Electra Tyrannicide: Gender in the Reception of a Heroic Deliberation in Sophocles’ Tragedy

Authors

  • Agatha Bacelar

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249X_33_08

Keywords:

tyrannicide, Sophocles’ Electra, gender, citizenship, Athenian democracy

Abstract

At the third episode of Sophocles’ Electra, the heroine, believing that her brother Orestes is dead, invites her sister Chrisothemis to a plan to kill Aegisthus, in a speech that recalls fifth century Athenian’s public honors to the tyrannicide couple, Harmodius and Aristogiton, and thus presents the two sisters as a kind of democratic champions (v. 947-989). This paper compares the treatment given by contemporary Commentaries to Sophocles’ Electrato this speech with recent gender-oriented studies of Athenian citizenship, in order to argue that the idea of the ancient polisas a “man’s club” depends much more on a modern stereotype about Athenian politics than on the ancient evidence available to us –a stereotype that projects XIX century European conceptions of politics on the ancient context, and perpetuates backwards a supposedly universal masculine domination. In this light, Electra’s attitude, surely exceptional because of her equally exceptional situation, far from strikingly transgressing ancient gender-roles, points to the importance of female citizenship in democratic Athens.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

ANDRADE, M. M. (2011). O espaço funerário: comemorações privadas e exposição pública das mulheres em Atenas (séculos VI-IV a.C.). Revista Brasileira de História, v. 31, n. 61, p. 185-208.

AZOULAY, V. (2014). Les Tyrannicides d’Athènes. Vie et mort de deux statues. Paris, Seuil.

BOEHRINGER, S. (2005). Sexe, genre, sexualité: mode d’emploi (dans l’Antiquité). Kentron, v. 21, p. 89-90.

BLOK, J. (2017). Citizenship in Classical Athens. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

BROSE, R. (2007). Os fragmentos atenienses de Simônides. Dissertação de mestrado. Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas da USP, São Paulo.

DE JONG, I. (1987). The Voice of Anonymity: tis-Speeches in the Iliad. Eranos, v. 85, p. 69-84.

DUNN, F.; LOMIENTO, L; GENTILLI, B. (2019). Sofocle: Elettra. Introduzione e commento di Francis Dunn, testo critico a cura di Liana Lomiento, traduzione di Bruno Gentili. Milano, Fondazione Lorenzo Valla/ Mondadori.

EASTERLING, P. (1984). The Tragic Homer. Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, v. 31, p.1-8.

FINGLASS, P. (2007). Sophocles’ Electra. Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries v. 44. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

FOLEY, H. (2001). Female Acts in Greek Tragedy. Princeton, Princeton University Press.

HOMERO. (2018). Ilíada. Tradução de Christian Werner. São Paulo, Ubu/ SESI-SP.

JUFFRAS, D. (1991). Sophocles’ Electra 973-85 and Tyrannicide. Transactions of the American Philological Association, v. 121, p. 99-108.

KAMERBEEK, J. C. (1974). The Plays of Sophocles Commentaries. V: The Electra. Leiden, Brill.

LLOYD, J.; WILSON, N. G. (1992). Sophoclis fabulae. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

MACLEOD, L. (2001). Dolos and Dike in Sophokles’ Elektra. Leiden, Brill.

MARCH, J. (2001). Sophocles’ Electra. Edited with introduction, translation and commentary. Warminster, Aris & Phillips.

SEBILLOTTE CUCHET, V. (2015). Cidadãos e cidadãs na cidade grega clássica: onde atua o gênero? Revista Tempo, v. 21, n. 38, p. 1-20.

_____. (2016). Women and the Economic History of the Ancient Greek World: Still a Challenge for Gender Studies, in LION. B,; MICHEL, C. The Role of Women in Work and Society in the Ancient Near East. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records, v. 13, Boston-Berlin, De Gruyter, 2016, p. 543-563, para as referências. Disponível em https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01387030. Acessado em 10/2/2021.

_____. (2018a). Gender Studies et domination masculine. Les citoyennes de l’Athènes classique, un défi pour l’historien des institutions. Cahiers du Centre Gustave Glotz. Disponível em http://hal-paris1.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01956493/fr/]. Acessado em 10/2/2021.

_____. (2018b). Quais direitos políticos para as cidadãs da Atenas clássica? Hélade, v. 4, n. 1, p. 143-158.

THOMAS, R. (2005). Letramento e oralidade na Grécia Antiga. Tradução de Raul Fiker. São Paulo, Odysseus.

WILSON, P. (2009). Tragic Honours and Democracy: Neglected Evidence for the Politics of the Athenian Dionysia. The Classical Quarterly, v. 59, p. 8-29.

WINKLER, J. (1990). The Constraints of Desire. The Anthropology of Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece. New York/London, Routledge.

Published

2023-04-21

How to Cite

Bacelar, A. (2023). Electra Tyrannicide: Gender in the Reception of a Heroic Deliberation in Sophocles’ Tragedy. Revista Archai, (33), e03308. https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249X_33_08

Issue

Section

Gender and Antiquity Dossier: problems and methods

Most read articles by the same author(s)