Greek Women and Religion, Modern and Ancient: Festivals and Cults Connected with the Female Sphere, a Comparison
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GREEK WOMEN AND RELIGION, MODERN AND ANCIENT: FESTIVALS AND CULTS CONNECTED WITH THE FEMALE SPHERE, A COMPARISON Evy Johanne Håland Independent researcher (Dr in History), Bergen The following article is mainly based being lascivious occasions, without perspective, which is very similar to the upon studies in non-Cypriot Greek any particular importance. Western male perspective generally culture, modern and ancient, but The following article argues that applied within Greek studies, has to be despite of regional variation, Greece these statements from Western schol- deconstructed. 3 and Cyprus belong to the same Greek ars need to be nuanced. It is impor- and wider Mediterranean cultural tant to change our approach when Women and the female area. Thus, by way of a comparative working with ancient culture. This sphere theoretical approach, the study seeks may be done, by using a compara- In the so-called patriarchal Mediter- to be a contribution to new perspecti- tive anthropological approach. The ranean society, women are associated ves on the material from the Swedish article demonstrates how this may be with practical religion. Fertility-cult, Cyprus Expedition.1 concretised by conducting fi eldwork healing and death-cult are deeply Many studies have been occupied on religious festivals in present-day’s connected with the domestic sphere, with women and religion in ancient Greece. They are compared with where women are the dominating Greece. Even if women were conduct- similar ancient festivals through an power. “The female sphere” is im- ing important religious festivals and analysis of the fertility-cult, which is portant when studying such personal rituals, most researchers claim that important in the festivals. Based on phenomena in life as ideologies and their activities were performed under the importance of this cult, the article mentalities, represented by religion, male dominance, since women were tries to consider the female part of behaviour, values, customs, faith, wor- circumscribed and constrained by society, since women are the central ship, popular beliefs, etc. We discover domesticity. From the archaic period, performers of the actual cult which is that what we usually call “macro-“ and their religious rituals were curbed of focal importance within the offi cial “micro-society”, i.e. the “public” and or “appropriated”. The male control and male value-system, a value-system “domestic spheres”, in fact have dif- of woman was the cornerstone, the which the festivals and the society that ferent meanings to what is generally social and cultural prerequisite for they refl ect, traditionally have been assumed. In Greece, we do not fi nd the construction of civilization, as considered from, and which therefore the “little” society or “only the family” presented in Aeschylus’, the Orestia.2 has to be supplied by a female point at home; rather, this is where we meet The cult of the dying god Adonis of view. By taking account of the so- the “great” society. Therefore, it is im- and Aphrodite was important both called female sphere, which still exists portant to search out to what extent in Greece proper and Cyprus, but in the Mediterranean society generally the offi cial ideology is dependent on according to Marcel Detienne’s (1989, and in Greece and Cyprus particularly, these cults, and thereby the female originally 1972) ideological patriarchal we may also learn a useful way to try sphere to manifest itself. and puritan view, the Adōnia festival to consider the female part of soci- The “male sphere” is usually con- was celebrated mainly by courtesans, ety. But, by so doing the offi cial male nected with the offi cial world, and the Medelhavsmuseet 101 with birth, nurturance and the care for the dead; they are feeding and nourishing mothers, and by these encompassing activities they manage and control the fundamental course of life. Many symbols and rituals in the festivals illustrate this. These sym- bols and rituals are usually regarded as, and are female “domains”. By analysing some of their relevant as- pects, the hope is to grasp further into the meaning and importance of the mentioned customs and values related to fundamental principles, within the “ideological entirety” a festival often is perceived as, as well as male texts, since their interest and theme is the male ideology. Women in Greece have a double Fig. “Female sphere” in public space: the graveyard, a space controlled by women. consciousness about their own exist- (Author’s photograph) ence and about men’s representations of it. Therefore, it is of focal impor- tance to conduct fi eldwork among female with the domestic world, but as circumstances, be blurred. In reality, women and men when working with already stated, this does not imply that the world of the domestic and familial ancient sources, since they with very the female sphere is marginal and the or the world of women, i.e. the female few exceptions are written by men, and other not, as some researchers have sphere, is covering a more extended the goal is to represent a whole and claimed.4 Marginalization is a spatial area and has greater power than gener- not only a limping and partial society. metaphor and depends on where ally assumed. you are standing. This means that the Generally, Greek women and their From the cyclical festivals centre in a Greek village can be both life have been analysed from a West- of the agricultural calendar the central village square, “the man’s ern (male) standard. Based on these world” (cf. Ar. Eccl. 154 f. for a paral- theories, both ancient and modern to fertility-cult lel), and the kitchen hearth or court- Greek women have been categorized The festival is an important means of yard, important spaces that women as unfree, dependent, secluded and communication, an offering or a gift, control. When studying Greek village not living a worthy life. Accounts of most often dedicated to a deceased life, anthropologists have considered women written by men, and many guardian of society, alone or together the two spheres of male and female academic women, may portray them with a god(dess), for instance to the importance in terms of “public” and as passive or subservient. But, if the modern Panagia (the Virgin Mary, cf. “private”, home and outside home, goal is to conduct research from the Fig. 2) or to the ancient goddesses, but there are also public spaces where female sphere in Greece, the picture Demeter (Plut. Mor. 378e–f69, cf. women dominate, one of these is the may change, since Greek women Hymn. Hom. Cer. 273 f.), Athena (Hom. graveyard (Fig. 1). So, when working may have other values. 5 In this way, Il. 2.546–551) or Aphrodite.6 In the with this material, one realizes that the we may get new perspectives on our festivals, we fi nd fertility- and death- division in a male and female sphere ancient texts as well. cult as well as healing (cf. also Håland in Greek society may, under certain In Greece, women are connected 2005 and 2006a). 102 Greek Women and Religion, Modern and Ancient: Festivals and Cults Fig. During the festival celebrating the Dormition of the Panagia on Tinos, on August, her miraculous icon (image) of the Annunciation (Euangelistrias) is carried in procession, and also over the sick and women wanting to conceive. (Photograph by Hartmut Müller-Stauff enbe rg) The analysis of the fertility-cult the fertility of the society through the ensure the harvest. Accordingly, rain- demonstrates how fertility is con- communication with stronger pow- magic dedicated to a heavenly god nected to the deceased and the pow- ers, fi rst and foremost, Mother Earth. is a generally theme in the festivals, ers in the subterranean world where Her importance parallels the woman’s particularly around the most impor- life begins, according to the cyclical who is the central performer of the tant periods during the agricultural symbolism, which is central in Greek cults, which are important in the year: sowing (autumn) and sprouting culture. The deceased mediator also festivals, because they are connected (spring). From this fact follows the receives a blood sacrifi ce, the ritual to the female sphere. The Greeks signifi cance of the Sacred Marriage, slaughter of an animal, which after- conceive the Earth as a woman’s body hieros gamos. As the ploughing is about wards is consumed as a communal and the agricultural year as a woman’s to begin, traditionally a ritualistic meal by the participants of the festi- life. The Earth is also seen as the ploughing takes place accompanied val. The communication is presented female sex organ. But, the Earth rep- or followed by a hieros gamos, the on several levels. The dead receives resents only one of the two parts of purpose of which is to re-enact the the offering in order to provide for the nature, who has to be invoked to union of the Corn Mother or Mother Medelhavsmuseet 103 Earth with her own son, the corn- year’s cycle replaces the male period, tically be reproduced, if we only base seed, in order to make the ground because the woman is looked upon as our research on the male ideological fertile. The connection between birth the productive partner in a relation- sphere and a male value-system. Most and death is also symbolised through ship in the Mediterranean area. The of the scholars working with ancient the annual death and resurrection of mid-winter-festivals are celebrated society present similar male values, the lovers of the Mother Goddesses, around solstice and the fi rst sprouting for example Detienne (1989) and F. such as the vegetation god, Adonis. of the grains.