The Pregnant Male as Myth and Metaphor in Classical Greek LiteratureThis 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' Assemblywomen and in Plato's Symposium and Theaetetus.. |
Contents
1 Introduction | 1 |
2 The New Father of Anaxagoras | 18 |
3 The Thigh Birth of Dionysus | 58 |
4 From Myth to Metaphor | 100 |
5 Blepyruss TurdChild and the Birth of Athena | 146 |
6 The Pregnant Philosopher | 182 |
7 Reading Platos Midwife | 227 |
Did Any Thinker before Democritus Argue for the Existence of Female Seed? | 271 |
Women and Men as Grammatical Subjects of tt | 281 |
| 285 | |
| 301 | |
Other editions - View all
The Pregnant Male as Myth and Metaphor in Classical Greek Literature David D. Leitao Limited preview - 2012 |
The Pregnant Male as Myth and Metaphor in Classical Greek Literature David D. Leitao No preview available - 2012 |
The Pregnant Male as Myth and Metaphor in Classical Greek Literature David D. Leitao No preview available - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
aither Alcibiades allude Anaxagoras Anaxagoras’s Aphrodite archaic argued Aristophanes Aristotle Assemblywomen Athena Athenian beauty begetting Bernabé birth of Athena birth of Dionysus Blepyrus blood body born Burkert Burnyeat Cadmus Chapter child chorus claim classical context cosmogony Cronus Derveni describe dialogue Diogenes Dionysus Dionysus’s Diotima discussion divine earlier earth Egyptian Eileithyia embryology Empedocles Eros Euripides explicitly father female feminine fifth century give birth goddess gods Greek Heracles Herodotus hints Hippon historical Socrates idea intellectual invokes knowledge later logoi lover Lysistrata male pregnancy masculine metaphysical midwife mortal mother myth offspring one-seed theory Orphic Parmenides parturition passage paternity Pentheus perception perhaps Phaedrus philosopher Plato play poet Praxagora pregnancy metaphor probably Prodicus Protagoras reference reproduction rhetorical role Semele semen sexual Socrates Sophists soul speech suggests Symposium Theaetetus Theaetetus's Thebes theogony thigh birth thigh of Zeus thought tion traditional Uranus virtue woman womb women Zeus Zeus's τίκτω