Sex in Antiquity by Masterson Mark; Rabinowitz Nancy Sorkin; Robson James

Author:Masterson, Mark; Rabinowitz, Nancy Sorkin; Robson, James
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1883824
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Taking the day of freedom away from women and girls

In the Iliad and Odyssey, the overriding emphasis of populace-ravaging warfare is on the forcible seizing of “women” alive, that is, “womenfolk” in the traditional sense of female persons as their own quasi-race or human species (the γένος γυναικῶν or the φῦλον or φῦλα γυναικῶν), which includes preadolescent girls.35 As Achilles states in the Iliad, when he along with his fellow marauders set out on their war raids (διαπορθήσας, see Il. 2.691), they killed adult males in town after town by the sea and inland (9.325–9), 23 towns in total, not yet counting Troy, in order to take the “day of freedom away (ἐλεύθερον ἦμαρ)” from “women taken as plunder (ληἵάδας γυναῖκας)” by hauling them into captivity.36 The Trojan and allied men trying to defend their communities and settlements from ravaging aggression likewise grasp that the driving motive of the Achaean aggression is to abduct and dominate the womenfolk from the communities once their menfolk are overthrown. Hector, for instance, declares to Diomedes, “You will never take away our women (γυναῖκας) in your ships.”37

In the Iliad, in the walled camp of the Achaeans and their allies, the ravaged and abducted womenfolk include two pubescent κοῦραι roughly about the age of Nausicaa. The first is Chryseis, who is likely still virginal when Agamemnon first rapes her and tries to keep her for himself, for virgins are a choice prize for the main overlord or for his elite male beneficiaries (e.g., Polyb. 10.19.3–7, Joseph. Vit. 414). Another likely indicator of Chryseis’ young age is that her father Chryses is the one determined to get her back, and no mention is made of any husband of Chryseis who has been killed. To kill a husband and turn a young wife into an enslaved widow are martial aggressor points to brag about, as noted, for instance, in the future in store for the widowed and enslaved Andromache, who will be taunted and caused fresh pain (νέον ἄλγος) in captivity by being called Hector’s (former) wife, Ἓκτορος ἧδε γυνή (Il. 6.460–3). Nothing of this sort is said about Chryseis. The second κούρη is the hitherto young wife, Briseis, who is turned into a brotherless, fatherless, and husbandless widow by Achilles and his forces before Achilles wins her sexually as his war prize (Il. 19.291–300) and tries to keep her for himself.38 On the historical record, Scipio Africanus supposedly refused his beautiful virgin war prize and gave her back to her father (Polyb. 10.19.3–7), or to her Celtiberian fiancé Allucius (Livy 26.50.1–14); yet Valerius Antias disbelieves the account about Scipio’s refusal, seeing it as a case of historical revisionism.39 He instead maintains that the virgin was kept and used by Scipio “for his pleasures and passions” (in deliciis amoribusque, Aul. Gell. 7.8.6), just as is done in the Iliad.

There are additional ravaged and abducted womenfolk (γυναῖκες) in the Iliad who are likewise allocated as the property of a single warrior, such as the γυνή Diomede, daughter of

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