Index
abjection, Kristeva’s theory of, 114; Canace’s letter (Heroides 11) reinterpreted through, 22, 84, 114, 118, 127, 130; Dido’s letter (Heroides 7) reinterpreted through, 167–68; Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4) reinterpreted through, 102
abortion: Canace’s attempts at (Heroides 11), 125, 126, 127; in Ovid’s elegiac poetry, 125–26; Roman law on, 126
Absyrtus (Medea’s brother), murder of, 190, 190n67, 191, 192, 193, 194, 223, 223n83
Achilles, cross-dressing by, 70
adoption, imperial, in Roman society, 16
adultery: Augustan policies regarding, 9, 107; crimen understood as, 65, 128, 185. See also incest
Aeneas: alternative future for, in Dido’s letter, 164–66; depiction in Dido’s letter (Heroides 7), 157–58, 163; depiction in Vergil’s Aeneid, 143, 147–48; son of, process of appropriation in Dido’s letter, 156–59
Aeneid (Vergil): Aeneas in, 143, 147–48; Dido in, 142–49; Dido’s letter (Heroides 7) in conversation with, 141–49, 151–54, 161, 163, 164, 169–70; Dido’s speechlessness in, 148; gender role reversal in, 143; incestuous relationship in, 83n2; Lavinia in, 152–53; maternal grief as reaction to reading of, 161–62; motherhood in, 148; optimistic vs. pessimistic readings of, 3; Propertius on, 2, 201; reference to Dido’s potential child in, 144–45; as source for Ovid’s Heroides, 141–42
Aeolus: ambiguous role in Canace’s narrative (Heroides 11), 121, 122, 126, 133–34; control over Canace’s body and sexuality, 121, 131, 133, 134; in Heroides 11, 118, 119, 120; as implied addressee of Canace’s letter, 84; Macareus’s persuasion of, 131, 137; in myth of Canace, 115, 116
Amores (Ovid): Hypsipyle’s letter (Heroides 6) and, 209–10; mirror as programmatic elegiac object in, 73; poet’s self-representation in, 96; references to Sappho in, 232; representations of pregnant women in, 22, 35, 73, 125–26
Argonautica (Apollonius): Hercules in, 55n6; Hypsipyle in, 203, 204, 213; Jason and Medea’s first dialogue in, 183–84; Medea in, 174, 175, 177, 178, 180, 182, 191, 192, 197, 217
Aristotle, 177n22, 187n59, 192n72
Ars amatoria (Ovid): allusion to, in Medea’s letter, 180; disagreement with Augustus’s family policy in, 19–20; mirror as programmatic elegiac object in, 73; Penelope in, 34n19; Phaedra and Hippolytus in, 103–4; reference to Heroides in, 6, 174; Sappho in, 232
Artemis, as goddess of childbirth, 12
Ascanius (Aeneas’s son), 156–59, 165
Atwood, Margaret, 29
auctor (author/father): in Canace’s letter (Heroides 11), 120; in Dido’s letter (Heroides 7), 163; in Hypsipyle’s letter (Heroides 6), 219
Augustus/Augustan Principate: centrality of motherhood in, 8, 9–11, 12, 19; family policy under, 9–11, 12, 42, 43, 107; literary production under, 11–12; Ovid’s subversive discourse against, 19–20, 42–43, 97–98, 100, 111, 112, 126; as pater patriae (father of the state), 10, 12, 110; as Pontifex Maximus (Highest Priest), 11; symbolic buildings under, 10–11
Bacchae (Euripides), 139
Barchiesi, Alessandro, 57
Barraclough, Jennifer, 2
Barthes, Roland, theories of corporeal nature of text, 18, 152n52; Dido’s letter (Heroides 7) reinterpreted through, 22, 85, 141, 163
Bessone, Federica, 232
Braidotti, Rosi, 12, 17, 23, 100, 171, 173, 179, 198, 199n94, 200n100. See also nomadic subject
Butler, Judith, 17; on gender performativity, 18, 21, 27, 53, 70, 122n29
caelibes (unmarried), Augustan laws regarding, 9–10
Canace, letter of (Heroides 11), 84–85, 115–40; addressees of, 59, 84, 119, 138–39; Aeolus’s ambiguous role in, 121, 122, 126, 133–34; childbirth described in, 123–30; child/child’s body in, 117–18, 130, 132–33, 135–36, 138–39; final prayer in, 139; genealogical background provided in, 119–20; heroine’s body in, 118, 119, 121; heroine’s self-construction as creative author in, 22, 84, 114, 120, 131, 139–40; incest in, 115–16, 120, 121, 122, 126, 129, 131, 134; ironic discourse in, 120, 135; Macareus in, 115–16, 129–30, 131, 138–39; patriarchal system/control in, 121, 131, 133, 134; Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4) recalled in, 120, 128; pregnancy as quasi-subjective, embodied experience in, 22, 85, 122–27; sources and context of, 115–16, 117, 119n19; suicide anticipated in, 116, 118, 119, 133–34, 139; suicide as rebellious act/reappropriation of subjective identity in, 84, 118, 132, 136–39; suicide postponed by act of writing of, 116, 117; sword in, 119, 121–22, 133–34, 138, 139; theoretical framework for reinterpreting, 22, 84, 114, 116–17, 118, 127, 130
Carmen saeculare (Horace), 11–12
Casali, Sergio, 80, 92n22, 135
Catullus: on Ariadne, 180; on Attis, 235n17; on fides, lack of, 152n54; refrain used by, 59n24; on Sappho, 231–32
Cavarero, Adriana, 17; on autobiographical storytelling, 151n51; and feminist narratology, 21, 84, 114, 116–17, 118n13, 141; on hero’s death in Homeric epic, 164n94
Charaxos (Sappho’s brother), 236
child(ren): books imagined as, in Ovid’s exile poetry, 97n42; Canace’s, “othered” body of, 117–18, 130, 132–33, 135–36, 138–39; Dido’s potential, reference in Vergil’s Aeneid, 144–46; of foreigners (peregrini), Roman law on, 184n48; illegitimate, Augustan laws on, 107; Jason’s association with, and anticipation of Medea’s action in Heroides 12, 186–89; Jason’s preoccupation with, in Hypsipyle’s letter (Heroides 6), 215–16; multiple, Augustan laws regarding, 10; Sappho’s, references to, 233–34, 236. See also childbirth; infanticide; motherhood; pignus
childbirth: annihilation of feminine body in, Kristeva on, 200n98; and concept of matrixial borderspace, 216, 221; as crimen (crime), in Canace’s letter (Heroides 11), 124–25, 128–30; as crimen (crime), in Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4), 102, 128; goddess of, 11–12; Medea and annihilation of, 200; Scheherazade’s storytelling and, 117; writing as, in Dido’s letter (Heroides 7), 160, 161, 162–63, 169–70; writing as, metaphor of, 1–2, 97, 97n42
childless (orbi), Augustan laws on, 9–10
Cixous, Hélène, and concept of écriture féminine, 7n23, 49, 85, 149, 170
Cleopatra, 14n48, 67, 68, 141, 144n18
Clytemnestra, 19, 26, 54n4, 56
concubinage: Augustan laws on, 9. See also paelex (concubine)
Creusa (Aeneas’s wife): depiction in Dido’s letter (Heroides 7), 157–58; son of, 165
Creusa (Creon’s daughter): allusion to, in Hypsipyle’s letter (Heroides 6), 228; in Euripides’s Medea, 138n88, 186, 207, 222; in Medea’s letter (Heroides 12), 174, 183, 185, 189, 194–95, 214n46, 216n56, 222n80
crimen (crime): association with adultery, 65, 128, 185; Canace’s childbirth as, in Heroides 11, 124–25, 128, 129–30, 133; fetus/newborn as, in Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4), 102, 128; Hercules’s servitude to Omphale as, in Deianira’s letter (Heroides 9), 65
cross-dressing: Achilles and, 70; in Dionysiac cults, 67; Hercules and, depiction in Heroides 9, 21, 55, 64–68, 70
Dante Alighieri, Inferno, 141
De Beauvoir, Simone, 97n43, 226n92
Deianira: Clytemnestra compared to, 54n4; etymological meaning of name, 21, 64, 78, 81; myth of, 54
Deianira, letter of (Heroides 9), 26–27, 60–82; addressees of, 21, 27, 53, 59–60, 77, 80, 81; ambiguity and irony in, 26–27, 80, 81, 82; family history invoked in, 26, 79, 80; farewell in, 80–81; foretold suicide in, 57, 59, 78, 79; gender role reversals in, 55, 65–74, 76–77, 78; on Hercules’s enslavement by Omphale, 54, 55, 62, 65–74; heroine’s self-empowerment in, 14, 62–64, 77–79, 81–82; Hyllus’s role in, 26, 57–58, 59; interruption in/Hercules’s death introduced in, 26, 57–59, 63, 77–78; Iole’s narrative in, 56, 60–61, 74–77; justification for Hercules’s murder in, 21, 27, 70–71, 78; metrical anomalies in, 58; opening lines of, 60; and Penelope’s letter, parallels with, 62–63, 81–82; reduction of Hercules’s heroic status in, 21, 26, 53, 55, 56, 60–62, 64–72, 76–77; scopophilic gaze in, 21, 53, 56, 75–77; Sophocles’s Trachiniae in relation to, 53–60, 56n14, 74, 77, 79, 81; theoretical framework for reinterpreting, 21, 27, 53
De Lauretis, Teresa, 85, 141, 160n82
Deleuze, Gilles, 179
De Rerum Natura (Lucretius), 8–9
Diana: as goddess of childbirth, 12; Phaedra constructing herself as counterpart of, 100
Dido: depiction in Vergil’s Aeneid, 142–49; and Phaedra, link between, 145; story of, different versions of, 141–42, 141n1, 146; suicide of, in Vergil’s Aeneid, 143, 146–47
Dido, letter of (Heroides 7), 85, 149–70; on Ascanius (Aeneas’s son), 156–59, 165; construction of motherhood in, 85, 158–60; in conversation with Vergil’s Aeneid, 141–49, 151–54, 161, 163, 164, 169–70; final lines of, 168–69; heroine’s self-empowerment in, 166–70; and Hypsipyle’s letter (Heroides 6), intertextual links between, 213–14; incestuous undertones in, 145, 157, 158, 159, 161, 164; law of the Father subverted in, 148–49, 168, 169–70; literary genres combined in, 6, 155–56; literary tradition challenged by, 22, 149–70; opening lines of, 150–51; pen and sword in, 166–68; pleasure in writing of, 151, 151n51; potential pregnancy indicated in, 12, 22, 85, 142, 145, 160–64; suicide described in, 166–69; theoretical framework for reinterpreting, 21, 85, 141, 149, 167–68, 170; writing as childbirth in, 160, 161, 162–63, 169–70
Dionysiac cults, cross-dressing in, 67
DiQuinzio, Patrice, 17
divorce, Roman law on, 42–43, 126
Dixon, Suzanne, 8
Doane, Mary Ann, 6n86, 21, 53, 77n92, 80n107
Donatus, Vita Vergilii, 161
dowry (dos): Canace on (Heroides 11), 134; Medea on (Heroides 12), 184–85, 196–97; Medea’s, Hypsipyle on (Heroides 6), 225; Penelope’s potential divorce and (Heroides 1), 42; Phaon as (Heroides 15), 238
Eclogues (Vergil), 11, 59n24, 67n53, 68n97, 78n97, 108n91, 110, 169n110, 238n27, 239n29
écriture féminine: Cixous’s concept of, 7n23, 49, 85, 149, 170; Dido’s letter (Heroides 7) reinterpreted through, 22, 85, 149, 170; Hypsipyle’s motherhood and (Heroides 6), 229–30; law of the Mother within, 110–11, 113; Ovid’s Heroides as example of, 2, 4, 5, 7, 20; Penelope’s letter (Heroides 1) as, 49; Phaedra’s voice boosted by (Heroides 4), 92–93; semiotics as traditional mark of, Kristeva on, 110
elegy: circularity in, 7; gender role reversal in, 6, 6n21, 55; Heroides as, 6; puella in, 6n21, 26, 35, 48, 55, 61, 91, 104n71, 235
erōmenos: Attis described as, in Catullus’s poetry, 235n17; Hippolytus described as, in Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4), 104n75; Phaon described as, in Sappho’s letter (Heroides 15), 234–35
eroticism. See sexuality/sexual desire
erotic poetry, elegy as genre of, 6
Ettinger, Bracha, 172, 203, 205, 208; on compassion, 224; concept of “matrixial borderspace,” 216, 221, 229–30; writing of, as écriture féminine, 229n105
Euripides: Aeolus, 115, 138; Bacchae, 139; Hercules, 55n6, 68n63; Hippolytos Kalyptomenos/Hippolytus Veiled (First Hippolytus), 88, 89, 90, 96; Hippolytos Stephanophoros/Hippolytus the Wreath-Bearer (Second Hippolytus), 60n28, 84, 88–89, 90, 91n19, 93n25, 94, 101, 104n73, 106n84; Hypsipyle, 204, 205; Medea, 138n88, 174, 174n3, 175–77, 177n22, 184, 188n62, 190n67, 191n69, 194n76, 199n95, 200, 201nn102–103, 204, 207, 222; Rhesus, 135
Europa, 101
Felson-Rubin, Nancy, 33
feminist narratology, 21, 84, 114, 116–17, 118n13; Canace’s letter (Heroides 11) reinterpreted through, 114, 116–17; Dido’s letter (Heroides 7) reinterpreted through, 22, 85, 141; Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4) reinterpreted through, 21, 84, 87
feminist scholarship: motherhood in, 15, 16–17, 19; on Ovid’s Heroides, 4–6; resisting vs. releasing approach in, 4–5. See also abjection; feminist narratology; posthuman feminism
fetus: as crimen (crime), in Canace’s letter (Heroides 11), 22, 123, 126, 130, 133; as crimen (crime), in Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4), 102, 128–29; as expression of otherness, in Canace’s letter (Heroides 11), 127, 132–33; potential, in Dido’s letter (Heroides 7), 163–64. See also abjection, Kristeva’s theory of
Florilegium (Stobaeus), 115, 131n62
Foley, Helene, 30
Freudian concepts: Medea’s letter (Heroides 12) reinterpreted through, 193; Penelope’s letter (Heroides 1) reinterpreted through, 21, 29, 47, 51
Fulkerson, Laurel, 4, 5, 20, 58n24, 99n50, 101n63, 206, 225n88
gender categories: instability of, 15, 20; in Rome, construction of, 14n51; sword and web as representations of, 121–22; use of, 14–15
gender fluidity: in antiquity, 17–18; Medea and, 176–77, 178, 179, 182–83, 185–86, 200
gender performativity, Butler’s theories of, 18, 21, 27, 53, 70, 122n29
gender role reversal(s), 7; in Deianira’s letter (Heroides 9), 55, 65–74, 76–77, 78; in elegy, 6, 6n21; in Homer’s Odyssey, 30–31, 143; in Hypsipyle’s letter (Heroides 6), 217–18; in Medea’s letter (Heroides 12), 184–85, 197; in Penelope’s letter (Heroides 1), 35–36, 41, 48–49; in Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4), 87, 93–94, 103–4, 105; in Sappho’s letter (Heroides 15), 235, 238; in Vergil’s Aeneid, 143
Gordon, Pamela, 232
Gray, Francine du Plessix, 1
Grosz, Elizabeth, 12, 114, 127nn47–48, 161n85
Guattari, Felix, 179
Haraway, Donna, notion of “natureculture,” 23, 239–40
Hercules: cross-dressing/female tasks performed by (Heroides 9), 21, 55, 65–68, 70; enslavement by Omphale (Heroides 9), 54, 55, 62, 65–74; as illegitimate child, Deianira on, 61–62; and Iole, 26, 54, 70, 74–77; justification for murder of, Deianira on, 21, 27, 70–71, 78; last speech of, in Sophocles’s Trachiniae, 61; Propertius 4.9 on, 55, 55n7; reduction of heroic status of, in Deianira’s letter (Heroides 9), 21, 26, 53, 55, 56, 60–62, 64–72, 76–77; uxor (wife) of, Deianira’s self-portrayal as, 54, 63–64, 78–79
Hercules (Euripides), 55n6, 68n63
Herodotus, on Charaxos, 236
Heroides (Ovid): authorial voice(s) in, 4, 5, 26, 241; authorship issues concerning, 24, 178n28, 232; circularity in, 7; contradictory nature of, 20; écriture féminine in, 2, 4, 5, 7, 20; female readership of, 13, 37, 161, 213; feminist readings of, 4–6; intertextuality in, 4–5, 120, 128, 213–14; literary genres combined in, 6, 38, 155–56; motherhood and women’s agency in, 12–13, 19, 20, 24, 241; Ovid’s exile poetry compared to, 7, 7n22; Ovid’s subversive discourse against Augustan family law in, 19–20, 42, 97–98, 100, 111, 112, 126; poetic agenda in, 90; theoretical framework for reinterpreting, 17–19, 21–23. See also under names of specific heroines
Hippolytos Kalyptomenos/Hippolytus Veiled (Euripides), 88, 89, 90, 96
Hippolytos Stephanophoros/Hippolytus the Wreath-Bearer (Euripides), 60n28, 84, 88–89, 90, 91n19, 93n25, 94, 101, 104n73, 106n84; Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4) in conversation with, 84, 88–89, 90, 91–92, 93–96, 95n35, 100n97
Hippolytus: misogyny of, 113; as pignus (child/guarantee), Phaedra on, 107; precarious masculinity of, in Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4), 93–94, 102–5, 235n17; Theseus’s offenses against, Phaedra on, 105–6
Homeric epic: hero’s death transformed into immortality in, 164n94. See also Iliad; Odyssey
homoerotic relationship(s): erōmenos in, 234–35; Phaedra’s reference to (Heroides 4), 105, 105n80; in Roman world, 14n50; Sappho and, 232, 235
Horace, Carmen saeculare, 11–12
Hyllus: as implied addressee of Deianira’s letter, 21, 27, 53, 59–60, 77, 80, 81; as puer, in Heroides 9, 62–63; role in Deianira’s letter (Heroides 9), 26, 57–58, 59; in Sophocles’s Trachiniae, 56, 60, 81
Hypsipyle (Euripides), 204, 205
Hypsipyle, letter of (Heroides 6), 172, 205–30; and Dido’s letter (Heroides 7), intertextual links between, 213–14; differentiation from Medea in, 23, 221–25, 228–29; gender role reversal in, 217–18; heroine’s self-representation in, 207, 209–10, 212–15, 226–27, 229; ironic discourse in, 208–9, 210, 211, 218, 219, 220, 226; Jason as addressee of, 172, 208–9; last lines of, 227–28; liminal border-space in, 206, 216, 221, 229–30; literary tradition reinterpreted in, 212, 213; marriage motif in, 213–14; and Medea’s letter (Heroides 12), intertextual links between, 172, 206, 211, 218, 222n80, 225, 227, 227n97; motherhood and self-construction in, 23, 172, 204, 207–8, 216, 219–30; opening lines of, 208–9; patriarchal control suggested in, 215–16; reduction of Jason’s heroic status in, 209–11, 213, 215, 217–18, 226; references to Medea in, 23, 204, 205, 206–8, 212–13, 216–18, 221–29; sources for, 203–5; subversive potential in, 214–15; theoretical framework for reinterpreting, 172, 203, 205–7, 221
Iliad (Homer): Aeneid (Vergil) compared to, 2, 201; epic hero in, 34
illegitimate children (filii iniusti), Augustan laws on, 107
incest: allusions to, in Dido’s letter (Heroides 7), 145, 157, 158, 159, 161, 164; in Canace’s letter (Heroides 11), 115–16, 120, 121, 122, 126, 128–30, 131, 134; in Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4), family history used to justify, 101–2, 120; in Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4), presented as lawful/sanctioned by Olympian gods, 22, 99–100, 108–9, 111, 120; in Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4), Theseus’s reproachable behavior as justification for, 105–6, 157; in Vergil’s Aeneid, 83n2
infanticide, Medea’s, anticipation in Heroides 12, 186–89, 191, 195, 196, 197, 199–200, 201
Inferno (Dante), 141
Iole: in Deianira’s letter (Heroides 9), 56, 60–61, 74–77; Hercules and, 26, 54, 70; in Sophocles’s Trachiniae, 55–56
Iphigenia, link between Dido and, 146
Irigaray, Luce, 4, 17; concept of sexual difference, 179; on marriage as patriarchal institution, 214n48; and reevaluation of maternal experience, 12, 219n71; reinterpretation of Lacanian concept of “Symbolic,” 84
Jacobson, Howard, 81, 103, 141n1, 177n23, 207n23, 210n31, 222n77, 225n87, 236n21
Jason: as addressee of Hypsipyle’s letter (Heroides 6), 172, 208–9; as addressee of Medea’s letter (Heroides 12), 172, 174, 196–97; children’s link to, and anticipation of Medea’s action in Heroides 12, 186–89; help provided to, Medea’s letter (Heroides 12) on, 180, 181–82, 184–85, 196–97, 211; liaison with Creusa, Medea on (Heroides 12), 174, 183; preoccupation with children, in Hypsipyle’s letter (Heroides 6), 215–16; reduction of heroic status of, in Hypsipyle’s letter (Heroides 6), 209–11, 213, 215, 217–18, 226
jouissance of motherhood, 159; Kristeva on, 19, 50, 137n85; patriarchal system and suppression of, 19, 137, 137n85
Jupiter, incestuous relationship with Juno: Deianira’s reference to (Heroides 9), 61–62; Phaedra’s reference to (Heroides 4), 99–100, 111, 120
Keith, Alison, 16
Kennedy, Duncan, 25
Kristeva, Julia, 4, 17, 110, 128n152; Canace’s letter (Heroides 11) reinterpreted through theories of, 22, 84, 114, 118, 127, 129n54, 130; Dido’s letter (Heroides 7) reinterpreted through theories of, 145n21, 153n58, 167–68; on jouissance of motherhood, 19, 50; on “linear” history, 7; Penelope’s letter (Heroides 1) reinterpreted through theories of, 21, 29; Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4) reinterpreted through theories of, 102; and reevaluation of maternal experience, 12; on semiotics as traditional mark of écriture féminine, 110. See also abjection
Lacan, Jacques, 10, 91. See also Lacanian Symbolic order; law of the Father
Lacanian Symbolic order: Dido’s suicide interpreted through, 147; Heroides reinterpreted through, 4, 29, 84; Hypsipyle’s letter (Heroides 6) as product of, 207, 208; Kristeva’s reinterpretation of, 84, 153n58; Medea’s writing (Heroides 12) interpreted through, 192
Lavinia, in Vergil’s Aeneid, 152–53
law of the Father, 91–92; disavowed in Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4), 110; and Jason’s preoccupation with his children in Hypsipyle’s letter (Heroides 6), 216; and motherhood, 137–38, 137n85; patronym and, 210n33; subverted in Dido’s letter (Heroides 7), 148–49; and women’s status in Rome, 10. See also patriarchal system
law of the Mother: Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4) establishing, 84, 108, 110–11, 113; proper name and, 211n33
Life of Caesar (Plutarch), 8
Lindheim, Sara: on Deianira’s letter (Heroides 9), 79, 81; on Hypsipyle’s letter (Heroides 6), 206–7, 227n95; resisting approach of, 4, 20
Livia, 10
Lupercalia, ritual of, 8
Macareus: Canace’s letter (Heroides 11) addressed to, 84, 119, 138–39; persuasion of Aeolus by, 131, 137; relationship with Canace, 115–16, 129–30, 131
marriage: with foreigner, Roman law on, 184n46; legal, Augustus’s preoccupation with, 9; motif of, in Hypsipyle’s letter (Heroides 6), 213–14; as patriarchal institution, Irigaray on, 214n48; Phaedra’s reinterpretation of (Heroides 4), 97–98; suggestion of, in Jason and Medea’s dialogue, 183–84; and women’s status in Roman society, 213. See also dowry (dos)
matrixial borderspace, Ettinger’s concept of, 207, 216, 221, 229–30
Maximus of Tyre, 233
McAuley, Mairéad, 16, 17, 145, 148
Medea: diverse interpretations/sources on, 173–74, 174n4; etymology of name, 177n20, 178, 201n102; gender fluidity of, 176–77, 178; magic skills of, 177n20, 180, 182; marginalization as woman and barbarian, 175–76, 175n13, 184n48; Ovid’s interest in, 175; references to, in Hypsipyle’s letter (Heroides 6), 23, 204, 205, 206–8, 212–13, 216–18, 221–29; reputation of, 14
Medea (Euripides), 138n88, 174, 174n3, 175–77, 177n22, 184, 188n62, 190n67, 191n69, 194n76, 199n95, 200, 201nn102–103, 204, 207, 222
Medea (Seneca), 138n88, 174, 175n12, 180n34, 183n44, 185n52, 188n63, 190n67, 191n69, 194n76, 198n88, 199n95, 200nn96–97, 201nn102–103
Medea, letter of (Heroides 12), 171–72, 174–75, 178–202; authorship of, issues concerning, 178n28; children’s murder foreshadowed in, 186–89, 191, 195–201; Euripidean model compared to, 177–78; final lines of, 200–201; gender fluidity in, 178, 179, 182–83, 185–86, 200; gender role reversal in, 184–85, 197; on help provided to Jason, 180, 181–82, 184–85, 196–97, 211; heroine as female (posthuman) subject-in-becoming in, 23, 171, 173, 175, 178–79, 181, 183, 189–202, 205; heroine’s self-construction as autonomous subject in, 172, 178, 191–92, 193, 207–8; and Hypsipyle’s letter (Heroides 6), intertextual links between, 172, 206, 211, 218, 222n80, 225, 227, 227n97; internal struggle between (male) heroism and elegiac complaint in, 180–81, 182; ironic discourse in, 197, 200, 201; Jason as addressee of, 172, 174, 196–97; literary tradition reshaped by, 174–75, 178; motherhood as dynamic process in, 171, 172, 173, 179, 181, 202; naming of Jason in, 187–88; opening lines of, 180; polysemous writing style in, 190–91; recollection of previous murders in, 190–94; temporary suspension of motherhood in, 19, 178, 186, 187, 188–89, 198–99, 205, 207–8; theoretical framework for reinterpreting, 18, 22–23, 171, 172, 173, 179, 198–99
Metamorphoses (Ovid): final lines of, 18; Medea’s narrative in, 175, 177n20; myth of Procne, Tereus, and Philomela in, 240; optimistic vs. pessimistic readings of, 3n8
Michelangelo, “Non-Finito” sculptures of, 154
motherhood: and agency/self-empowerment, in Ovid’s Heroides, 3, 8, 12–13, 19, 20, 24, 241; centrality in Augustan Principate, 8, 9–11, 12, 19; as constructive process, in Dido’s letter (Heroides 7), 85, 158–60; as dynamic process, in Medea’s letter (Heroides 12), 171, 172, 173, 179, 181, 202; feminist scholarship on, 15, 16–17, 19; fluid idea of, in Roman society, 15–16; objectified, Canace’s suicide as escape from (Heroides 11), 137; patriarchal control over, 12, 19, 215–16, 216n53; Phaedra’s reinterpretation of (Heroides 4), 19, 84, 87, 91, 95–102, 105–12, 113; quasi-male role/qualities acquired through, 12; and self-construction, in Hypsipyle’s letter (Heroides 6), 23, 172, 204, 207–8, 216, 219–30; and self-empowerment, in Penelope’s letter (Heroides 1), 19, 26, 29, 34, 35, 45, 49–50; and sexual desire, overlap in Sappho’s letter (Heroides 15), 23, 234–37, 240–41; temporary suspension of, in Medea’s letter (Heroides 12), 19, 178, 186, 187, 188, 198–99, 205, 207–8; in Vergil’s Aeneid, 148; and woman’s status in Roman society, 8–9, 10, 12, 162. See also jouissance of motherhood; law of the Mother; mother-son relationship; stepmother (noverca)
mother-son relationship: anthropological maturation models and, 33; in Deianira’s letter (Heroides 9), 62–63, 81; in Dido’s letter (Heroides 7), 158n.76; in Homer’s Odyssey, 31–34, 33n15, 38, 51; in Penelope’s letter (Heroides 1), 26, 29, 31, 43–47, 50–52; in Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4), 83, 90–91; in Sophocles’s Trachiniae, 56, 81
narrative theory: Canace’s letter (Heroides 11) reinterpreted through, 114, 116–17; Dido’s letter (Heroides 7) reinterpreted through, 22, 85, 141
nature, in Sappho’s letter (Heroides 15), 237–39
“natureculture,” notion of, 23, 239–40
nomadic subject, 179; Medea’s process of becoming (Heroides 12), 179, 195–96, 198, 199, 200
Octavian. See Augustus
Odyssey (Homer): gender role reversals in, 30–31; meeting between Ulysses and Nausicaa in, 143; mother-son relationship in, 31–34, 33n15, 38, 51; Penelope in, 25, 30–34, 36
Oedipal complex, Penelope’s letter (Heroides 1) reinterpreted through, 21, 29, 51
Omphale: Cleopatra compared to, 68; Hercules’s enslavement by, description in Deianira’s letter (Heroides 9), 54, 55, 62, 65–74; representations of, 55n6
One Thousand and One Nights, 116–17
Orestes, Hyllus compared to, 56
Ovid: and blurring of boundaries between writer and literary object, 85, 90; exile poetry of, 7, 7n22, 90, 97n42; feminist readings of, 3–5; interest in Medea, 175; subversive discourse against Augustan family law, 19–20, 21, 42–43, 97–98, 100, 111, 112, 126. See also specific works
Pacuvius, Medus, 174n4
paelex (concubine): Creusa addressed as, in Medea’s letter (Heroides 12), 185, 185n52; Iole described as, in Deianira’s letter (Heroides 9), 74–77; Medea addressed as, in Hypsipyle’s letter (Heroides 6), 185n52, 216, 216n56, 222, 227n94
pater patriae, Augustus as, 10, 12, 110
patriarchal system: control over female body/voice, in Canace’s letter (Heroides 11), 121, 131, 133, 134; control over motherhood, 12, 19, 215–16, 216n53; female speech inhibited by, 91–92, 93; heroines freeing themselves from, in Ovid’s Heroides, 7–8; and jouissance of motherhood, suppression of, 19, 137, 137n85; marriage as institution of, Irigaray on, 214n48; Medea’s rejection of (Heroides 12), 14, 198; Medea’s writing in Heroides 12 as expression of, 192; Phaedra’s challenge to (Heroides 4), 14, 113. See also law of the Father
Pelias, daughters of, 193, 194
Penelope: ambivalent representations in Greek sources, 30; cunningness of, 31, 36; as embodiment of ideal wife and mother, 26, 30; etymology of name, 30n2; and Hermes, alleged liaison with, 30n2; in Homer’s Odyssey, 25, 30–34, 36; male qualities of, 30–31, 31n8, 33; as master of the house, 13, 21, 26, 29, 30; in Ovid’s Ars amatoria, 34n19; Propertius 2.9 on, 48; remarriage of, as threat to Telemachus, 33–34; web (weaving) trick of, 36–37
Penelope, letter of (Heroides 1), 25–26, 34–52; addressee of, 36–37; Augustan family policy mocked in, 21, 42–43; Deianira’s letter and parallels with, 62–63, 81–82; as écriture féminine, 49; gender role reversals in, 35–36, 41, 48–49; heroine’s appropriation of agency in, 21, 37, 40–52; Homeric model reinterpreted in, 40–41; ironic discourse in, 26, 29, 39–40, 41–42; literary genres combined in, 6, 38; motherhood as means of self-empowerment in, 19, 26, 29, 34, 35, 45, 49–50; mother-son relationship in, 26, 29, 31, 43–47, 50–52; potential female readership and, 37; reduction of Ulysses’s heroic status in, 35, 39–40, 51–52; sources for, 25, 26, 30–34; spinning replaced by writing in, 37–39; subversion of stereotypical role of abandoned lover in, 41, 50, 52; Telemachus depicted as helpless puer in, 43–47, 50; theoretical framework for reinterpreting, 21, 27, 29, 49–50
Phaedra: as “bad wife/mother,” 14; death of, different versions of, 94; and Dido, thematic link between, 145; myth of, 87–88; writing of, role in Euripides’s Hippolytus, 88–89, 95
Phaedra (Seneca), 61n33, 87, 90, 94, 98n47, 104n72, 106n84, 113, 194n79, 226n91
Phaedra (Sophocles), 88, 105n80
Phaedra, letter of (Heroides 4), 83–84, 90–113; allusions/omissions in, 91, 92, 94, 95, 109–10; Augustus’s family policy challenged in, 97–98, 100, 111; Canace’s letter (Heroides 11) recalling, 120, 128; in conversation with Euripides’s Hippolytus, 84, 88–89, 90, 91–92, 93, 95–96, 95n35; departure from previous literary tradition in, 21–22, 84, 87, 92, 94, 113; dialectic of speech and silence/speech and writing in, 91–92, 93, 95–96; final prayer in, 113; gender role reversals in, 87, 93–94, 103–4, 105; genealogical background provided in, 101–2, 120; heroine’s self-empowerment in, 92–93, 96–97, 100–101, 104; Hippolytus’s precarious masculinity in, 93–94, 102–5, 235n17; incest presented as lawful in, 22, 99–100, 108–9, 111, 120; ironic discourse in, 89, 91, 92, 97–98, 113; “law of the Mother” established in, 84, 108, 110–11, 113; literary genres combined in, 6; opening couplet of, 90–91; patriarchal authority challenged in, 14, 113; pudor (decency) vs. amor (love) in, 95–96; reconceptualization of familial relationships in, 22, 93, 97–102, 112–13; reinterpretation of concept of virginity in, 98–99, 99n50, 100; reinterpretation of (step)motherhood in, 19, 87, 91, 95–102, 105–12, 113; suicide omitted in, 94; theoretical framework for reinterpreting, 21, 84, 87, 102, 104, 110; writer and literary object in, blurring of boundaries between, 90, 91, 96
Phaedrus (fable writer), 15–16
Phaon, in Sappho’s letter (Heroides 15), 104n95, 231, 234–41
Phèdre (Racine), 87
pignus (child/guarantee): Canace’s reference to (Heroides 11), 133, 136; Deianira’s reference to (Heroides 9), 79; Hippolytus described as, in Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4), 107; Hypsipyle’s reference to (Heroides 6), 220, 223; Medea’s reference to (Heroides 12), 196
Plutarch, Life of Caesar, 8
Polyxena, link between Dido and, 146
posthuman feminism: conception of gender as flux, 18, 22; Medea’s letter (Heroides 12) reinterpreted through lens of, 18, 22–23, 171, 172, 173, 178–79, 198, 200. See also nomadic subject
pregnancy: Canace’s description of, as embodied experience (Heroides 11), 22, 84–85, 114, 122–30; and concept of matrixial borderspace, 216, 221; in Hypsipyle’s letter (Heroides 6), 215–16, 219, 230; potential, in Dido’s letter (Heroides 7), 13, 22, 85, 141–42, 145, 160–64, 170; unsympathetic representations in Ovid’s poetry, 22. See also fetus
Propertius: as closest model for Ovid’s Heroides, 6; Deianira’s letter recalling, 60; on Omphale, 55, 55n7, 68; on Penelope’s patience, 48; on Vergil’s Aeneid, 2, 201
(pseudo-)Plutarch, Moralia, 115, 131n62
puella(e): Amazonian, Phaedra on (Heroides 4), 106; elegiac, Penelope’s challenge to stereotypical portrayal of (Heroides 1), 48; elegiac tradition and, 6n21, 26, 35, 48, 55, 61, 91, 104n71, 235; Hercules as, in Deianira’s letter (Heroides 9), 65–68; Phaedra’s association with (Heroides 4), 90–91, 95; Phaon as, in Sappho’s letter (Heroides 15), 235; Ulysses as, in Penelope’s letter (Heroides 1), 35
puer: Canace’s reference to her child as (Heroides 11), 135; Deianira’s reference to Hyllus as (Heroides 9), 62–63; and new Golden Age, Vergil’s Eclogues 4 on, 11; Phaon depicted as, in Sappho’s letter (Heroides 15), 235; Telemachus depicted as, in Penelope’s letter (Heroides 1), 43–47, 50, 135
Racine, Jean, Phèdre, 87
Reeson, James, 120n22, 128n50, 133
Rhesus (Euripides), 135
Rimell, Victoria, 232
Sappho: brother of, references to, 236; in Catullus’s poetry, 231–32; daughter of, references to, 233–34, 236; mythologization and “literalization” after death of, 231; poetry of, fragments of, 233, 236
Sappho, letter of (Heroides 15), 231–41; authorship of, issues concerning, 232; description of nature in, 237–39; description of Phaon in, 234–35; gender-based readings of, 232; gender-role reversal in, 235, 238; homoerotic relationship in, 234–35; motherhood and sexual desire in, overlap between, 23, 234–37, 240–41; polyphony in, 233; suicide anticipated in, 239; theoretical perspective for reinterpretation of, 23, 239–40
Schaps, David, 176
Scholes, Robert, 159
scopophilic gaze, theories on: Deianira’s letter (Heroides 9) reinterpreted through, 21, 53, 56, 75–77; Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4) reinterpreted through, 21, 84, 104, 105
semiotics: Dido’s letter (Heroides 7) reinterpreted through, 85, 141, 159–60; Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4) reinterpreted through, 110
Seneca: Consolatio ad Helviam, 12n46; Hercules furens, 55n6; Hercules Oetaeus, 55n6; Medea, 138n88, 174, 175n12, 180n34, 183n44, 185n52, 188n63, 190n67, 191n69, 194n76, 198n88, 199n95, 200nn96–97, 201nn102–103; Phaedra, 61n33, 87, 90, 94, 98n47, 104n72, 106n84, 113, 194n79, 226n91
sexuality/sexual desire: motherhood and, overlap in Sappho’s letter (Heroides 15), 23, 234–37, 240–41; and writing, theorization of relationship between, 159, 161n85. See also incest
Showerman, Grant, 119
Sophocles: Colchides, 174n4; Phaedra, 88, 105n80; Scythai, 174n4; Trachiniae, 27, 53–60, 61, 62n36, 64n40, 65n41, 67n51,71n69, 73nn76–77, 74, 77, 79, 78n99, 81
speech, female: Dido’s letter (Heroides 7) and regaining of, 148–49, 168, 169–70; as means of empowerment and danger, 91–92; patriarchal inhibition of, 91–92, 93
Statius, Thebaid: scholarship on, 17; Hypsipyle’s narrative in, 205
stepmother (noverca): Anchelomus’s relationship with, in Vergil’s Aeneid, 83n2; Deianira’s reference to (Heroides 9), 61; Hypsipyle’s references to (Heroides 6), 222, 223; Medea’s references to (Heroides 12), 188, 189; Phaedra’s reinterpretation of her role as (Heroides 4), 19, 22, 87, 91, 95–102, 105–12, 113
Stobaeus, Florilegium, 115, 131n62
Suetonius, Vita Vergilii, 161
suicide: Canace’s, as rebellious act (Heroides 11), 84, 118, 132, 136–39; Deianira’s in Heroides 9, 57, 59, 78, 79; Dido’s in Heroides 7, 166–69; Dido’s in Vergil’s Aeneid, 143, 146–47; Phaedra’s, omission in Heroides 4, 94; Sappho’s, anticipation in Heroides 15, 239; by sword vs. hanging, gender and, 94
sword: in Canace’s letter (Heroides 11), 119, 121–22, 133–34, 138, 139; and Dido’s suicide, in Heroides 7, 166–68, 169; and Dido’s suicide, in Vergil’s Aeneid, 147; and pen, Ovidian heroines and, 119, 122, 166–68; as phallic symbol, 119, 133–34, 138, 139, 147, 168; suicide by, vs. suicide by hanging, gender and, 94; and web, gender represented through, 121–22
Telemachus: in Homer’s Odyssey, 31–34, 38, 40, 51; Penelope’s remarriage as threat to, 33–34; as puer, in Penelope’s letter (Heroides 1), 43–47, 50
Thebaid (Statius): scholarship on, 17; Hypsipyle’s narrative in, 205
Theseus: Phaedra’s marital contract with, reinterpretation in Heroides 4, 97–98; reproachable behavior of, as justification for Phaedra’s incestuous desire in Heroides 4, 105–6, 157
Trachiniae (Sophocles), 27, 53–60, 61, 62n36, 64n40, 65n41, 67n51,71n69, 73nn76–77, 74, 77, 79, 78n99, 81
Tristia (Ovid): book addressed as child in, 1–2; references to Sappho in, 232
Ulysses: in Homer’s Odyssey, meeting with Nausicaa, 143; in Homer’s Odyssey, Penelope portrayed as equal to, 30–31, 31n8; in Penelope’s letter (Heroides 1), reduction of heroic status of, 35, 39–40, 51–52
uxor (wife): Deianira’s self-portrayal as, 54, 63–64, 78–79; Livia celebrated as, 10; Penelope’s self-portrayal as, 43–44, 45
Vergil: Eclogues, 11, 59n24, 67n53, 68n97, 78n97, 108n91, 110, 169n110, 238n27, 239n29. See also Aeneid (Vergil)
Vessey, D. W. T. C., 58
virginity: Hippolytus’s, Phaedra on (Heroides 4), 104; Phaedra’s reinterpretation of concept of (Heroides 4), 98–99, 99n50, 100, 108; reference to, in Medea’s letter (Heroides 12), 194
Vita Vergilii (Donatus/Suetonius), 161
woman/women: abandoned, elegy and, 6; ambitious, stigmatization of, 13–14, 14n48; marginalized, Medea as speaking on behalf of, 175–76; as readers of Ovid’s Heroides, 13, 37, 161, 213; Roman, participation in literary activities, 37; self-empowerment of, motherhood and, 12–13, 19, 20; speech as means of empowerment and danger for, 91–92; status in Roman society, marriage and, 213; status in Roman society, motherhood and, 8–9, 10, 12, 162
writing: as childbirth, in Dido’s letter (Heroides 7), 160, 161, 162–63, 168–70; as childbirth, metaphor of, 1–2, 97, 97n42; dialectic of speech and, in Phaedra’s letter (Heroides 4), 91–92, 93, 95–96; female, normative procreative function of women displaced by, 97; Phaedra’s, role in Euripides’s Hippolytus, 88–89, 95; and self-construction, in Canace’s letter (Heroides 11), 22, 84, 112, 116, 119, 131, 139–40; and self-empowerment, in Hypsipyle’s letter (Heroides 6), 209–10; and self-empowerment, in Medea’s letter (Heroides 12), 191–92; and self-empowerment, in Penelope’s letter (Heroides 1), 37–39; and sexuality, theorization of relationship between, 159, 161n85; silencing of women and, 131. See also écriture féminine
Zorn, Jeffrey, 176