Abstract
Greek tragedy portrayed the husband and wife relationship as fraught with hos¬tilities and ambivalences. The purpose of this mini-dissertation is to examine these dysfunctions, and to explain them. I have approached the problem from several important angles. I have begun with selected aspects of Athenian Mythol¬ogy and the foundation myths of Athenian culture to see whether there are recur¬rent themes that attest to inherent ambivalences and hostilities towards women within the mythological heritage of Athens. This approach is based on two as¬sumptions: first, that the dynamics of interpersonal relationships portrayed in mythology and literature tend to mirror the modal patterns of cultures and sec¬ond, the experiences of these modal patterns are the inspiration from which a culture draws its mythmaking. I then examine the context of the production of tragedy within the religious framework of the festival of the Greater Dionysia so as to establish a theory of the nature and function of Greek tragedy. The purpose of the second focus is to see whether there are connections between the workings of Greek tragedy and the thematic material it portrays. I have chosen four Greek tragedies within which to explore marital dysfunctions: Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Sophocles’ Ajax and The Women of Trachis, and Euripides’ Medea. I have un¬der¬taken a close reading of the original texts and commentaries as well as a close reading of comparative translations of the texts for the purpose of this study.
My explorations reveal that Athenian society was aware of the risks of the dire imbalance prevailing within their social order, which was created by such a fero¬cious suppression and derogation of half their members. In addition this imbal¬ance was redressed on a continual basis by the production of and through com¬munal participation in tragedy in its function as a ritualistic mechanism for ca¬thartic relief.
Thus I conclude that the production of tragedy served to reaffirm the status quo. Tragedy provided a process for the de-structuring of familial and social order first and then sought and promoted a process of psychological restructuring and re-integration. This occurred through the empathetic workings of Catharsis or pur¬gation of negative emotions or feelings of guilt. The cathartic effects of tragedy were designed for men. As a collective therapeutic action it confirmed the male dominated order of society and reaffirmed the Athenian perception of a dualistic reality in the form of irreconcilable opposites: theatre versus life and female ver¬sus male. Tragedies were written by men and performed by men and thus we can expect all symptoms, signs and symbols of male and female conflict to be the products of the masculine psyche.
Prof. J.L.P. Wolmarans