Images of Women

Lecture outline• Issues with interpretation• Constructing the woman in the domestic context• The Veil• Nudity• Identifying prostitutes

Constructing the Domestic• Images of women without men – ‘domestic’• Provide insight into otherwise hidden world?• However – images reflect a construction of gender

produced by society• Not to be taken at face value!• Who was the intended viewer?• A figured vase can be used to promote concepts of

femininity to all viewers

Eroticism to female romanticism

Red-figure lekythos, 475-425 BC

Adornment

Red-figure hydria,430 BC

Suspended ObjectsMirrors, vases, sashes – floating in space used to represent the female space

Red-figure, white-ground lekythos475-425 BC

Invisible Bride

Red-figure bowl, 550 BC

Abducting your bride

Red-figure pyxis, 550 BC

Beautiful Loutrophoros

Red-figure loutrophoros, 430-20 B C

Red-figure lebes gamikos, 450-400 BC

Plaque fragment; woman carrying a kalathos

• What is a kalathos and how was it used?• Where do you think this plaque would have been

used?• What is the message of the plaque?

Red figure pyxis; women in various postions• What is a pyxis and what is it used for?• What activities are happening in these scenes?• What objects are suspended in the scene and why? (arrow points to suspended alabastron

Red-figure pelike; woman and two youths• What do you think this vessel would be used for?• What is the woman holding and why?• What do you think is happening here?

Red-figure, white ground lekythos; woman at stele with male figure

• What is a lekythos and how was it used?• Where do you think the represented scene occurred?• What do you think the woman is doing?• How can you explore the figure of the man?

Veiled Bride

Red-figure loutrophoros, 450-400

Red-figure oinochoe, 500-450

Veiling • Resistance to consider Greek women as veiled• Veil created portable seclusion for women – gives more

freedom/independence • The veil as a gesture

Veiling males and adolescents

Red-figure pelike, 475-425 BC

The Veil

Red-figure white ground lekythos, 450-400 BCRed-figure amphora, 475-425 BC

Nudity in the ritual context

Red-figure krater, 430-420 BC

Spinning Hetaira?

Red-figure hydria, 440-430 BC

Paying for it…

Red-figure skyphos, 460 BC

Red-figure cup, 460-450 BC

Who?

Red-figure psykter, 510 BC

Sex outside the symposium

Red-figure cup, 475-425 BC