The Pregnant Male as Myth and Metaphor in Classical Greek Literature

"This book traces the image of the pregnant male in Greek literature as it evolves over the course of the classical period. The image ,Ŭ as deployed in myth and in metaphor ,Ŭ originates as a representation of paternity and, by extension, ,źauthorship,Ź of ideas, works of art, legislation, and the like. Only later, with its reception in philosophy in the early fourth century, does it also become a way to figure and negotiate the boundary between the sexes. The book considers a number of important moments in the evolution of the image: the masculinist embryological theory of Anaxagoras of Clazomenae and other fifth century pre-Socratics; literary representations of the birth of Dionysus; the origin and functions of pregnancy as a metaphor in tragedy, comedy, and works of some Sophists; and finally the redeployment of some of these myths and metaphors in Aristophanes,Ŵ Assemblywomen and in Plato,Ŵs Symposium and Theaetetus"-- The Pregnant Male as Myth and Metaphor in Classical Greek Literature 3 Title 5 Copyright 6 Dedication 7 Contents 9 Acknowledgments 11 Abbreviations and Editions 13 1 Introduction 15 ENTER PLATO 15 WHAT DO MEN WANT? 17 Social Anthropological Approaches 18 Psychoanalytic Approaches 21 OUTLINE OF THE BOOK 28 2 The New Father of Anaxagoras: The One-Seed Theory of Reproduction and Its Reception in Athenian Tragedy 32 THE NEW EMBRYOLOGY 34 Folk Embryology of the Archaic Period 35 Anaxagoras of Clazomenae 38 Hippon of Rhegium 40 Philolaus of Croton and Diogenes of Apollonia 43 GENEALOGY OF THE NEW FATHER: INTELLECTUAL ORIGINS OF THE ONE-SEED THEORY OF REPRODUCTION 45 The Metaphysics of Reproduction: Post-Eleatic Genesis and the Transmission of Soul 45 A New Cosmology for a New Embryology 50 Mythical Versions of the New Cosmology 56 A New Male Creator Figure from the Near East 60 General Monistic and Dualistic Impulses 63 RHETORICAL EMBRYOLOGY IN ATHENIAN TRAGEDY 66 3 The Thigh Birth of Dionysus: Exploring Legitimacy in the Classical City-State 72 HISTORICIZING THE BIRTH OF DIONYSUS 72 DIONYSUS’S LEGITIMACY AS GOD 81 Dionysus the Demigod: A Theological Problem 81 The Mortal Dionysus: A Complex Argument in Herodotus 83 Cadmus and the Theological Sophists: How to Do Things with Myth 89 The Thigh Birth in Herodotus 94 DIONYSUS AS HEIR AND CITIZEN: DEFECTS OF PATERNITY AND MATERNITY IN THE BACCHAE 95 Bacchae 88–104: Maternal Uncertainty 98 Bacchae 519–36: Paternal Uncertainty 103 Bacchae 242–45, 286–97: Mother Hera and Citizen Dionysus 107 ORIGIN OF A MYTH 113 4 From Myth to Metaphor: Intellectual and Poetic Generation in the Age of the Sophists 114 A NEW METAPHOR 114 GIVING BIRTH TO THOUGHT I: COSMOGONY AND ALLEGORESIS 119 Cosmogonic Creation through Thought 119 Allegoresis: The Birth of Athena 122 Allegoresis: The Birth of Nous in the Derveni Papyrus 127 Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus and Euripides’ Heraclidae 131 GIVING BIRTH TO POETRY: PERFORMING AUTHORSHIP 134 The Source of Poetic Creation: Craftsmanship or Divine Inspiration? 136 Contesting Poetic Paternity 138 GIVING BIRTH TO THOUGHT II: THE SOPHISTS’ TEACHING OF KNOWLEDGE AND VIRTUE 142 The Target of Clouds 135–40: Prodicus of Ceos? 143 Sophistic Pedagogy: Sowing Seeds of Wisdom 148 Rhetoric: Sowing Virtue in the Soul 152 Sexualized Teaching in the Clouds? 159 5 Blepyrus’s Turd-Child and the Birth of Athena 160 A THICK DESCRIPTION OF THE BIRTH THEME IN ASSEMBLYWOMEN 311–71: BLEPYRUS, ZEUS, AND A TRAGIC PARTURIENS 162 A Tragic Intertext? 164 A Comic Intertext: Lysistrata 742–57 and the Birth of Athena 167 BLEPYRUS AS DEMOS 171 MALE PREGNANCY, FEMALE POWER, AND THE BIRTH OF ATHENA 177 FLIGHT OF THE DUNG BEETLE: ANAL BIRTH AND ITS DISCONTENTS 187 BLEPYRUS’S TURD-CHILD 195 6 The Pregnant Philosopher: Masculine and Feminine Procreative Styles in Plato’s Symposium 196 DIOTIMA ON INTELLECTUAL PREGNANCY AND PARTURITION 197 γεννάω:: THE MISSING MOTHERS OF MYTH 202 Before the Speeches 203 Phaedrus 205 Pausanias 207 Aristophanes 208 Socrates/Diotima 213 VIRTUE BIRTH 215 Lesser Mysteries 216 Greater Mysteries 219 The Sophistic Birth-of-Virtue Metaphor, in the Symposium and Elsewhere 224 Alcibiades and Socrates 228 τίκτω: PLENITUDE AND THE SCENE OF (MALE) SEX 229 Getting Pregnant 229 Staying Pregnant 236 7 Reading Plato’s Midwife: Socrates and Intellectual Paternity in the Theaetetus 241 INTELLECTUAL MIDWIFERY IN THE THEAETETUS 241 HISTORICIZING THE SOCRATIC MIDWIFE 246 Only Postmenopausal Women (149b5–c7) 248 Experience Giving Birth Themselves (149b10–c3) 249 Ability to Tell Whether a Woman Is Pregnant (149c5–7) 250 Ability to Induce an Abortion (149c9–d3) 251 Knowledge of How to Arrange Marriages (149d5–150a6) 252 Inspection and Exposure of a Flawed Child (150b6–c3, 151c2–5, e5) 254 Running the Amphidromia (160e6–161a1) 256 THE PATERNAL MIDWIFE: SOCRATIC ELENCHUS AND PLATONIC EPISTEMOLOGY 257 SEXUAL PERCEPTION AND THE MIDWIFE OF FLUX 263 WHERE HAVE ALL THE FATHERS GONE? 272 Euphronius 273 Protagoras 275 Parmenides 278 Sophroniscus 279 Socrates 282 BACK TO THE CLOUDS 283 Appendix I Did Any Thinker before Democritus Argue for the Existence of Female “Seed”? 285 Appendix II Women and Men as Grammatical Subjects of τίκτω 295 Works Cited 299 Index 315 "This book traces the image of the pregnant male in Greek literature as it evolves over the course of the classical period. The image as deployed in myth and in metaphor originates as a representation of paternity and, by extension, authorship of ideas, works of art, legislation, and the like. Only later, with its reception in philosophy in the early fourth century, does it also become a way to figure and negotiate the boundary between the sexes. The book considers a number of important moments in the evolution of the image: the masculinist embryological theory of Anaxagoras of Clazomenae and other fifth century pre-Socratics; literary representations of the birth of Dionysus; the origin and functions of pregnancy as a metaphor in tragedy, comedy, and works of some Sophists; and finally the redeployment of some of these myths and metaphors in Aristophanes, Ŵ Assemblywomen and in Plato's Symposium and Theaetetus"-- Provided by publisher This book traces the image of the pregnant male in Greek literature as it evolved over the course of the classical period. The image - as deployed in myth and in metaphor - originated as a representation of paternity and, by extension,'authorship'of ideas, works of art, legislation, and the like. Only later, with its reception in philosophy in the early fourth century, did it also become a way to figure and negotiate the boundary between the sexes. The book considers a number of important moments in the evolution of the image: the masculinist embryological theory of Anaxagoras of Clazomenae and other fifth century pre-Socratics; literary representations of the birth of Dionysus; the origin and functions of pregnancy as a metaphor in tragedy, comedy and works of some Sophists; and finally the redeployment of some of these myths and metaphors in Aristophanes'Assemblywomen and in Plato's Symposium and Theaetetus. Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction; 2. The new father of Anaxagoras: the one-seed theory of reproduction and its reception in Athenian tragedy; 3. The thigh birth of Dionysus: exploring legitimacy in the classical city-state; 4. From myth to metaphor: intellectual and poetic generation in the age of the Sophists; 5. Blepyrus' turd-child and the birth of Athena; 6. The pregnant philosopher: masculine and feminine procreative styles in Plato's Symposium; 7. Reading Plato's midwife: Socrates and intellectual paternity in the Theaetetus; Appendix 1. Did any thinker before Democritus argue for the existence of female 'seed'?; Appendix 2. Women and men as grammatical subjects of τίκτω.