Women and Other Beasts

Throughout Greek antiquity, animality is celebrated as an integral aspect of women's nature, both in literature and art. During the 5th century BC, though, Athenian art seemed to attach particular importance to the concept of female bestiality and domestication through marriage.

🟣What motivated painters of vases, the most popular art medium of the time, to depict ephebes pursuing young women like prey and snatching them away, on the model of Theseus, the hero of Athenian democracy?

🟣How do these scenes of amorous pursuit and abduction relate with those of Peleus struggling with Thetis, while she transforms herself into a snake, lion, tiger, or fire?

🟣Could all these images have served as alternative representations of marriage in art?

🟣Finally, how might such scenes of abduction and pursuit reflect social norms about women's proper place in society?

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