The representation of female characters in the extant plays and fragments of Aeschylus

Karamitrou, Ekaterini (1994) The representation of female characters in the extant plays and fragments of Aeschylus. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

Aeschylus is represented in the Frogs of Aristophanes, as the type of Archaic maleness. This idea is not peculiar to Aristophanes. It is recorded in the anecdotal biographical tradition that he wished to be remembered for the fact that he fought at the battle of Marathon. Although misogyny taints the Ancient literature, yet Aeschylus chooses to highlight female personalities like that of Clytemnestra instead of male characters.

Apart from the fact of the sources' limitation the play, essentially, has always been the real thing. Who are these tragic heroines with the two-fold nature, the hidden power and the unrevealed desires? Does female nature remain imprisoned in its role or does it go beyond the conventional terms? Could these man-counselling women like Antigone or Clytemnestra portray an ordinary Athenian woman or it is that they stand as dramatic archetypes fulfilling - for the duration of a performance only - the fantasies, the inhibitions and the unused possibilities of women of everyday life...? Could Clytemnestra be a 'male' character or she is what she is because of her female nature? How is the "ceremonial" experience of the tragic heroine's passion and dehumanization represented in Greek drama and especially in Aeschylus? Is the body of the actor and the individual who plays the role of Clytemnestra an object of political purpose in the 5^th Century Athens, and how could he a man penetrate women's world through his experience in political and social life? The paradoxical element of the transformation of female personalities from prudent and fragile creatures into witches and maenads makes these characters imposing and interesting. Clytemnestra's persona for example consists of controversial elements: she is powerful in her stubbornness; she never yields and above all she never abandons her status. Although despotic and bewitched and always acting beyond convention could these women be characterized as evil and hunters of authority or it is that they honestly respond to the "hermaphrodite" element of human nature disturbing thus the balance...? This thesis endeavours to investigate topics of this sort in the plays of Aeschylus.

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