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

2. Gender, Genre, and Women’s Work in the Odyssey

Gender, Genre, and Women’s Work in the Odyssey Only reapers, reaping early In among the bearded barley, Hear a song that echoes cheerly From the river winding clearly, Down to tower’d Camelot: And by the moon the reaper weary, Piling sheaves in uplands airy, Listening, whispers “’Tis the fairy Lady of Shalott.” There she weaves by night and day A magic web with colours gay. She has heard a whisper say, A curse is on her if she stay To look down to Camelot. —Tennyson, “The Lady of Shallot” Gender, Genre, and a Maiden’s “Song”: Reflections of Choral Poetry in Homer’s Odyssey While the imagery of females working wool is prominent in verbal as well as visual representations, in both archaic and classical vase iconography, and woolwork and its role in gender construction have attracted significant scholarly attention, it is by no means the only activity that reflects women’s work.1 In this chapter I turn to a less studied type of work and its stylization in Homer: washing clothes. Several parameters are quite different here; for one thing, washing clothes is associated with young unmarried women at a particular stage of their life. My focus is on how epic reads what would have been a routine activity and weaves it into its longer narrative. Chapter 2 One of the most graceful episodes of Homer’s Odyssey is the encounter between Odysseus and Nausicaa in book 6, the book that marks the beginning of the “real” Odyssey and brings into focus Odysseus as a storyteller of his own adventures and a hero. The first twelve books of the Odyssey are primarily concerned with adventurous travel that anticipates the much-awaited homecoming to Ithaca, the focus of the second half of the poem, as the culmination and reaffirmation of heroic identity.2 Odysseus’s wanderings form the kernel of his storytelling , and they are narrated as past, already an object of memory.3 From a narratological point of view, before Odysseus returns to Ithaca it is only the episodes at Ogygia and Scheria, the islands of Calypso and the Phaeacians, respectively , that present Odysseus’s adventures as they occur. The poem oscillates in narrative time and space, from Troy to Ithaca, from past to future via the challenges of the present. In book 6 past and present meet to prepare the future and final stages of the heroic homecoming.4 Just as the society of the Phaeacians is free from suffering, Odysseus will find rest from his toils and continue toward Ithaca to achieve his return home bestowed with generous gifts. Scheria is an idealized world, a dream come true that will lead the hero to his next step. As Segal remarks, the safe arrival among the Phaeacians “cancels the paralyzing enchantment of Ogygia and marks the accomplishment of the most difficult part of Odysseus’ return to humanity.”5 When the narrative becomes synchronized with the action, it is worth considering how the Odysseus who emerges from the sea becomes part of a paradise that has its own norms of behavior. At the same time, with a shift toward the feminine world of Nausicaa, epic poetry itself acquires refreshed norms. In this chapter, I discuss how the epic narrative of book 6 of the Odyssey absorbs and reflects choral poetic modes and captures performances of female choruses centered on the theme of female work, in particular the task of washing. Images of paradise recall removal from suffering and depict pleasure and joy. Such an archetypical notion of a paradisical world is fulfilled in the description of Scheria, the island of the Phaeacians. The poem, itself narrated by a rhapsode, alludes to notions of pleasure, which are intertwined with choral moments. Pleasure permeates the entire episode, and Odysseus is both immersed in it and struggling against it. His recounting of his journey after the war at Troy and the poetic pleasure that he offers his audience will serve as an antidote to and constant reminder of his final goal: return to his home. The narration of all his adventures in a tantalizing set of stories will serve his goals, as the audience, captivated by the power of his storytelling, will return the favor by preparing him for the final stage of his return to Ithaca. Gender, Genre, and Women’s Work in the Odyssey 53 54 voices at work From a performance point of view...