Analisis estructural de la iliada

Women and Oaths in Euripides Author(s): Judith Fletcher Source: Theatre Journal, Vol. 55, No. 1, Ancient Theatre (Mar., 2003), pp. 29-44 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25069178 Accessed: 03/06/2010 18:53
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Women

and Oaths

in Euripides

Judith Fletcher
'The oathiswhat holds democracy together/' claimed the Athenian orator Lycurgus, was composed the definitive of men.1 Athens was exclusively democracy where public discursive practices such as the oath were community phallogocentric the prerogative of male citizens who competed for power in the agora, the assembly, occurrence and the lawcourts. Euripides, the disquieting of however, represents a phenomenonwomen that challenges the gendered oaths from men, tendering hierarchy of his society.2 In this article I explore how three Euripidean dramas, Medea, to use these potent speech acts to Hippolytus, and Iphigenia in Tauris, allow women oaths Euripides' female control men's language and action.3 By tendering promissory characters cite a conventional social practice that is intrinsically performative;oath scenes are reflective both of the world external to the drama and of the dramatic taking whose
performance itself. Furthermore when men swear to do something for a woman?

Department ofArchaeology and Classical Studies atWilfrid Judith Fletcher isAssociate Professorfor the
Laurier University articles She Chastity in Waterloo, on Greek is co-editor from Ontario. She was Honorary andResearch Fellow at the Centre for Ancient in Postmodern of

Drama and Its Reception (CADRE) at theUniversity ofNottingham
numerous Literature. Female and Comedy, Tragedy (with Bonnie MacLachlan) to the Present Antiquity on of Virginity (Manchester

in 2001. Her publications include
Tradition Revisited: Press, Configurations 2003).

the Classical

University

1 Lycurgus straight Indeedcomrade.

dealing

Leoer. 79, translation mine. in the court of dikasts

The of

oath had law as well

citizen who, every male upon General discussions include Press, University der Antike. Herausgegeben State

reaching

to seal contracts and guaranteed the the power as magistrates in political such as archons life. a swore to desert the ephebic oath never maturity, The Oath Th?r,Cancik and Perjury in Ancient Greece (Tallahas in Der Neue Pauly. "Eid. Griechenland/' und Helmuth Schneider. Bd. III. Altertum.

see: Florida

Joseph Plescia, 1970). Gerhard

von Hubert Enzyklop?die see Robert Parker, 1997), 909. On the religious (Verlag J. B. Metzler: Stuttgart & Weimar, implications Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion Press, 186-87; (Oxford: Clarendon...