Pandora as a Beautiful Woman and a Object of Desire
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12797/CC.25.2022.25.03Keywords:
sexuality, gender construction, female beauty, body-modification, Greek cultureAbstract
The following paper discusses the way in which female beauty was conceived of in ancient Greek culture, especially in the Hesiodic description of the creation of Pandora. As I argue, some of the aspects of this creature that, according to some feminist academic writers, might have resulted from an unsympathetic perception of women, as a matter of fact, may be a part of a positively charged image of an ideal woman in Hesiodic epics. The alleged artificiality and superficiality of Pandora were most probably not meant to compromise her truthfulness or fertility, but instead were intended to attract males.
References
Barber E.W., 1994, Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Clothes, and Society in Early Times, New York – London.
Bonfante L., 1989, ‘Nudity as a Costume in Classical Art’, American Journal of Archaeology 93/4, pp. 543–570, https://doi.org/10.2307/505328. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/505328
Bonnet C., Pirenne-Delforge V., 2004, ‘“Cet obscur objet du désir”: La nudité féminine entre orient et Grèce’, Mélanges de l’école française de Rome 116/2, pp. 827–870, https://doi.org/10.3406/mefr.2004.9960. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/mefr.2004.9960
Canevaro L.G., 2015, Hesiod’s Works and Days: How to Teach Self-Sufficiency, Oxford, https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198729549.001.0001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198729549.001.0001
Cantarella E., 1987, Pandora’s Daughters: The Role and Status of Women in Greek and Roman Antiquity, Baltimore – London.
Casanova A., 1979, La famiglia di Pandora. Analisi filologica dei miti di Pandora e Prometeo nella tradizione esiodea, Firenze.
Clay J.S., 2003, Hesiod’s Cosmos, Cambridge, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511482397. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511482397
Cohen D., 1991, Law, Sexuality, and Society: The Enforcement of Morals in Classical Athens, Cambrdge, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511597381. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511597381
Cohen E.E., 2015, Athenian Prostitution: The Business of Sex, New York, https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190275921.001.0001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190275921.001.0001
Davidson J.N., 1998, Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens, New York, http://doi.org/10.2307/3246239. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3246239
Davidson J.N., 2007, The Greeks and Greek Love, London.
Denyer N., 2008, Plato. Protagoras, Cambridge, http://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813023
Dover K.J., 1978, Greek Homosexuality, London.
Dowden K., 1989, Death and the Maiden: Girl’s Initiation Rites in Greek Mythology, London – New York.
Fink G., 1958, Pandora und Epimetheus. Mythologische Studien, Bonn.
Fögen T., 2009, ‘The Body in Antiquity: A Very Select Bibliography,’ [in:] Bodies and Boundaries in Greco-Roman Antiquity, Th. Fögen, M.M. Lee (eds), Berlin – New York, pp. 11–14, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110212532. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110212532
Foucault M., 1985, The Use of Pleasure, New York.
Fowler R., 1996, ‘How the Lysistrata works,’ Echos du monde classique: Classical views 15, pp. 245–249.
Friedrich P., 1978, The Meaning of Aphrodite, Chicago – London.
Frontisi-Ducroux F., 1991, Le dieu-masque: Une figure du Dionysos d’Athènes, Paris – Rome.
Gilchrist R., 1999, Gender and Archaeology: Contesting the Past, London – New York.
Gilmoure D.D., 2001, Misogyny: The Male Malady, Philadelphia, https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812200324. DOI: https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812200324
Goff B., 2004, Citizen Bacchae: Women’s Ritual Practice in Ancient Greece, Berkeley – Los Angeles – London, https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520239982.001.0001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520239982.001.0001
Graf F., 2003, ‘Initiation: A Concept with a Troubled History,’ [in:] Initiation in Ancient Greek Rituals and Narratives, D.B. Dodd, C.A. Faraone (eds), London – New York, pp. 3–24.
Halperin D.M., 1990, One Hundred Years of Homosexuality and Other Essays on Greek Love, New York – London, http://doi.org/10.4324/9780203430583. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203430583
Hamel D., 2003, Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan’s Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece, New Haven – London.
Harrison J.E., 1903, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, Cambridge, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511696770. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511696770
Hubbard Th.K., 1998, ‘Popular Perceptions of Elite Homosexuality in Classical Athens’, Arion 6/1, pp. 48–78.
Hunter R., 2014, Hesiodic Voices: Studies in Ancient Reception of Hesiod’s Works and Days, Cambridge, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107110816. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107110816
Hurwit J., 1995, ‘Beautiful Evil: Pandora and the Athena Parthenos’, American
Journal of Archaeology 99/2, pp. 171–186, https://doi.org/10.2307/506338. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/506338
Keuls E.C., 1985, The Reign of the Phallus. Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens, New York.
King H., 1998, Hippocrates’ Woman: Reading the Female Body in Ancient Greece, London – New York.
Laquer Th., 1990, Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud, Cambridge MA.
Leclerc M.C., 1993, La parole chez Hésiode. A la recherche de l’harmonie perdue, Paris.
Lee M.M. 2009, ‘Body-Modification in Classical Greece’, [in:] Bodies and Boundaries in Greco-Roman Antiquity, Th. Fögen, M.M. Lee (eds), Berlin – New York, pp. 155–180, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110212532.155. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110212532.155
Lee M.M., 2015, Body, Dress, and Identity in Ancient Greece, Cambridge, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107295261. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107295261
Lloyd-Jones H., 1975, Females of the Species: Semonides on Women, London.
Loraux N., 1978, ‘Sur la race des femmes et quelques-unes de ses tribus’, Arethusa 11, pp. 43–87.
Loraux N., 1995, The Experience of Tiresias: The Feminine and the Greek Man, Princeton, http://doi.org/10.1515/9781400864065. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400864065
Lyons D., 2012, Dangerous Gifts: Gender and Exchange in Ancient Greece, Austin, https://doi.org/10.7560/729674. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7560/729674
Musäus I., 2004, Der Pandoramythos bei Hesiod und seine Rezeption bis Erasmus von Rotterdam, Göttingen, http://doi.org/10.13109/9783666252501. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13109/9783666252501
Nevett L.C., 2010, Domestic Space in Classical Antiquity, Cambridge, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511780103. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511780103
Oppermann M., 1994, ‘Pandora’, Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae VII.1, pp. 163–166; VII.2, pp. 100–101.
Osborne R., 1994, ‘Looking On – Greek Style: Does the Sculpted Girl Speak to Women Too?’, [in:] Classical Greece: Ancient Histories and Modern Archaeologies, T. Morris (ed.), Cambridge, pp. 81–96.
Osborne R., 1998, ‘Men Without Clothes: Heroic Nakedness and Greek Art,’ [in:] Gender and the Body in the Ancient Mediterranean, M. Wyke (ed.), Oxford pp. 80–104.
Osborne R., 2011, The History Written on the Classical Greek Body, Cambridge, http://doi.org/10.1017/S0395264900009562. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0395264900009562
Patterson C., 1998, The Family in Greek History, Cambridge, Ma. – London.
Pellizer E., Tedeschi G., 1990, Semonides. Introduzione, testimonianze, testo critico, traduzione e commento, Roma.
Petropoulos J.C.B., 1994, Heat and Lust: Hesiod’s Midsummer Festival Scene Reconsidered, Lanham.
Pirenne-Delforge V., 2001, ‘Prairie d’Aphrodite et jardin de Pandore. Le «féminin » dans la Théogonie’, [in:] Κῆποι. De la religion à la philosophie. Mélanges offerts à André Motte, E. Delruelle, V. Pirenne-Delforge (eds), Liège (Kernos Supplément 11), pp. 263–299, https://doi.org/10.4000/books.pulg.9597. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/books.pulg.9597
Pomeroy S., 1975, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity, New York.
Prescendi F., 2009, ‘Prométhée fonde-t-il le sacrifice grec? En relisant Jean Rudhardt’, [in:] Antike Mythen. Konstruktionen, Transformationen, Medien. Festschrift für Fritz Graf, Ch. Walde, U. Dill (eds), Berlin, pp. 81–95.
Reuthner R., 2006, Wer webte Athenes Gewänder? Die Arbeit von Frauen im antiken Griechenland, Frankfurt – New York.
Robert C., 1914, ‘Pandora’, Hermes 49, pp. 17–38. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.1914.sp001688
Robertson N., 2004, ‘The Praxiergidae Decree (IG I³ 7) and the Dressing of Athena’s Statue with the Peplos,’ Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 44, pp. 111–161.
Rudhardt J., 1970, ‘Les mythes grecs relatifs à l’instauration du sacrifice: Les rôles corrélatifs de Prométhée et son fils Deucalion,’ Museum Helveticum, 27, pp. 1–15.
Rudhardt J., 1986, ‘Pandora: Hésiode et les femmes,’ Museum Helveticum, pp. 231–246.
Salomon N., 1997, ‘Making a World of Difference: Gender, Asymmetry, and the Greek Nude’, [in:] Naked Truths: Women, Sexuality, and Gender in Classical Art and Archaeology, A.O. Koloski-Ostrow, C.L. Lyons (eds), London – New York, pp. 197–219.
Schmitt Pantel P., 2009, Aithra et Pandora: Femmes, genre et cité dans la Grèce antique, Paris.
Stewart A., 1997, Art, Desire, and the Body in Ancient Greece, Cambridge – New York.
Thuillere J.P., 1988, ‘La nudité athletique (Grèce, Etrurie, Rome),’ Nikephoros 1, pp. 28–48.
Vergados A., 2013, The Homeric Hymn to Hermes: Introduction, Text and Commentary, Berlin – Boston, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110259704. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110259704
Vernant J.-P., 1979, ‘A la table des hommes. Mythe de fondation du sacrifice chez Hésiode’, [in:] La cuisine du sacrifice en pays grec, M. Detienne, J.-P. Vernant (eds), Paris, pp. 37–132, http://doi.org/10.2307/629900. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/629900
Vernant J.-P., 1980, Myth and Society in Ancient Greece, London.
Versnel H.S., 2011, Coping with Gods: Wayward Readings in Greek Theology, Leiden, https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004204904.i-594. Walcot P., 1966, Hesiod and the Near East, Cardiff. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004204904.i-594
Węcowski M., 2012, ‘Can Zeus Be Deceived? The Mekone Episode (Hes. theog. 535–561) between Theodicy and Power-Politics,’ Klio 94/1, pp. 45–54, https://doi.org/10.1524/klio.2012.0003. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1524/klio.2012.0003
West M.L., 1966, Hesiod: Theogony, Oxford.
West M.L., 1978, Hesiod: Works and Days, Oxford.
Wolkow B.M., 2007, ‘The Mind of Bitch: Pandora’s Motive and Intent in the Erga,’ Hermes 135/3, pp. 247–262, https://doi.org/10.25162/hermes-2007-0026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25162/hermes-2007-0026
Zeitlin F.I., 1996, ‘Signifying Difference: The Case of Hesiod’s Pandora’, [in:] F.I. Zeitlin, Playing the Other: Gender and Society in Classical Greek Literature, Chicago – London, pp. 53–86.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.