The genre of the epigram is a privileged field of investigation for the study of women's voices in the Hellenistic poetry. It is in this period that for the first time women have the opportunity to express their subjectivity through poetry, because of the different way literature was enjoyed, characterized by a shift from performance to reading; and it is right in the epigrammatic genre that all the female poets of the early Hellenistic period (Erinna, Anyte and Nossis) are engaged. Making their voices heard, they contributed to the passage from anonymity typical of inscribed epigram to the new literary character of the genre (cf. McIntosh Snyder, Gutzwiller, Stehle, Murray-Rowland). Apart from this aspect, which has been sufficiently investigated, it seems interesting to try to examine the way in which the female voice (even understood as a song and / or performance) is characterized in the epigrams of epigraphic and literary tradition, anonymous or by male authors. Next to a predominance of epigrams celebrating a female areté based on Penelope’s model, related to the reproductive function of the woman and the care for family and domestic goods, it stands a fair number of texts, especially funeral, aimed at honouring the artistic qualities of women engaged in the domain of the Muses, devoted to poetry, drama and music, which seem for the first time in this period become prominent, especially in the eastern insular and micro-Asiatic Greek world (cf. Pomeroy, Pircher, Vérilhac, Ferrandini Troisi); but even where the praise regards more traditional activities, such as weaving, it is possible to trace references to singing and telling myths connected to women’s every day labor, as in Callimachus’ epigram 37 Gow-Page; Posidippus’ epigrams VII 24-29, VIII 7-12, IX 1-6 B.G.; GVI 474 (Bremmer, Karanika). The paper, therefore, will examine the ways of expression of the female voice described in Hellenistic epigrams, with particular attention to the analysis of the vocabulary used in the narrative of female singing.
The song and the loom. Women’s voices in hellenistic epigrams / Cannavale, Serena. - (2017). (Intervento presentato al convegno Femininity in Hellenistic Arts: Voice, Gender and Representations tenutosi a Lyon nel 09.09.2017).
The song and the loom. Women’s voices in hellenistic epigrams
Cannavale Serena
2017
Abstract
The genre of the epigram is a privileged field of investigation for the study of women's voices in the Hellenistic poetry. It is in this period that for the first time women have the opportunity to express their subjectivity through poetry, because of the different way literature was enjoyed, characterized by a shift from performance to reading; and it is right in the epigrammatic genre that all the female poets of the early Hellenistic period (Erinna, Anyte and Nossis) are engaged. Making their voices heard, they contributed to the passage from anonymity typical of inscribed epigram to the new literary character of the genre (cf. McIntosh Snyder, Gutzwiller, Stehle, Murray-Rowland). Apart from this aspect, which has been sufficiently investigated, it seems interesting to try to examine the way in which the female voice (even understood as a song and / or performance) is characterized in the epigrams of epigraphic and literary tradition, anonymous or by male authors. Next to a predominance of epigrams celebrating a female areté based on Penelope’s model, related to the reproductive function of the woman and the care for family and domestic goods, it stands a fair number of texts, especially funeral, aimed at honouring the artistic qualities of women engaged in the domain of the Muses, devoted to poetry, drama and music, which seem for the first time in this period become prominent, especially in the eastern insular and micro-Asiatic Greek world (cf. Pomeroy, Pircher, Vérilhac, Ferrandini Troisi); but even where the praise regards more traditional activities, such as weaving, it is possible to trace references to singing and telling myths connected to women’s every day labor, as in Callimachus’ epigram 37 Gow-Page; Posidippus’ epigrams VII 24-29, VIII 7-12, IX 1-6 B.G.; GVI 474 (Bremmer, Karanika). The paper, therefore, will examine the ways of expression of the female voice described in Hellenistic epigrams, with particular attention to the analysis of the vocabulary used in the narrative of female singing.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
