In Greek and Roman societies, women were expected to be cowardly. But there were exceptions. The theater shows intrepid figures. Figurative arts depict daring characters. History recounts women’s heroic actions. Excellence, or excess? Examples of virtue, or fantasy? In this conversation, Giulia Sissa discusses what it means for heroines to come to terms with their being, first and foremost, women. She focuses on how they embraced violence against themselves according to the ancient concept of courage: suffering for the sake of a higher ideal. From Antigone, who faced death to perform her sororal duty, to Lucretia, who killed herself after she was raped, Sissa brings to the fore the extreme courage of female figures whose self-inflicted pain was as corporeal as it was politically daring.
Disruptive Exceptions: Ancient Female Heroes Facing Death
Lucretia, about 1627, Artemisia Gentileschi. Oil on canvas, 36 ½ x 28 5/8 in. Getty Museum, 2021.14
About
Giulia Sissa
Scholar and Historian
Trained in Italy and France, Giulia Sissa received a Laurea in classics from the University of Pavia and her PhD from the Centre de Recherches Comparées sur les Sociétés Anciennes. In France, she worked as a researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Sociale (LAS), and the Laboratoire d’Études de Genre et de Sexualité (LEGS). In the United States, she served as a professor of classics and head of the department at Johns Hopkins University. Currently, she is a distinguished professor in the departments of classics and political science at UCLA.
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Duration
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