This is an old revision of the document!
Table of Contents
Preface Acknowledgments IX xxvn PART ONE : ORIGINS AND CONSEQUENCES
I. The Greek Mother-Son Relationship: Origins and Consequences
“This seems to me to explain adequately the presence of ac tive, aggressive women in Greek tragedy. Gomme points to the great freedom of action that women have in drama, and argues that women like Jocasta and Antigone must have been modeled on contemporary women [1937, pp. 93, 96, 107]. Kitto makes the same point, observing that the women are usually more enterprising than the men—that the tragic hero ines are striking in their vigor, intelligence, vindictiveness, and uncontrollability [i960, pp. 228-29]. But while one may agree that these women had contemporary models, one need not assume that such modeling extended beyond the narrow range of the household. All that a playwright requires for drama is a vivid memory for his own childhood and family— especially Greek drama, which is most intensely concerned with intrafamilial conflict. If this were not true, one would be hard put to explain how so many of the great heterosexual dramas of Greek, Elizabethan, and modern theater could have been written by homosexual playwrights.” (10)
II. Symbols, the Serpent, and the Oral-Narcissistic Dilemma
PART TWO : MYTHICAL DEFENSES AGAINST THE MATERNAL THREAT
III. Sexual Dominance: Zeus
IV. Masculine Antisepsis: Apollo
V. Matricide: Orestes
VI. Self-Emasculation: Hephaestus
VII. Identification with the Aggressor: Dionysus 1, The Ritual
VIII. Identification with the Aggressor: Dionysus 11, The Attack in the Womb
IX. Identification with the Aggressor: Dionysus 111, The Attack on the Neonate
X. Identification with the Aggressor: Dionysus iv, The Attack on the Mature God
XI. Maternal De-Sexualization: Perseus
XII. The Multiple Defenses of Heracles
