Bibliography Barrett, W. S. 1964. Euripides’ Hippolytos. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Betts, J. H. 1977. Review of Corpus der Minoischen und Mykenischen Siegel, Journal of Hellenic Studies 97:228-229. Black, Max. 1962. Models and Metaphors: Studies in Language and Philosophy. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. Blundell, Sue. 1998. “Marriage and the Maiden: Narratives on the Parthenon,”… Read more
Conclusion Many of the concerns associated with illegitimacy cut across the narratives we have examined. The connection between legitimacy and reining in female desire is present not only in Euripides’ portrayal of Phaedra but also in the narratives about Danaë. [1] Both narratives in turn imply an ideology of marriage as a cultural control of the “natural” desires of women. As we… Read more
Chapter 4. Euripides’ Hippolytos Many of the metaphors of illegitimacy we have already seen, along with the social forces and structures that inform them, come together in Euripides’ Hippolytos, a drama that confronts in turn a woman’s sexual desire and a young man’s transition to adulthood. But Hippolytos is not any young man, for his father is one of the primary heroes and “forefathers” of the fifth-century… Read more
Chapter 3. Images of Fertility and Sterility Teucer’s emerging role in Euripides’ Helen (examined in the last chapter) as the founder of New Salamis on Cyprus is an example of the way in which narratives can provide a legitimization process within themselves. Teucer, rejected by his father, leaves behind a place and a life in which he is illegitimate. As the founder of a city, however, he… Read more
Chapter 2. Teucer, the Bastard Archer Teucer is well known as a nothos in classical Greek literature, and he appears in a number of narratives, including the Iliad, Sophocles’ Ajax, and Euripides’ Helen. As a result of his frequent appearance in the ancient sources, there are multiple metaphorical associations connected to Teucer as a nothos. His case is also particular in that he is defined above all… Read more
Chapter 1. Where the Girls Are: Parthenioi and Skotioi Marriage and legitimacy are inseparably linked in ancient Greek thought. Not only is the legitimacy of children determined by the marital status of their parents, but marriage is defined in terms of legitimate children. [1] The often quoted line from Menander’s Perikeiromene Ταύτην γνησίων παίδων ἐπ’ ἀρότῳ σοι δίδωμι ‘I give you this… Read more
Introduction. Metaphors of Illegitimacy On a billboard advertisement for a DNA paternity testing service, the selling line is “because you want to know beyond a shadow of a doubt.” [1] Doubt over the child’s parentage casts a metaphorical shadow, one that may be imagined to cover the child himself or herself. The image exploits anxieties about proving paternity that remain even in… Read more
Acknowledgments For my parents, for all they made possible, and for Mark, for living through it with me. This book began as a doctoral dissertation for the Ph.D. in Classical Philology at Harvard University. I most gratefully acknowledge the help and encouragement of my readers for that dissertation: Gloria Ferrari Pinney, who gave me a new eye for metaphor and whose work continues to… Read more
Foreword Building on the foundations of scholarship within the disciplines of philology, philosophy, history, and archaeology, this series concerns not just the archaic and classical periods of Greek traditions but the whole continuum—along with all the discontinuities—from the second millennium B.C.E. to the present. The aim is to enhance perspectives by applying various disciplines to problems that have in the past been treated as the exclusive concern… Read more
Introduction. Metaphors of Illegitimacy On a billboard advertisement for a DNA paternity testing service, the selling line is “because you want to know beyond a shadow of a doubt.” [1] Doubt over the child’s parentage casts a metaphorical shadow, one that may be imagined to cover the child himself or herself. The image exploits anxieties about proving paternity that remain even in… Read more
