Baring the breast in Homer and Attic tragedy : death, dunning and display
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Authors
Martin, Catherine Ellen
Issue Date
2015-12
Type
Dissertation
Language
en
Keywords
Homer , Aeschylus , Euripides , Women in antiquity , Supplication , Breast-baring , Mother-child relationships , Mourning
Alternative Title
Abstract
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.
Description
Citation
Martin, Catherine Ellen (2015) Baring the breast in Homer and Attic tragedy : death, dunning and display, University of South Africa, Pretoria, <http://hdl.handle.net/10500/21711>