The Play of Words : Blood Ties and Power Relations in Aeschylus'' ""Oresteia""

231 Pages·2014·1.01 MB·English

by  Chesi

Giulia Maria Chesi
The Play of Words
Trends in Classics –
Supplementary Volumes
Edited by
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Scientific Committee
Alberto Bernabé · Margarethe Billerbeck
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Giuseppe Mastromarco · Gregory Nagy
Theodore D. Papanghelis · Giusto Picone
Kurt Raaflaub · Bernhard Zimmermann
Volume 26
Giulia Maria Chesi
The Play of
Words
Blood Ties and Power Relations
in Aeschylus’ Oresteia
DE GRUYTER
ISBN978-3-11-033431-9
e-ISBN978-3-11-033433-3
ISSN1868-4785
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Acknowledgments
IwishtothankAnnaDiReDell’AnnaforherGreeklessons atschool;myCam-
bridgeCollege,theFacultyofClassics,andmyfriends,EnricoVentura,Lorenzo
Corti, Rachel Bryant Davies, Sherin Saeidi, Giulitta Nardi Perna, Kai Schöpe,
TessaMarzotto,HelenvanNoorden,MariaKilby,PaulaOrnelas,FrancescoGius-
ti,MarcoFormisanoandCraigWilliams,fortheirunvaluablesupport;AgisMar-
inis,EltonBarker,PatEasterling,LuciaPrauscello,RenaudGagnéandtheanon-
ymousreadersofDeGruyterfortheirprecioussuggestions;DavideRuggerini,for
the index; Maria Erge (De Gruyter) for editorial assistance.
EspeciallyIthankFromaZeitlin,forhavingdonethefirststep;ThomasPoiss
forhisintegrity;SimonGoldhill,il(mio)Maestro,forhisdeinonexampleofhu-
mility,generosity,patience,andintellectualresponsibilityinteachingmehowto
readandhowtowrite;mydadMarioandLicia,for alwaysbeingthere;Jim,for
ourtimeinBerlin-Mitte,ashewasachild;Laura,forourbeingsisters;Diego,for
his intelligence and our love.
Mydeepestthanksgotomygrand-momandtoCristina–mymother,mybest
friend–for having taught their child the social dutyof (female) dis-obedience–
someone has said that it requires less mental effort to condemn than to think–
Emma Goldman

ACesarina e alle sue lunghe ore

The term‘non father’ does not exist in any realm of social categories
A. Rich, Of Woman Born
Morepeculiarperhaps,butsadlyunsurprising,weretheassessmentsIaccepted
about fictional women. For example, I quickly learned that power was unfemi-
nine and powerful women were, quite literary, monstrous … Bitches all, they
must be eliminated, reformed, or at the very least, condemned
L. R. Edwards, Massachusetts Review 13 (1972)
Perhaps this is one of those cases, not infrequent in Aeschylus, in which the
word is more important than the man (or woman)
R. P.Winnington-Ingram, Studies in Aeschylus