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Table of Contents
Preface Acknowledgments IX xxvn PART ONE : ORIGINS AND CONSEQUENCES
I. The Greek Mother-Son Relationship: Origins and Consequences glory_of_hera_-_chapter_1_greek_mother_son.pdf
“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)
My first hypothesis—one which assumes a much earlier change point than that suggested by Feldman —was that the constellation derived its impetus from the gradual evolution of patriarchy [cf. Levy, n.d., p. 257], or a sudden transition from matriarchy to patriarchy. The tradition of a patriarchal conquest of a matriarchal society is an ancient one in classical scholarship—based on the evidence of early matrilineal, matrilocal, goddess-worshiping traditions being supplanted by their patriarchal counterparts [Murray, n.d., p. 56; Kitto, i960, pp. 18-23; Briffault, 1959, pp. 84-90]. In deed, some authors suggest an almost universal transition of this kind for civilized societies, and there is much supporting evidence [cf. Briffault, 1959; Campbell, 1959, pp. 315ff.; Neu mann, 1955]. This is difficult to evaluate, however, since so much is based on mythology and tradition, and the ontoge netic experience of primeval matriarchy is universal, and may provide the source of much of this tradition. For the Greeks, at any rate, the evidence is real enough. Indeed, there seem to have been several invasions at various periods by patriarchal warriors, who, one can imagine, killed the indigenous males and took the females to wife. Since in all cases the women probably not only enjoyed a higher status in the older society, but also partook of a more advanced and sophisticated culture, one might expect to find here the ideal conditions for a brittle patriarchy, an anxious and hostile relationship between the sexes, and a transferring of libido by the wife from husband to child. The repetition of this experience several times over a millennium would gradually evolve the kind of cycle I have described. (72)
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 glory_of_hera-_chapter_5_matricide.pdf
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
