What Roles does Myth Prescribe for Women? - Exam 2

Protectress

• one of three roles prescribed to women in mythology

• non-sexual interest in hero - virtue, lineage, heroic deed

• ex.

  • Juturna - Turnus

  • Venus - Aeneas

Enchantress

• one of three roles prescribed to women in mythology

• dreadful powers

• can be the evil witch in the woods or the sexy seductress

• poses threat to hero

• sometimes if they’re outwitted/defeated, they can serve the hero

• ex.

  • Medea

  • Circe

Object of striving

• one of three roles prescribed to women in mythology

• woman without agency (or often personality), just the love interest of a man

• ex.

  • Andromeda

  • Penelope

  • Lavinia (second wife of Aeneas)

Juturna Identity and Etymology

• sister of Turnus

• name means “helper”

• raped/seduced by Jupiter and offered immortality or god status as compensation

Iarbas

• king of a North African tribe

• son of Jupiter

• in Aeneid, his pressure on Dido to marry him establishes her as a worthy object of striving of Aeneas

Cupid

• disguises himself as Ascanius, son of Aeneas

• makes Dido fall in love with Aeneas as favor to Venus (mom) to help Aeneas

Anna

• sister of Dido

• object of striving of Aeneas in other accounts - not Aeneid

• becomes minor goddess Anna Perenna

• Mars lusted after Minerva and asked Anna for help - tricks him into sleeping with her bc she lusts after him

  • Anna’s followers shout obscenities about her on Ides of March to commemmorate this event

Juno

• hates Trojans because they lead to Romans who destroy her favorite city Carthage

• protectress of Carthaginians and Dido

• marries Dido and Aeneas? - stay in cave during storm

Juno Pronuba

• pronuba = “for the bride”

• matron of honor

• torches and holding of right hands must be present at weddings

• Juno in her role as patroness and protectress of marriage

Lavinia

• object of striving of Aeneas - second wife

• fought for between Turnus and Aeneas

• bland and colorless compared to Dido - ideal roman wife (one sexual partner ever, no agency)

• a city is named after her or she’s named after a city

• when father performs ritual, her hair blazes, signifying her impending importance and that she’ll cause a war

Is it reasonable for Dido to claim she is married to Aeneas?

• yes - Juno claims to marry them when they spend the night in the cave

  • they held hands, part of the marriage ritual

• no - Aeneas says that they never held the wedding torches, another aspect of the marriage ritual

Discuss the folktale roles of women in the Aeneid

• Venus and Juturna - protectresses

• Lavinia - object of striving

• Anna - potential object of striving, never realized in Aeneid

• Dido - more complex, doesn’t fit any one role

  • protectress, but sexual interest

  • enchantress, but she turns against herself, not Aeneas

  • object of striving, but she was abandoned