Male-Female Polarity in the Ancient World

  • Full title: Male-Female Polarity in the Ancient World
  • Dates: May 27-28, 2023, 11:00am–3:00pm
  • Location: Nafplio, Greece
  • Organized by: CHS Greece
  • Open to: All (up to 18 positions)
  • Application period: March 31-May 1, 2023
  • Academic Coordination:  Spyros Ragkos (Professor of Ancient Greek Philology and Philosophy, University of Patras) and Chryssanthi Papadopoulou (Archaeologist, Harvard CHS Fellow in Comparative Cultural Studies 2021-2022)
  • Activity Administration: Matina Goga (CHS Greece)

About the workshop

Overview

As part of the annual workshop series 2022-2023, the Center for Hellenic Studies in Greece offers the workshop "Male-Female Polarity in the Ancient World."

Drawing from selected ancient Greek texts as well as the archaeological record, this workshop will focus on gender roles, gender stereotypes and their occasional reversals in ancient Greece. There will be a presentation of the social and ideological superstructure of classical Athens as well as Athens’ various, deviating micro-societies. We shall analyze the ways male and female bodies were presented in Greek sculpture and discuss the classical Greek notions of beauty, idealization, moderation, and modesty. Drawing on ancient Greek philosophy, poetry, history, and art we will reflect on corporeality, love, erotic desire, gender relations and their challenges.

Workshop on Male-Female Polarity 2023 poster.

Thematic areas – Workshop structure

The approach to the workshop’s topic will be structured around the following thematic axes:

Day One

  • Methodology: texts, images, matters of interpretation, gods and mortals
  • Gender roles in ancient Greece: symbioses and antitheses
  • Male power: war and games
  • Female resilience: birth and mourning
  • Husband and wife in Xenophon’s Oikonomikos (ch. 7)
  • The male and female figure in ancient Greek sculpture
  • The lives of youths and adults

Day Two

  • The three sexes in Plato’s Symposium (189c-193d)
  • Heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality
  • The love of women and the love of boys in Plutarch’s Erotikos
  • Plato and Aristotle on the role of women
  • Men and women on ancient Greek vases
  • Gender identities in the archaeological record

During the workshop meetings, the academic coordinator will introduce the above topics, and participants are invited to contribute to the group's discussions and case studies actively. In addition, ten days before the workshop, participants will receive relevant material that they can optionally study in advance.

Learn more about the workshop's objectives and participation process (in Greek).