Myth and the Marginalisation of Women in Late Antique Poetry and Society

Myth and the marginalisation of women in late antique poetry and society

(Fabio Nolfo ~ University of Macerata/LMU München)

One of the main features which, on the basis of the extant literary and juridical sources, characterise the lives of Roman women, as opposed to the lives of Greek women, is that Roman women had many more opportunities for social mobility than their Greek counterparts, and that their role within the family was valuable and complex: they were not regarded as mere reproductive partners giving birth to legitimate children. Nonetheless, it is clear that the prominent position in the pagan upper-class families of the first centuries of the Common Era was occupied by men, and this situation continues to apply also in the society of Late Antiquity (see, for example, the work of Cantarella 2010), during which the advent of Christianity conveys an ambiguous message with regard to gender equality: despite the affirmation of gender equality in the preaching of Christ as attested by the Scriptures, there is no doubt about male superiority, the marginalisation of women, and the position of pre-eminence of men in the family and, generally, in society.

In my paper I will demonstrate the careful authorial strategies and deliberate literary methods by means of which late antique Latin literature clearly reinforces such marginalisation and reflects the dynamics of a constantly changing society. I will give an outline of how important ideological elements relating to gender marginalisation can be seen through key terms in four ecfrastic pagan epigrams which were written in Latin and belonged to the corpus of the late antique poet Ausonius. The protagonists in the epigrams of Ausonius are two Ovidian female characters, Echo and Niobe, both of whom are involved, according to the well-known mythical accounts, in unhappy situations, which, in the former case, degrade the female role of being a lover and, in the latter case, treat with disrespect the profile of a mother.