Feminism, Women's Spirituality, Helen, Multi-Ethnicity: The Woven Fabric of My Perspective on Ancient Greek Drama, Literature, and Culture

Helen, you always were . . . the weaving tree and Mother of the people.
    Judy Grahn, "Helen you always were / the factory,"

Queen of Wands

In her collection of poems entitled Queen of Wands, Judy Grahn weaves together the ancient meanings and modern influences of the ancient figure of Helen: her roles as an icon of beauty and erotic desire in ancient Troy and as a counterpart to Marilyn Monroe today; her creative impulses as weaver, storyteller, poet; and her spiritual energy manifest as divine loveliness and as an animating Tree of Life. Here, Grahn, following in the footsteps of H.D. and others, evocatively interprets through poetic images features of ancient literary works from a modern perspective, rather than academically through scholarly elaboration. While some scholars might dismiss these interpretations as poetic fancies lacking the rigors of detailed scholarly examination, ¹ surely the impulses leading to both the poetic and scholarly interpretations flow from the same wellspring: the realm of insight into the ancient world that engenders contemporary meanings.

Nevertheless, even though poets and scholars may be propelled by similar forces, they diverge sharply in the ways they articulate and elaborate their insights. This common wellspring, as I see it, is the source for another scholarly impulse, one that appears no less suspect to many scholars than the notion of poetic interpretation, that of the personal voice. In this paper, I will reflect upon the value that writing in the personal voice has in the scholarly interpretation of the ancient world.

When visions of Helen first started coming to me, I can no longer recall, other than that it was during my graduate studies. I do recall more specifically the occasions of other visionary appearances: those of Demeter, during my first year of graduate school. To understand why Demeter appeared, and what these appearances meant, I need to recall the different paths that had brought me to that moment: studying classics as a graduate student at Stanford University. This autobiographical overview is intended to show how family circumstances, cultural and religious heritage, frequent geographical relocations, and being a woman and a feminist all contributed to my standpoint as "the Other" in numerous ways, critically shaping my intellectual and epistemological development.

From Jewish refugee immigrant to The study of Classics

Coming to America at four and a half years of age, I was raised a daughter of Holocaust survivors in a community of survivors, "greene," in Atlanta, Georgia. Orthodox among mostly conservative, reform, or non-observant Jews, I grew up in a deeply alienating environment, the very white, Anglo, actively racist, anti-Semitic South of the 1950s. Since I was cast almost entirely with the children of the immigrant survivors' community, I felt that my olive skin and family experiences allied me with the blacks I was not supposed to meet. However, my European background determined that I was sent to white schools, where I was always keenly conscious of my differences from all others, including American Jews. Excelling in school became my way in and up.

I grew up in the deep South before and during the changes wrought by Woolworth's lunch counter sit-downs and open seating on buses. I witnessed and was a part of both, though I was too young to understand fully either what was happening or the magnitude of my action when I simply sat down next to a black-skinned person in the front of the bus. Following in the wake of Little Rock school integration, Atlanta integrated its schools, public transportation, workplaces, and public offices rather peacefully. But under the "New South" veneer of Atlanta, old, deeply rooted hostilities continued to fester. In the summer of 1964, my family happened to meet and talk with the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his family. They were enjoying a...