Why is her husband willing to let her die?

"Homer" was the name given in antiquity to the author of a number of monumental epic poems that served Greeks in the historical period as a record of their ethnic history. Of those poems only two survive intact: The Iliad and the Odyssey< /I>. These were the most popular epic poems in antiquity, and memorizing large chunks of them constituted an important part of elementary education for young men. Therefore the world-view, the ethics, and the lessons of the Iliad and the Odyssey formed an integral part of every male Greek’s psyche for centuries.