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Epic Women

Epic Women. Over her dead body: Rhea Silvia, Dido and the city of Rome. The Power of Dead and Dying Women. Why are dead and dying women so powerful? Lucretia – established the Republic

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Epic Women

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  1. Epic Women Over her dead body: Rhea Silvia, Dido and the city of Rome

  2. The Power of Dead and Dying Women • Why are dead and dying women so powerful? • Lucretia – established the Republic • Verginia – her father kills her so she won’t be sexually assaulted by a political rebellion/order restored to Republic • Sabine women – narrow escape from death

  3. The Story of Rhea Silvia or Ilia • Paradigm for how Romans view gender relations • Sex and violence intersect in the female body • Death of the violated female has positive benefits for male community

  4. The Dream of the Vestal • In Ennius’ version, Rhea Silvia is dragged along a riverbank by a beautiful stranger • Disoriented, she calls out and is comforted by her father • “for an attractive male seemed to drag me unwilling through charming willow trees, riverbanks and unknown places”

  5. She loses her body in the dream • Her body lacks strength • She is unsure of her footing • She can’t see her father, only hear him • Her hands and tears have no effect

  6. The men in the tale have no lasting physical presence • Her father is only a disembodied voice • Her divine attacker, Mars, vanishes quickly • Even the path Rhea Silvia wanders shows no signs of the presence of others

  7. What happens to Rhea Silvia? • After giving birth, she is thrown into a river and married to the king of the river • In other words, she meets her death by drowning • Death as marriage theme • Her death assures the life of her sons, as their mother is part of the ground they will found the city on.

  8. What does this story mean? • Her death is the equivalent of a foundation sacrifice • The Romans had a tradition that the city’s success would only be assured by a human sacrifice • Site of Rome is at once maternal • Ilia begins the sequence of women raped and killed in the course of forming Rome’s political future. Female sexuality is “rewarded” with death

  9. Rhea Silvia’s legacy • The cycle will continue with Romulus’ rape of the Sabine women • Both the Sabine women and the city are sites to be owned and defined by the male political figure

  10. The other founding myth of Rome • Aeneas comes to Italy from Troy to found a new city • He meets queen Dido of Carthage • They fall in love . . . But she has sworn a vow of chastity to her dead husband Sychaeus

  11. Dido’s Sexual Transgression • “But scared and shaking from her huge undertakings, rolling her bloodshot eyes, her trembling cheeks covered with spots and pallid with death imminent, Dido . . . ascended the high pyre in a mad state and unsheathed the Dardan’s sword.”

  12. The Queen Must Die • Her red and white color is symbolic of initiation into sexual acts • She must die for her act and also so Aeneas can go on to found Rome • Her political activity as queen of Carthage is not compatible with Roman political order

  13. Alison Keith on Roman Women in Epic • The sight of a gorgeous woman who is dead is the impetus for Roman political order. • Female death is made into a sexual topic in Latin Epic • Men in epic often die quickly, but women are put through more lingering and painful deaths.

  14. What life in the Republic was really like for women. . . • Manus = “by the hand” • The alternative = three nights in her father’s home • By the end of the Republic, the manus wedding falls out of fashion

  15. death penalty for drinking or adultery • Drinking was for male religious ceremonies, not women’s pleasure • Poisoning the husband’s children or making duplicate keys to the house • Divorce for other grounds meant the woman got one-half of his property

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