Gender and Immortality: Heroines in Ancient Greek Myth and Cult

by Deborah J. Lyons

In recent years, the topic of ancient Greek hero cult has been the focus of considerable discussion among classicists. Little attention, however, has been paid to female heroized figures. Here Deborah Lyons argues for the heroine as a distinct category in ancient Greek religious ideology and daily practice. The heroine, she believes, must be located within a network of relations between male and female, mortal and immortal. Using evidence ranging from Homeric epic to Attic vase painting to ancient travel writing, she attempts to re-integrate the feminine into our picture of Greek notions of the hero. According to Lyons, heroines differ from male heroes in several crucial ways, among which is the ability to cross the boundaries between mortal and immortal. She further shows that attention to heroines clarifies fundamental Greek ideas of mortal/immortal relationships.

The book first discusses heroines both in relation to heroes and as a separate religious and mythic phenomenon. It examines the cultural meanings of heroines in ritual and representation, their use as examples for mortals, and their typical "biographies." The model of "ritual antagonism," in which two mythic figures represented as hostile share a cult, is ultimately modified through an exploration of the mythic correspondences between the god Dionysos and the heroines surrounding him, and through a rethinking of the relationship between Iphigeneia and Artemis. An appendix, which identifies more than five hundred heroines, rounds out this lively work.

Originally published in 1997.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Genres: Nonfiction, Academic

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Annemarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was very readable for a scientific book. It was easy to read and understand (though I do have some background in both Greek and Latin studies). However, for a book about heroines, this talked a great deal about heroes and gods/goddesses, and not all that much about the actual heroines. Other than that, I found some claims to be a bit far-fetched.

[Noah W · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Greeks knew how much their gods depended on them and told their myths to prove it."

An interesting examination of heroines and their relationships to the gods. Sometimes felt slightly over-contextualised, but interesting nonetheless.

[Aleksandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is - for a student of Greek mythology and religion - an interesting and helpful, if imperfect, book. The author does collect a large amount of material (and the list of heroines and their cults is really helpful), but some parts of her analysis (the relation between Niobe and Leto) seem to me rather unconvincing and in other places the book is a little repetitious and not always very well structured (the author promises to concentrate on the specifics of being a heroines and repeats the points on heroes instead). Still, for someone interested in Greek heroines in cult and myth, this is a book well worth rerading.

[Jeanette 📚🦊🏹 justjeanettelee_reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of three books for my research thesis that I read all the way through, because it wasn't just its points about Helen that I enjoyed. I loved reading a really feminine based scholarship on Immortality concerning Ancient Greek women.

It didn't read like feminist propaganda for women in Greek religion, which I appreciated immensely.

In fact, the central points of this book are pretty similar to my thesis (The Cult of Helen: Heroine and Goddess; and how these two roles could stand on their own, merge, or be symbiotic).

Beautiful written, well referenced.

An easy 5 stars.