Women of the persian court: the female representation in Herodotus' Histories and in fifth century BC attic iconography

Author(s)

Amabile Helena Zanco

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2022-11-17

Examining board members

Pedro Paulo Abreu Funari; Nathalia Monseff Junqueira; Erica Morais Angliker

• Advisor: Pedro Paulo Abreu Funari; Airton Brazil Pollini Junior

Abstract

Since antiquity, the East and its peoples were object of the Western eye, which can be observed in many sources that talk about, describe and analyze this neighbor region and in the process draw up speeches of otherness that marked it’s difference, such as Herodotus Histories and the attic iconographic representations. In the Halicarnassus’ author, we can see the portrait of many persian women, who assisted the greek self-definition activity. Beyond the ethnocentric clichés that highlighted cruelty, vanity and haren conspiracy, we pay attention to female actions in the author’s Persian court, that show us the interference of women in Persian politics, stepping inside the men’s world. The analysis of the Histories’ Persian women in dialogue with their iconographic representation in material culture allow us to reflect upon the Greek male conception related to women in their society, their expected behavior, the spaces occupied by them, just as the actions that perturb the norm, indicating that the need to describe the difference in barbarian women may highlight similar conducts in their own society (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 19/21963-8 - Persian women in the Greek imaginary: the representation of otherness in Herodotus' Histories
• Grantee: Amabile Helena Zanco
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master