Irony and women in Herodotus.

This is a study of eight stories in Herodotus in which women play a significant role. We argue that these stories are characterised by an irony or ambiguity which unsettles a construction of women as ‘other’. We question whether the concept of polar opposites (war and marriage, for example) is a helpful way to consider the respective roles of men and women. We also test some of the generalisations made by scholars in this area, for example, that women are associated with nomoi that men transgress or that they function as observers rather than agents. We consider the significance of Herodotus as a non-Athenian who brings an outsider’s perspective to events and personalities and who introduces Athenians to themselves, from an ironic distance. We conduct a detailed analysis of each text, using narratological tools to explore characterisation and focus and how Herodotus creates a distance between himself and his (self-interested) logioi through shifting focalisations. We make a comparative study of particular words (e.g. eros, andreia, pericharis) as part of our study of Herodotean irony and explore how he shows women as well as men using rhetoric to influence events. We also consider women as agents as well as observers and the relationships between men and women in both the private and the public sphere. We have selected texts which enable us to consider individual women and groups, Greeks and non Greeks, queens and slaves

Name dc:type.qualificationname

ma

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

masters

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Tank, Helen

• HQ Y teulu. Priodas. Benyw.
• PN Llenyddiaeth (Cyffredinol)

Dc Identifier Grantnumber

UWTSD

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.uwtsd.ac.uk:382