Between Lions and Men: The Metaphoric Association of Women and Animals in the Literature and Art of Archaic and Classical Greece

Abstract

Ancient Greek literature and art frequently created metaphorical associations between women and animals. This association has not been studied in the scholarship in great depth and breadth, although research on aspects of this metaphor do exist. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the “woman as animal” metaphor was portrayed: across a wide range of literary sources which compare female characters to animals, artistic representations which closely associate women with animals, and mythological narratives from the archaic and classical periods of Greece. Each point of comparison which is drawn between a woman and an animal is considered within the context of its genre, chronological developments, and its relation to similar comparisons. A wide sampling of extant evidence indicates that the “woman as animal” metaphor is adapted and developed for different media and genres, but remains a coherent cultural theme from the Homeric epics through to the literature, art and mythology of the archaic and classical periods. This thesis argues that the representations of women as animalistic were primarily concerned with the transition that young women would have undergone between girlhood and motherhood, although mature women who are not under the control of a husband could also be understood as animalistic. Moreover, the “woman as animal” association is closely connected to the “courtship as hunting” cultural metaphor.