Gender and otherness

Floor 2, Room 36, Showcase 36.5. Krater of Christie's painter

Women were perceived as an 'other' in contrast to the Greek masculine ideal, but the most marked otherness was represented by the figure of the amazons. The Amazons were not only women: they were warriors, they were foreigners from the East, and they refused to live under male domination. They represented the complete opposite of the Greek citizen and of his conception of what female roles ought to be. They were not, however, a ridiculed enemy: the Amazons were always presented as formidable adversaries, facing in myth some of the most important heroes, such as Heracles, Achilles or Theseus. Nevertheless, they were invariably defeated: the enemy was tailor-made for the Greek ideal, but their defeat was necessary for the assertion of dominance of the masculine and civic ideal.

In the construction of the Amazons' gender, the masculine and the feminine were intertwined. The representation of their bodies and features was clearly feminine: there was no masculinisation of their physical features and, despite popular belief, they were depicted with both breasts. However, in contrast to the passive and docile attitude of women and ephebes, the object of desire and domination of the male citizen, they were active, masculine, dangerous beings. But even their masculinity was not free of ambiguity. The Amazons, for example, engaged in the quintessentially masculine activity, war, as well as other activities associated with men, such as hunting, but they were never depicted practising another traditionally masculine activity in Greece, sport. The Amazons are a prime example of complex and ambiguous gender construction, where the mixture feminine and masculine traits resulted in a figure that caused both fascination and fear.

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