Female clothing, female speech

The expression of femininity and effeminacy in Aristophanes’ women’s comedies

Lecture by Mark Janse, Emeritus Research Professor in Ancient & Asia Minor Greek, Ghent University.

Abstract

In my talk, I discuss the distinctive features of female clothing and female speech in Classical Athens based on their representation in the three women’s comedies by Aristophanes – a male playwright writing for male actors and a probably predominantly male audience. Not surprisingly, Athenian women not only dressed differently from Athenian men, but they also spoke differently. Whereas Lysistrata provides informal data about female clothing, female make-up and female speech from the perspective of Athenian women, the other comedies offer fascinating insights into these matters from two opposing perspectives. In Ecclesiazusae, the women swipe their husbands’ clothes and practice (more or less successfully)male speech to attend the men-only Assembly undetected. In Thesmophoriazusae, Euripides’ anonymous Kinsman borrows the effeminate tragic playwright Agathon’s clothes and practices (more or less successfully) female speech to infiltrate the women-only Thesmophoria festival undetected. Agathon wears the distinctively feminine krokotos used by the women in Lysistrata to seduce their husbands, but is also associated with Dionysus, who is called an “effeminate stranger” by Pentheus in Euripides’ Bacchae. I present a material and iconographical analysis of typically female garments and a (socio)linguistic analysis of the identifiable features of female speech, with a little excursion into Aristophanes’ obscene wordplay on particular textiles.

CTR meetings and lectures Autumn 2024

Every other Wednesday at CTR, we have administrative meetings running through the semester, followed by a scientific presentation, either by a CTR member or an invited scholar. We kindly invite everyone interested to join these lectures.

Lecture, ca. 14:00-14:45

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Meeting 15:00-16:00

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