Voices at Work: Women, Performance, and Labor in Ancient Greece

Introduction

Introduction Κάθε δειλινό κάθουμουν στο σκαμνάκι μου στην αυλή, μέσα στους βασιλικούς και τους κατηϕέδες, και διάβαζα δυνατά τα όσα μαρτύρια υπόϕεραν οι άγιοι για να σώσουν την ψυχή τους. Οι γειτόνισσες μαζεύονταν με τα ραψίδια τους και τις δουλειές τους, άλλες έπλεκαν κάλτσες, άλλες καθάριζαν βρούβες ή άλεθαν καϕέ, κι άκουγαν. Και σιγά σιγά θρήνος σηκώνονταν στην αυλή για τα βάσανα και τα πάθη των αγίων. —Nikos Kazantzakis, Αναϕορά στον Γκρέκο Each evening I sat on my little stool amid the basil and marigolds of our courtyard and read out loud all the various ordeals the saints had endured in order to save their souls. The women of the neighborhood congregated around me with their sewing or work—some knitted socks, others ground coffee or cleaned mustard stalks. They listened, and little by little our courtyard began to ring with lamentations for the saints’ sufferings and torments. To give silence a voice is the main task I undertake in this book, further exploring the fascinating relation between women’s daily work and poetry. I aim to answer the following questions: How is the theme of female work reflected in ancient Greek poetry, and how does it permeate early Greek poetics? What kind of poetic activity accompanied women’s work? What performances were connected with women’s everyday labor in ancient Greece? Daily labor was shaped by routine underlying configurations of activity to support the household economy . Domestic and agricultural labor were invested with a rich poetic tradition. Textile or agricultural production involved storytelling, singing, and poetry. Every labor employed, beyond its socioeconomic function, the power of poetic 2 voices at work creation. From the early muted performances of Calypso and Circe, who sing while they weave, and the simile comparing Nausicaa to Artemis in Odyssey 6, which presents an occasion for a washing scene, where female performances are captured and filtered into the fabric of epic, to lyric fragments, Hellenistic poetry, and later lexicographic comments, a tantalizing tradition is brought to light. Women are portrayed throughout Greek literature at moments of work, which cannot be assumed to be silent. The context of labor becomes a metaphor for poetic composition and performance but also provides a platform for a repertoire that ranges from songs directly associated with the task at hand, as in the case of grinding songs, to traditional female performances, such as lament and wedding songs, among other genres and types of songs. Voices at work interact with the daily experiences of the ancients. Women sang songs while completing their daily work, and their songs were perceived to be as dull and monotonous as the task at hand.1 An example of this can be seen in a passage from Aristophanes’s Clouds where Pheidippides refuses to pick up the lyre and sing a song by Simonides which his father had requested, claiming that it is old-fashioned to play the lyre and sing at a drinking party; it would sound like a woman grinding barley (1357–58).2 Songs performed while hulling or grinding grain epitomize songs perceived as lacking aesthetic value and a contemporary style and rhythm. To a great extent the opinion expressed by Pheidippides in Clouds, as reported by his father, reflects the way working songs have been regarded in ancient as well as modern times. They are seen as lacking variety and are associated with patterns of work that have not changed dramatically over time. As such, they have been little more than a footnote in most scholarly works. In another tradition, of contemporary Somalia, a mother communicates her disapproval of her daughter’s arranged marriage through a work song while pounding grain.3 Her song resembles a wedding song. What cannot be communicated directly, because of the social norms imposed on women and the politically disenfranchised , is encoded in a seemingly innocent wedding song that conveys a message of protest. Plain poetic verses lacking at first glance the high aesthetics of other genres become powerful and influential communication tools amid the dynamics of tense social relations. Work songs have a long tradition in many cultures of dealing with actuality, with social issues, as well as channeling the voices of the masses and people who may appear to be marginalized in power structures. Performances at work enrich daily activities by providing an added parameter of sound and discourse that functions on multiple levels. A work song can alleviate labor, open a breathing space by references to diverse narratives. Introduction 3 Work songs themselves become part of a registered tradition for a community that draws from the same pool of lore. Ritual repetition of simple verses becomes a strong voice of empowerment for the performers, who create a circuit of communication among all the constituents of daily work that involves the extensions of narratives uttered or sung. As a genre that...