Saturday, November 21, 2009

Rape Culture in Ancient Greek and Roman Literature

Pandion was a king of Athens who had two daughters, Prokne and Philomela, one of whom was the wife of Tereus, while the other was raped by Tereus, who cut out her tongue so she could not tell.  Silenced, she wove a cloth to reveal her sad story, which her sister read and, to punish Tereus, killed their only child (Itys).  Both girls were turned into birds, one into a swallow and one into a nightingale, according to Ovid whose version does not make clear which is which (Metamorphoses 6.412-674).  There are other ancient versions of this myth, including one where the killing of Itys is inadvertent:  cf. Homer Odyssey 19.518-29 and Sappho fr. 136....

Aristotle describes the nightingale as having no tip on its tongue (Historia animalim 616b8)....

-- Anne Carson, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho, page 376

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