BARING THE BREAST IN HOMER AND ATTIC TRAGEDY: DEATH, DUNNING AND DISPLAY by Catherine Ellen Martin submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS In the subject CLASSICAL STUDIES at the University of South Africa Supervisor: Philip Bosman December 2015 BARING THE BREAST IN HOMER AND ATTIC TRAGEDY: DEATH, DUNNING AND DISPLAY Abstract and Key Terms by Catherine Ellen Martin Breast-baring occurs in fifth century Attic tragedy in a variety of situations, but almost always within a mournful context. Many connotations of the naked breast— vulnerability, womanhood, motherhood, and voluntary humiliation—can be evoked. Breast-baring can be a precursor of the death of the woman who exposes herself or of the death of the person to whom she makes the gesture. The most commonly represented context is the supplication of a son by a mother, a topos which finds its origin in Hecuba’s supplication of Hector (Il. 22.79-89). As a consistent failure, breast-baring during supplication reinforces the idea, commonly held in the society of the time, that female power is inferior to male power. The motivations for the gesture will be examined both within the respective literary contexts and within the society of the period. Key Terms: Homer; Aeschylus; Euripides; women in antiquity; supplication; breast- baring; mother-child relationships; mourning; αἰδώς ii DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my nurslings, Rachel and Jack, who first inspired me to study mothers and children in Greek drama, and to the many people who have nurtured me along the way: my friends Teresa, Sue Shank, Susan PO, and Rachel Hile; my loving and supportive parents, George and Arlene; and of course my rock, my shelter, mi media naranja, José Gomez Marquez. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Chapter 1: Introduction……………………………………………………………………1 2. Chapter 2: Homer, Iliad Book 22: Hector in No-man’s Land…………...…..……..20 3. Chapter 3: Aeschylus, Choephori: Supplication by the Breast Takes Center Stage……………………………………………………………………………………59 4. Chapter 4: Euripides, Phoenissae: Epic (Tragic) Fail……………………………….94 5. Chapter 5: Other Instances of Breast-baring: Imitation, Motivation and Lamentation………………………………………………………………………….125 6. Chapter 6: Conclusion…………………………………………………………………..147 7. Works Cited and Consulted……………………………………………………………155 iv Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Aims and objectives Breast-baring occurs in fifth century Attic tragedy in a variety of situations, but almost always within a mournful context; more specifically, when a character’s death is imminent. Such scenes are found in Aeschylus Choephori lines 896-898 (Clytemnestra supplicates Orestes), Euripides Phoenissae lines 1567-1569 (Jocasta supplicates her sons) and Sophocles Trachiniae lines 923-926 (Deianira removes the top of her πέπλος before suicide). Breast-baring can be a precursor of the death of the woman who exposes herself or it can be a precursor of the death of the person to whom she makes the gesture. The most commonly represented and referenced context is the supplication of a son by a mother, a topos which finds its origin in Hecuba’s supplication of Hector (Il. 22.79-89). All instances of breast-baring in Attic tragedy and other sources can be grouped into the following three categories based on the circumstances which prompt the gesture: supplication based on maternal claims, exposure of the breasts with an element of erotic appeal (although the intentions that prompt this vary), and breast-baring as an act which immediately precedes a character’s death. The motivations for the gesture will be examined both within the respective literary contexts and within the society of the period. 1 The multiple and wide occurrences1 of the act of breast-baring gives indication of its literary significance, but while individual passages have received scholarly attention (Whallon 1958:271-75 and 1980:127-42, Devereux 1976:171-218, Margon 1983:296-297, O’Neill 1998:216-229, et al.), as a group they have not been examined comprehensively in terms of literary function and variety and the socio- cultural aspects that influenced their performance. When considering the largest category, a son’s supplication by a mother, these socio-cultural aspects would include personal obligation being overruled by societal expectations, male overruling female, and the young overruling the old, thus forming junctures of socio- cultural conflict. The category of supplication largely based on erotic appeal has only one instance in Attic drama—Helen successfully persuading Menelaus not to kill her— but there are other examples in oratory and history. With the case of Helen, Euripides may be commenting more on proper behavior for men than for women. He would also be engaging the Greek notion of feminine sexuality as inherently powerful and dangerous (Walcot 1996:93)—something that can unduly influence a man. On the other hand, when the hetaera Phryne (Athenaeus Deipnosophistae Book 13.59) or the German women in Tacitus (Germania 8) expose their breasts, feminine sexuality is being used in a way that reminds men of their social obligations. Phryne wins her case by associating herself with the reverence due to 1 In addition to the examples given above a few other instances are Aristophanes’ Lys. 155; Euripides’ El. 1206 and Or. 527; Herodotus’ Hist. 2.85; and Stesichorus’ Geryoneis frag. 13. 2 Aphrodite, and the German women embolden their husbands to protect them and fight on. Finally, the category of exposing the breasts because of fear or grief2 can be seen as an extension of the usual beating and tearing at the breast that accompanies mourning.3 There is also strong evidence that baring the breast as a gesture of acute emotional distress was an accepted convention in visual art which also pertained in literature (Bonfante 1997:175, Cohen 1997:79, Steiner 2001:246). In addition, this could function as a male fantasy that, when in an altered state of consciousness due to a strong emotion such as grief, a woman’s reaction would be to violate social norms in a manner which gratifies a male viewer. A number of issues need to be considered in order to provide the broad context in which tragic employment of this literary motif should be understood. One issue is the extent to which the tragic poets had the Homeric exemplar in mind rather than their contemporary audiences. That is, was the frequent use of the gesture based more on its venerable Homeric antecedent or on its popularity with the theater-goers? In terms of stagecraft, the question of how the gesture would have been performed by a male actor playing Clytemnestra, the single instance of its representation onstage (and whether this could have had any erotic connotation), will be considered. Finally, I will argue that baring the breast was probably regarded by the male authors and audiences of the time as having a primarily pathetic rather than sexual significance. 2 E.g.: Deianeira in the Trachiniae or Polyxena in the Hecuba. 3 These actions were common to both the tragic stage and Greek culture (Hogan 1984:243). 3 The passages which will be analyzed in the three main chapters are the following: Hecuba supplicating Hector in Iliad 22:79-89, Clytemnestra supplicating Orestes in Choephori 896-902, and Jocasta supplicating her sons in Phoenissae 1431-1435 and 1566-1578. The scene from Homer is the literary prototype of a mother pleading with her son and employing breast-baring as a critical part of that plea. Later authors are imitating and reacting to the Homeric presentation of this motif, therefore the original requires careful analysis. The use of breast-baring supplication in the Choephori and the Phoenissae merits detailed discussion because the act is performed at a climactic moment in the plot. Aeschylus and Euripides, like Homer before them, use this exchange between mother and son/s to add tension and pathos to a central scene. Although the other examples of breast- baring are useful for studying the cultural themes and conflicts that underlie the gesture, the centrality of that gesture in Homer, Aeschylus and Euripides marks it as having greater importance within the works. This study will attempt to go beyond existing scholarship on the topic in these ways: it aims to present a comprehensive overview of the gesture of breast- baring, in particular in early Greek literature; it will consider the motivation for the gesture as a method of supplication; and it will look for the literary and cultural reasons why the gesture never once succeeds—when performed by a mother towards a child—in its aim as a form of supplication in extant Greek literature. 4 1.2. Literature review 1.2.1 Hecuba in Homer’s Iliad In addition to the standard commentaries and guides to the Iliad (Willcock 1976, Richardson 1993, Cairns 2002, DeJong 2012), more specific works dealing with the functioning of the heroic code (Redfield 1975, Van Wees 1992, Nagy 1998, etc.) and the roles of men and women in Homer (Beye 1974:87-101, Foley 2005:55- 70, Salzman-Mitchell 2012:141-65, etc.) were consulted. Crucial to an understanding of Hector’s response to his mother’s supplication is an understanding of the background of what motivates Homer’s warriors to act as they do and the societal roles of men and women. Therefore, works that emphasized these themes were an essential starting point. Van Wees’ book Status Warriors (1992) describes how the men of the Iliad are engaged in a constant struggle to acquire status (τιμή) and how “this struggle is at the centre of the heroes’ lives” (Van Wees 1992:64). Individuals and families are ranked according to the status they gain (Van Wees 1992:69), and it is Hector’s duty as the prince of Troy to maintain the royal family’s standing at the top of that ranking through his success as a fighter.