PANDORA’S POETICS: EKPHRASIS IN THE ANCIENT EPIC by CHRISTINE LOREN ALBRIGHT (Under the Direction of James H.S. McGregor) ABSTRACT Ekphrasis in epic poetry functions as a uterine body inside the larger masculine epic body; its extreme vividness and feminine form offer a pageant of alluring sexual power, seducing the audience into the universe of the poem. The rhetorical technique begins with the description of Achilles’ shield in the Iliad, where it helps the oral poet accomplish the act of persuasion which occurs between poet and audience. The spiralling form of the ekphrasis offers its audience the irresistible possiblity of pre-natal wholeness and divine communion: the scenes of the ekphrasis represent the cosmic whole of Minoan religious ritual, which generally focused on regeneration through the fertile feminine body and which specifically involved the Labyrinth dance. Hesiod, recognizing how ekphrasis functions in oral epic, uses the figure of Pandora as an illustration of ekphrasis in the Theogony, which is both a cosmogony about the physical universe and also a commentary on the epic body itself. As each successive epic poet uses ekphrasis more extensively in order to establish himself as an author, ekphrasis evolves until the boundary between it and the rest of the poem is eroded. Ovid’s Metamorphoses serves as an example of ekphrasis in an evolved state; he applies the characteristics of ekphrasis to the whole of the poem. Ovid follows both Homer and Hesiod in presenting ekphrasis as a pathway to divine truth, and he manipulates this aspect of ekphrasis in order to conceal the politically subversive statement which the Metamorphoses offers. INDEX WORDS: Ekphrasis, Ecphrasis, Iliad, Homer, Hesiod, Theogony, Pandora, Achilles’ shield, Ovid, Metamorphoses, Labyrinth, Poesis PANDORA’S POETICS: EKPHRASIS IN THE ANCIENT EPIC by CHRISTINE LOREN ALBRIGHT B.A., Vanderbilt University, 1989 M.A., University of Georgia, 1992 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2009 © 2009 Christine Loren Albright All Rights Reserved PANDORA’S POETICS: EKPHRASIS IN THE ANCIENT EPIC by CHRISTINE LOREN ALBRIGHT Major Professor: James H.S. McGregor Committee: Thomas Cerbu T. Keith Dix Naomi Norman Sarah Spence Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2009 iv DEDICATION For Rocco Decanus Animalium 1990-2008 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people have provided me with encouragement and assistance during the course of this project, and I am grateful to all of them. There are several people I would like to thank specifically. First, I would like to thank my major professor, Jim McGregor for his direction and general support. I would also like to thank my committee members: Naomi Norman, Keith Dix, Sallie Spence, and Tom Cerbu—all of whom have offered valuable academic advice at various points during the course of this project. Naomi has been not only an academic advisor to me over the years but also a most valuable friend, and I owe her many more thanks than a sentence in these acknowledgements can possibly offer. Erika Hermanowicz patiently has listened to me talk about ekphrasis for miles, and she has often given much needed pep-talks. My friends Kathy Anderson, Darlene Ciraulo, Jane Gatewood, Matt Kozusko, Ellen Mulligan, Chuck Platter, and Kalpen Trivedi have been wonderful, and I thank them all. My parents have offered everything from financial support to a pass on familial obligations; I hope they are proud of the final outcome. My fellow board members of the Athens Area Humane Society have been most accommodating in covering for me over the last two years, especially Camilla Watson, who kindly stepped in as President when I had to focus on this project. Finally, I thank my husband, Peter Appel. Peter not only proofread many, many drafts of this project (even occasionally catching typos in Greek), but, for the last year and a half, he has assumed all responsibility for household chores and repairs, shopping, cooking, vi computer maintenance, and the care of our large family of cats and dogs—all while trying to finish his own important research. I can say without reservation that this project would not have been possible without his love and support. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................v CHAPTER One Introduction ...................................................................................................1 Oral Poetry and Persuasion ...........................................................................8 Persuasion as Sexual Interaction .................................................................19 Masculinity..................................................................................................36 Femininity in Persuasion.............................................................................41 Kosmos........................................................................................................48 Summary of Project.....................................................................................60 Two Gender, Techne, and the Sexuality of Ekphrasis in the Iliad ......................63 Masculine Sexual Power in the Iliad...........................................................74 Weaving and Sexual Union.........................................................................85 Hephaistos and Daidala...............................................................................97 Achilles’ Shield as Cosmic Body..............................................................106 Hephaistos’ Other Products as Feminine Constructions ...........................121 Achilles’ Shield as Feminine Body...........................................................135 The Circular Form: Shield, Dance, Bed, and Body..................................144 The Importance of Daidalos, Ariadne, and Knossos.................................158 Achilles’ Shield as Kosmos of Ritual........................................................179 viii Seeing the Shield.......................................................................................217 Conclusion.................................................................................................232 Three Poetic Cosmogony and the Feminine Body of Ekphrasis in Hesiod’s Theogony ...................................................................................................237 Sexual Fluids in Hesiod’s Cosmogony .....................................................243 The Figure of Zeus ....................................................................................252 The Erotics of Inspiration..........................................................................268 Pandora as Seductive Micro-Kosmos and Commentary on Ekphrasis......287 Conclusion.................................................................................................321 Four Purpureae Notae: The Transformation of Epic Ekphrasis in Ovid’s Metamorphoses .........................................................................................324 Minerva and Arachne ................................................................................339 Tereus, Procne, and Philomela..................................................................365 The Metamorphoses as Expanded Ekphrasis ............................................392 Purpureae Notae ........................................................................................418 Pygmalion..................................................................................................430 Ovid’s Own Commentary on the Metamorphoses in Tristia 1.7 ..............434 Ekphrasis and Exile...................................................................................437 Conclusion.................................................................................................456 Five Conclusion.................................................................................................460 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................464 APPENDIX......................................................................................................................495 One Minoan Religion........................................................................................495 1 Chapter One: Introduction The fifth-century C.E. Alexandrian lexicographer Hesychius defines the Greek term “ἔκφρaσιϛ” with the word “ἐπιθυμία,” which means “sexual desire” or “erotic longing.”1 At first, his definition seems rather oddly eroticized; ekphrasis, after all, is a literary representation of art or artifact. It is a technique which begins with the Homeric description of Achilles’ shield in Book Eighteen of the Iliad and continues thereafter as a convention of poetry, especially of epic poetry. In its most basic sense, ekphrasis is the 1 Hesychius, Lexicon. I have used the nineteenth-century edition of Hesychius by Moriz Wilhelm Constantin Schmidt (1858-1868). Liddell and Scott also offer “ἐπιθυμία” for Hesychius’ definition, following this early edition. Several months after writing the first draft of this introduction, I happened to look at Hesychius’ lexicon on the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) website, www.tlg.uci.edu, and was surprised to find “ἐπιμυθία” instead “ἐπιθυμία.” The