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Paper Under Review. Please Do Not Quote Anything of It Without Explicit Permission of the Author Paper under review. Please do not quote anything of it without explicit permission of the author. Teaching about Rape: A Project The rape of Lucretia: a long debated and revitalized episode from Classical Antiquity (Rosanna Lauriola, University of Idaho) 1. The Genesis of the Project I think it appropriate to briefly introduce this work by explaining the genesis of my project, given that it was originally not designed for participating in the workshop where I then presented it. The call for paper for the workshop New Avenues in Classics Pedagogy: The Challenge of Teaching Rape-texts came a bit later. I was impressed by the decision to organize a specific section completely devoted to the teaching of such a difficult topic as rape, within the Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association. I thus thought my project could match with the intentions and features of that workshop. Hence, I decided to try, and I submitted the related abstract. During the fall of 2008 that my project started taking a specific shape in my mind. While working on building my first class ever of “Civilization of Ancient Rome” for the following semester, I planned to read several excerpts from Livy – above all from the very early centuries of Roman history, i.e., from the origin to the first years of the Republic. I thus worked on the selection of passages from the first 3 books. While re-reading those books, the way in which women were represented attracted my attention more than ever, especially the silence and invisibility to which women were usually confined. And exactly in light of this it struck me that, with the exception of Cloelia (Livy, II. 13), where women were prominently represented in those books of Livy, not only did they usually figure as functional to male‟s actions, or catalyst for their actions1, but exactly in that respect they often appeared as victims of rape, or, to use the questionable, ambiguous terminology referring to that action in classical antiquity, as victims of abduction as Rhea Silvia, the Sabines, and Lucretia appear respectively in Livy I.4, I. 9-13, I. 57- 60. And, at least as victim of an attempt of rape (yet she was literally „abducted‟, in some way) Verginia appears in Livy III. 44-48. This calls my attention to the way in which, in general, ancient authors – and their addressees - tended to sanitize the clear undercurrent of violence at women‟s expense: the violence itself is overridden, and in some ways, it is obscured by what was an almost common way to conceive rape/abduction in ancient time, i.e., as a stage toward an ultimately great outcome2. In Greek mythology, Zeus‟ “rape” of Leda, for instance, resulted in the birth of Helen, thus serving, in some way, to the myth of “super-heroic proportions 1 “Those women who are mentioned by Appian, Livy or Tacitus typically perform very restricted roles, either demonstrating a general principle, or throwing light on the character of a leading male, rather than advancing the narrative in their own right”, Dixon 2001, p. 20. I deepened most of the issues I shall touch on in this paper in another work pertaining to rape and abduction in Classical Antiquity and in its reception through century. The title of this work, currently submitted, is Re-proposing „heroic‟ abduction in art: On the side of the victims. The abduction of the daughters of Leucippus by Peter Paul Rubens (1616) and Classic Tragedy by Michael Merck (2004). I shall often refer to this paper in the following pages. 2 See Arietti 1997. See also below, n. 18. responsible for the eventual fall of Troy”3. Similarly, in the legendary, early Roman history, Mars‟ rape of Rhea Silvia is seen as serving the positive outcome of the birth of Romulus (the founder of Rome). And so, the rape of the Sabines is seen as a means for Rome to continue to live through the offspring born from the Sabines‟ abduction and subsequent marriage with Roman men. The rape of Lucretia – to put it with Giovanni Boccaccio4 - “led ultimately to freedom for Rome”, i.e., to the end of the monarchy and to the creation of the Republic5. After this quick, yet revealing analysis, several poignant facts led me to choose to touch specifically on the rape issue, while planning a discourse on cultural aspects of ancient society in parallel to the historical outlines. These poignant facts – as I call them – were namely: - the usual disregard of the victims‟ side, - the traces, that we may find since Livy‟s story, of prejudices surrounding cases of rape even nowadays – such as, in particular, the social stigma that, in the males‟ eyes, rape imprinted on the women. For instance, Rhea Silvia, when “forcibly violated” (vi compressa: Livy I. 4, 2), was compelled to name the god Mars as the father of the twins “because the fault might appear more respectable (honestior) if a deity were the cause of it”6. Lucretia, when her body was violated, had to die to show her innocence and to make it possible for any woman to live chastely by pleading Lucretia‟s example7. Verginia had to be killed by her own father, for it was the only way to save her purity and reputation8: "Was this the condition on which they were to rear children, was this the reward of modesty and purity?" so the matrons asked, crying at the sight of Verginia‟s death. I thought that the feature of the “stigma” on women‟s reputation would be particularly relevant for contemporary experience, and thus would enhance a discussion spanning from antiquity to 3 See Brownmiller 1975, pp. 283-284. Whether the chosen woman may or may not be overjoyed does not matter (a good evidence of this is Horace, Odes 3. 27 where the poet invites Europa, „raped/abducted‟ by Zeus, to resign to her fate and be happy with that). 4 G. Boccaccio, De mulieribus claris 48 (Lucretia, wife of Collatinus) (1361-1362). De mulieribus claris (1361-2) includes 104 women, from Greek to biblical to Roman to imaginary. His treatment of Lucretia mostly depends on Livy‟s version; however, it also includes a moralizing tone that reveals Boccaccio‟s Christian interest in the story. 5 Arietti 1997. As to Lucretia, and in general the way in which the female body appears in Livy‟s stories of early Rome, Joshel (1992) observes that the female body become a metaphor for the private territory of the Roman male: Sextus Tarquinius conquered the chastity of Lucretia, alias he invaded the home of her husband Collatinus; by besieging and conquering Collatinus‟ home, Sextus has reduced Collatinus, and by implication the Roman males, to the status of a conquered people. 6. Indeed, as Ogilvie noted (1965, p. 48: “The Vestal‟s rape was common and sordid: it is ennobled when a god is credited with having been responsible”. 7 So Lucretia said:“it is only the body that has been violated, the soul is pure; death shall bear witness to that”… “although I acquit myself of the sin, I do not free myself from the penalty; no unchaste woman shall henceforth live and plead Lucretia's example." She had a knife concealed in her dress which she plunged into her heart, and fell dying on the floor”. (I,. 58) 8 Indeed, this is the report of Livy: “Verginius, seeing no prospect of help anywhere, turned to the tribunal. "Pardon me, Appius, I pray you, if I have spoken disrespectfully to you, pardon a father's grief. Allow me to question the nurse here, in the maiden's presence, as to what are the real facts of the case, that if I have been falsely called her father, I may leave her with the greater resignation." “Permission being granted, he took the girl and her nurse aside to the booths near the temple of Venus Cloacina, now known as the "New Booths," and there, snatching up a butcher's knife, he plunged it into her breast, saying, "In this the only way in which I can, I vindicate, my child, thy freedom." … The matrons, who followed with angry cries, asked, "Was this the condition on which they were to rear children, was this the reward of modesty and purity?" modern times. Stigma is undeniably a modern issue; as we all know; it is what impedes reporting cases of rape; it is something that generates reluctance and hesitation to speak out9. Reflecting on this, I thus decided to focus a bit more on the theme of rape in the very early history of Rome as narrated by Livy in Book I, and I chose to deepen the discourse on Lucretia‟s case and to make it also the topic of a group project I assigned to some students majoring in Classics and History, a project which I closely designed and coordinated. 1.1. Why Lucretia? For three basic reasons I chose to focus in particular on Lucretia‟s episode: 1. For the strong and intense anguish that transpires – to me more than in other case – through her action, such an anguish, such a sorrow that may vividly represent what a rape meant and means for a woman, no matter the historical time in which it occurs. 2. For the fact that, according to Livy‟s report, the incident of Lucretia took place during a war, in a time in which – as the world‟s history well shows – there is an unbalance of power, and, above of all when war is protracted, there is less and less control, on the male side, on the observance of simple civil rules; hence, the potential for violence to harmless beings – from women to children – increases.
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