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Why do these mythic women kill? Are there any common patterns of motivation?

Do the victims have anything in common?

Are these women depicted as ‘monsters’, and if so what makes them monstrous?

Is sympathy for the murderer (and/or their motives) created in these versions of the myths?

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What might these myths have meant to the Roman reader, and what do they mean to us today?

Is it possible to read these myths and ‘ignore’ the sexual violence as a narrative strategy or as simply more acceptable in antiquity?

What power dynamics are created between the protagonists in these tales?

Does Ovid’s retelling of these myths dwell on the lurid and disturbing details?

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• Who are the criminals in these myths, and who are the victims?
• What are the impulses which lead to crime/offence and how are they generated?
• Do the particular forms of metamorphosis tell us anything about the crime and its
consequences?
• Can metamorphosis ever be positive?
• How do the metamorphoses in these myths differ, and how might those differences
be explained?
• To what extent is Ovid’s Metamorphoses Greek myths translated into Latin; and to
what extent have they been revised in line with their new Roman context?

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- Were the leaders of classical mythology simply a reflection of real socio-political hierarchies?

- Were textual and visual representations of mythological leadership targeted at particular audiences?

- How did alignment with a mythological figure respond to or transcend ‘real world’ issues of race, gender, and identity?

- How and why was mythology used for propaganda and opposition in the classical world?

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• What threat do different monsters seem to represent, and is there significance in how they are defeated?
• What use is made of animals in myth? Are they enemies to man, symbols of the human condition, manifestations of the “other”?
• What are the characteristics of certain animals that make them particularly useful in myth?
• What do Palaephatus’ (often odd) rationalizations contribute to our understanding of animals in classical mythology?

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Agamemnon and Clytemnestra

Danaius and the Danaids

Medea and Jason

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Murder in mythology is often to do with the killing of ones family members.
The week covered:
1. The motives of murderers - how women differ from men (vengeance vs. pride)
2. The methods and weapon of murder - knives, poison, cursing, ripping apart etc.
3. Place and opportunity for the crime

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Primary:

Agamemnon and Clytemnestra:
Aeschylus, ‘Agamemnon’ from The Oresteian Trilogy, trans. P. Vellacott (Harmondsworth, 1956) 1343-1576

Medea:
Euripides, Medea, trans. R. Blondell (New York, 1999)

Daniads
Ovid, Heroides, trans ? (Searching)

Secondary:
Foley, H. P. Female Acts in Greek tragedy (Princeton, 2009), 201-41

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Murder
Main Themes:
- Violence
- Family
- Vengeance

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Various definitions of 🤬: stuprum v. rapta

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Daphne/Apollo, Proserpine/Pluto, Philomela/Tereus/Procne, Sabines, Achilles/Deidamia, Callisto/Zeus, Syrinx/Pan, Cassandra/Ajax, Io/Zeus, Europa/Zeus, Creusa/Apollo

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🤬 is common in Greek and Roman myths,  taking various forms such as foundation myths, aetiologies, and the birth of heroes. 🤬 can mean either our modern-day conceptualization of sexual violence or abduction/marriage. In myths, both women and men are characterized as rapists, and false accusations of 🤬 where women accuse men also occur. In various myths, the rapist/victim experience metamorphosis after the 🤬, transforming into another form - this can represent a loss of humanity, aetiology, and/or a new chance at life.

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Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans. M. Innes (London, 1995).
Forbes Irving, P. M. C. ‘Birds’, in Metamorphosis in Greek Myths (Oxford, 1990), 96- 127.
Richlin, A. ‘Reading Ovid’s Rapes’ in A. Richlin (ed.) 🤬 and Representation in Greece and Rome (Oxford, 1992), 158-79.

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🤬
and Birds/metamorphosis

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Niobe
Actaeon
Arachne
Tereus
Procne
Philomela

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Brings about ideas of metamorphosis as a transformative narrative tool, a vehicle for creation and a form of punishment or vindication.

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Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans. M. Innes (London, 1995).

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Metamorphosis

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This week included a secondary text looking at a depiction of Cleopatra in Pompeii (wall painting)

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Aeneas, Dido and Venus
Penelope and Athena
Commodus, Tiberius, Cleopatra

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Question how leaders are represented, criticised, and praised through mythological narrative and allusion in textual and visual culture.
How could mythology be used by (and against) those in positions of power, and what these uses reveal about the role mythology plays in the formation of social identity

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Virgil, Aeneid, 1.372-452 (Aeneas, Venus and Dido)
Homer, Odyssey, book 18 (Penelope and Athena)
Historia Augusta – Commodus 8-12
Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars – Tiberius 50-51
Walker, S. “Cleopatra in Pompeii?” Papers of the British School at Rome 76 (2008): 35- 46 and 345-348.

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Leaders

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Humans as monstrous (can make conscious evil decisions)

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Minotaur
Chimaera
Medusa
Pegasus
Scylla
Centaurs
Cerberus
Heroes (Heracles, Theseus, Bellerophon, Perseus, etc.)

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Monsters and animals
- monsters as monsters
- monsters as opposition to/device for hero
- monsters and animals as fable devices
- animals as companions

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Monsters typically serve as devices to emphasise the prowess of a hero. Their monstrosity is typically due more to their opposition to the hero protagonist than their evil nature. Typically the death of a monster corresponds to the birth of a hero. Monsters can also reflect the values of heroes (transgressive, violent, can have morality)

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Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, trans. Oldfather, C. H. (Cambridge, M.A., 1935).

Lattimore, R., The Odyssey of Homer (New York, 1967).

Posthumus, L., Ch. 5: ‘Agents of transformation: the function of hybrid monsters’, Hybrid monsters in the Classical World: the nature and function of hybrid monsters in Greek mythology, literature and art, Thesis (MPhil (Ancient Studies))—University of Stellenbosch, 2011, accessed September 23, 2013 http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/6865