Janice Siegel: Abstract for CAAS 1996 (successful)
Procne and Medea: Partners in Crime or Sisters in Justice?
I plan to present a study of two enduring mythological characters, Medea, and
Procne, both strong women guilty of infanticide. The purpose of this study is to
determine the treatment afforded these characters by ancient authors and artists. First I
will present the pervasive attitude(s) of ancient authors to Procne and Medea, before
and after her branding as "child-killer", which we can trace to Euripides. Medea is the
preeminent child-killer of ancient literature as far as we are concerned, and Procne the
ultimate child-cooker. Although Procne's crimes are much more significant than
Medea's, and are ultimately irreconcilable with nature and society, these two women
have much in common: they are both strangers in a foreign land, and both murder their
own children in order to avenge crimes perpetrated upon them by their husbands.
The two women are often linked by classical authors, in either pity or shame:
Ovid, for example, links them in every one of his works of poetry, sometimes with
chastisement for their crime (A.A. 381-4), sometimes with understanding for their need
for vengeance (Am. 2.14.29-33). Even Juvenal affords them a special place among the
impious women of classical antiquity because they committed crimes of passion, not
greed (Sat. 7). Other references link them in condemnation: these sisters of evil stand
as twin paradigms of impiety (Seneca, Herc. Oet., 949-953), unrighteous aggressors
against innocent victims (Apuleius, Apologia 78.9), and scorned women hell-bent on
vengeance (Statius, Silv. II.I.137).
But what attitude toward these same subjects is reflected in the art of the
classical period? Are some artists also sympathetic to the plight of women, who are
powerless to stand up to treacherous husbands in any other way? Or do they forever
condemn the acts of a heartless mother? Is there any shift in artists' sympathies as the
myths evolve over time, or as they make the transition from the Greek to the Roman
tradition? There is a considerable collection of ancient monuments devoted to these
women, and a careful study has shown definite connections in the way the artists have
approached their studies of Procne and Medea. By using both visual and literary
manifestations of these myths, I hope to come to some conclusions about the treatment
afforded these women of mythology, and what such treatment says about the classical
period, its writers and its world. I am eager to share this research with my colleagues at
the Classical Association of the Atlantic States.