Browsing by Author "Martin, Amy"

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    Never simply nudity
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Martin, Amy; Masters, Samantha; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Ancient Studies.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Recent studies regarding the motif of the nude female figure on Athenian red-figure vases of the 5th century BCE have caused much controversy among contemporary scholars. Whereas the nude male figure on Athenian vases is generally perceived by scholars as representative of heroic, ritualistic or civic nudity, the female form’s nude state remains ambiguous in comparison. In an attempt to uncover the cultural significance behind the appearance of the nude female figure on Athenian vases, multiple scholars have suggested that her utterly exposed state must surely have been indicative of a ‘disreputable’ status, especially that of the hetaira. However, this interpretation is problematic as it ultimately restricts the possible function(s) of the nude female figure to being primarily erotic in nature. Consequently, it can be argued that the full context of these vase images is not always taken into consideration when scholars discuss the connotations of the nude female form in Athenian vase-painting. The aim of this thesis is therefore to explore the broad meanings associated with the nude female figure in Greek antiquity, as well as the specific connotations assigned to the nude female form in Athenian vase-painting. Finally, this thesis endeavours to re-analyse a selection of these nude female figures to investigate whether additional functions to that of eroticism could be attributed to them. To meet this goal, this study utilised the research of various scholars who provided controversial and diverse discussions and interpretations on the motif of the nude female figure on Classical Greek vases. A general framework of function and meaning could then be constructed to aid in this investigation. Next, 649 images of nude female figures on ancient vases were briefly analysed in the online Beazley Archive under the category ‘naked’. It was established that, after the initial survey, five main categories of the function of the nude female figure emerged: religion and ritual, apotropaism, violence and vulnerability, eroticism and pornography, as well as female agency. Fifteen images were selected from the online Beazley Archive, three from each of the aforementioned five functions, as the core corpus, based on prevailing interpretations of these images that have been the most extensively discussed among scholars. To read these fifteen vase images, an iconographical analysis was chosen as a rigorous approach to viewing and interpreting the motif of the nude female form. This approach further aided in the re-analysis of these nude female bodies so as to place them in their appropriate categories of function. It was found that there is indeed a propensity for oversimplifying the cultural significance of the nude female form on Athenian vases by mainly eroticising her due to her lack of clothing. As a result, many of these nude women in ancient Athenian vase-painting are removed from their cultural contexts and their multiple functions in society disregarded or misconstrued. In conclusion, then, the nude female form on Athenian vases does not guarantee an erotic or pornographic setting and, as such, it cannot be said that her nude state discloses a ‘disreputable’ status.
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    Poetess on the periphery? revisiting the question of a female poetic tradition in hellenistic poetry
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-12) Martin, Amy; Bosman, Philippus Rudolph, 1964-; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Ancient Studies.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study presents a renewed consideration of an assumed female poetic tradition in ancient Greek literature by analysing selected epigrams attributed to female poets from the Hellenistic era. This autonomous poetic heritage – presumably initiated by Sappho in the archaic period – is defined as a tradition of literary influence between women writers and their female forebears, all of whom focused collectively, and exclusively, on feminine values, concerns, and experiences. To argue for the existence of such an inherent women’s language and literature, scholars have applied the following criteria: i. poetic mode (i.e., an originally oral-based poetic tradition), ii. marginality (i.e., poetry performed on the periphery of mainstream society), iii. female-only audiences or readerships, iv. feminine themes (e.g., children, animals, and nature), and v. feminine genres (e.g., lyrics and lamentation). This study proposes that a further criterium needs to be applied to the material, namely that of allusion, that would allow us to trace poetic references in women’s texts to their original source. For the purposes of this investigation, three forms of allusion are distinguished: (a) imitatio, (b) aemulatio, and (c) generic allusion. Imitatio is when an author selects features from an earlier text and simply redeploys them, whereas aemulatio refers to instances when the earlier text is not only copied but altered in some way to demonstrate the author’s innovation. Generic allusion is applied more broadly, in the form of shared themes, metres, dialects, or dictions associated not to a specific text, but to a specific (sub)genre. The main body of this study consists of the detailed analysis of select epigrams by the Hellenistic poets Erinna, Moero, Anyte, and Nossis (350-280 BC), preserved in the Greek Anthology. The treated poems are, in the cases of Anyte and Nossis, the only extant texts from the poets, and barely any of Erinna’s and Moero’s poetry has survived outside of this genre (and book), but for a few fragmented and decontextualised snippets. These female poets were thus primarily selected for the era (and genre) in which they composed (i.e., ‘Era of the Book’) as this period saw an increase in the preservation of women’s poetry in the form of epigrammatic collections. In terms of the various categories of allusion, this study finds that women poets more regularly alluded to the themes, motifs, genres, and dictions attributed to the public poetic tradition than they tended to allude to their female poetic predecessors, albeit sometimes in a way that reworked conventional poetic structures to bring about a subtle feminine perspective. The public nature of the epigram genre also suggests that female poets had a public, erudite readership in mind, especially since such a wider audience would better ensure the survival of their works. Male poets’ frequent allusion to these female poets’ works further speaks to the accessibility and renown of their poetry, and to their important innovations within the wider allusive networks of ancient Greece’s literary past.