Keywords
divine rapes
Greek women emotions
How to Cite
Abstract
Although in ancient Greece there is no explicit term for what we might call rape, the non-appearance of a lexeme does not automatically imply the absence of a conceptual/semantic distinction such an action would have marked. Virgins and gods or demigods often meet and mingle in ancient Greek literature. Nonetheless, these encounters between young women and divine creatures are rarely consensual; the use of force is sometimes an essential part of the story. Modern scholars have long attempted to describe stories of encounters between gods and young women and have coined various terms to do so, such as “heroic rapes”, “heroic abductions”, “the girl’s tragedy”, ''divine rapes'', or simply “seductions''. In Euripides’ extant tragedies and fragments, we encounter eight victims of divine rape: Creusa, Danaë, Antiope, Alope, Auge, Melanippe, Alcmene, and Pasiphaë. The starting point and central focus are the birth, exposure, and rescue of the newborn, his arrival at the threshold of maturity, and his reunion with his biological parents. In ancient Greek literature, narratives of divine rape have often been sanitised, and the victim’s subjective experience and emotional trauma have been obscured or devalued. Euripides, however, depicts sexual violence from the perspective of the female victim, thereby creating a female discourse about rape. However, there has been a strong focus on the depictions of divine rape in Greek tragedy in the past; little or no attention has been paid to the expression of the emotions of the women-victims. This paper aims to examine the emotions of some of the victims of divine rape in Euripides' tragedies.
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