The maids’ anthropology lecture can be seen as the one of the most subversive readings of the tale of Homer’s Odyssey. The maids offer a theory that completely undermines both the canonical and Penelope’s versions of the tale. Although this theory may seem far-fetched, I’ve come across some evidence that may suggest the feasibility of it after all.
Today, I was in my classics lecture looking at Greek pottery, when my professor said something that made my brain go, “ding ding ding!”. Very rarely does that kind of epiphany hit me, and so immediately, I began thinking about the possible implications it may have on my understanding of both The Odyssey and The Penelopiad.
Other than orally, the stories of famous heroes (such as Odysseus or Perseus) are passed on from one generation to the next through visual mediums. As such, these stories are often painted onto friezes or amphoras (containers that resemble large vases). What is particularly interesting however, is the painting of battle scenes onto them. Amphoras often depict Odysseus battling Scylla and Charbydis or Perseus slaying the Gorgon, Medusa. The point of this observation is that many of these mythical monsters had female characteristics attached to them even when the myths did not specify what gender they were. This motif is echoes in other mythological tales, such as Heracles’s Hydra or Oedipus’ Sphinx.
I imagine the maids would ask, “what can we discern from this trend?” The trend supports the idea of males defeating females, and possibly a patriarchal society overthrowing a matriarchal one. Moreover, it has been suggested by scholars that the depiction of young heroes slaying feminine characters acts as a symbolic representation of the coming-of-age of boys. A child’s life is a woman’s domain, as mothers rear children. But as boys reach maturity, they must leave their mothers’ realm and enter manhood. Telemachus’s slaying of the maids may symbolise this transition. Though this does not necessarily implicate the idea of a overthrown matriarchal society, in my opinion, it does reinforce the feasibility of the maids’ theory.
Perhaps the maid’s theory is complete “feminist claptrap”, perhaps it not. It is up to you, the reader, to decide which version of the tale you like. After all, the maids ask us to consider them as no more than”pure symbol”.
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The maids’ anthropology lecture can be seen as the one of the most subversive readings of the tale of Homer’s Odyssey. The maids offer a theory that completely undermines both the canonical and Penelope’s versions of the tale. Although this theory may seem far-fetched, I’ve come across some evidence that may suggest the feasibility of it after all.
Today, I was in my classics lecture looking at Greek pottery, when my professor said something that made my brain go, “ding ding ding!”. Very rarely does that kind of epiphany hit me, and so immediately, I began thinking about the possible implications it may have on my understanding of both The Odyssey and The Penelopiad.
Other than orally, the stories of famous heroes (such as Odysseus or Perseus) are passed on from one generation to the next through visual mediums. As such, these stories are often painted onto friezes or amphoras (containers that resemble large vases). What is particularly interesting however, is the painting of battle scenes onto them. Amphoras often depict Odysseus battling Scylla and Charbydis or Perseus slaying the Gorgon, Medusa. The point of this observation is that many of these mythical monsters had female characteristics attached to them even when the myths did not specify what gender they were. This motif is echoes in other mythological tales, such as Heracles’s Hydra or Oedipus’ Sphinx.
I imagine the maids would ask, “what can we discern from this trend?” The trend supports the idea of males defeating females, and possibly a patriarchal society overthrowing a matriarchal one. Moreover, it has been suggested by scholars that the depiction of young heroes slaying feminine characters acts as a symbolic representation of the coming-of-age of boys. A child’s life is a woman’s domain, as mothers rear children. But as boys reach maturity, they must leave their mothers’ realm and enter manhood. Telemachus’s slaying of the maids may symbolise this transition. Though this does not necessarily implicate the idea of a overthrown matriarchal society, in my opinion, it does reinforce the feasibility of the maids’ theory.
Perhaps the maid’s theory is complete “feminist claptrap”, perhaps it not. It is up to you, the reader, to decide which version of the tale you like. After all, the maids ask us to consider them as no more than”pure symbol”.
Continue reading →
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As you have already detected, I regard the formulaic approach to writing with deep suspicion and would invite you to break free of most of the constraining “dos and don’ts” you may have heard in the past. It’s simply not … Continue reading →
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As you have already detected, I regard the formulaic approach to writing with deep suspicion and would invite you to break free of most of the constraining “dos and don’ts” you may have heard in the past. It’s simply not … Continue reading →
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The Book of Genesis is nothing new to me.The stories contained within it have been told to me for as long as I can remember, first as a preschooler in Sunday School. and later throughout 13 years of Catholic education. … Continue reading → Continue reading →
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Soren Kiekergaard’s Fear and Trembling instills a sense of curiosity and confusion in me. I find most readers share this opinion, …
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“Myths are made for the imagination to breathe life into them” (Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, 490) This week, I revisited Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling for Arts One. This text is one that has, in many ways, haunted me … Continue reading → Continue reading →
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Today I got the e-mail from Gayle Murphy talking about the first day of the BFA on September 2nd and it really brought home the fact that in a weeks time I will be returning to UBC to begin my … Continue reading → Continue reading →
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Thomas Paine is a curious character, whose legacy is hard to assess. But perhaps this is why it is all the more important to (re)read him. His difficulties, ambiguities, and ambivalences, in the midst of the eighteenth-century “Age of Revolutions,” … Continue reading → Continue reading →
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Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey pulls off the difficult feat of being both relentlessly self-reflexive and (on the whole) a genuinely enjoyable read. It is, after all, a commentary on the writing and reading of novels, and more specifically on the … Continue reading → Continue reading →
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