STRENGTH
Dynamis
Strength is power, vigour, solidity. It is the most that any one can
achieve - pro virili in Latin. It is the effectiveness and worth of an
action. Strength is preeminently a male characteristic, a compound of
the undisputed superiority of male physical power, psychological
strength and emotional stability. Strength is the characteristic of the
victor, who decides things in his own right.
In the epic poems, and in tragedy, women attain heroic stature when they
succeed, through torment and pain, in displaying understanding and
endurance. Although the women of myth are prepared to take initiatives
and confront situations with a large measure of hostility and anger -
women like Penelope or Hecuba, for example - they are more often than
not incapable of achieving any change in the flow of events.
On this matter, poetry seems in general to reflect the prevailing
ideology, as crystallised in the funeral oration of Perikles:
'If I am to speak of womanly virtues, referring to those of you who will
henceforth be in widowhood, I will sum up all in a brief admonition:
Great is your glory if you fall not below the standard which nature has
set for your sex, and great also is hers of whom there is least talk
among men, whether in praise or blame.'
Thucydides II, 45 (Loeb edition)
The only strength recognised in women, it seems, is the strength to
suffer in silence. The female nature is valued for its patience, silence
and uncomplaining endurance, and wins social recognition on one
condition: that she should never break out of the shell of anonymity.
Thus, the very few women in myth who possess strength transcend their
female nature. They display a physical power that is made public through
athletic competition, hunting, or prowess in war, and may also possess
the intellectual and psychological strength to take decisions and then
act upon them. In both cases, their gift ultimately turns into a monster
since it is contrary to the female nature, as it had been defined.
The woman who possesses strength is dangerous. Her unnatural power is
explained in terms of her being a foreigner, a barbarian, like the
Amazons. She is a foreigner, a barbarian and a witch, like Medea and
Cassandra. She is beautiful beyond reason and can therefore bring about
disaster, like Helen. She is an athlete, a huntress and shuns the
marriage bed, conquering and killing any aspiring suitors, like
Atalanta.
Women who complain about their sufferings, and even more so women who
protest about the role assigned to them in life, are presented as
negative values - they are the 'evil women' of epic poetry and tragedy,
women like Clytaemnestra, Deianeira or, again, Medea.
And herein lies the contradiction: in their efforts to preserve their
human dignity, which has been wounded, these characters decide to take
action. Their action leads them out of the dungeon of waiting and
expectation, but at the same time results in their expulsion from the
'tribe of women'.
'Haughty of spirit art thou and overweening is thy speech. Even as the
mind is maddened by thy deed of blood, upon thy visage a stain of blood
showeth full plain to behold. Reft of all honour, forsaken of thy
friends, thou shalt hereafter atone for stroke with stroke.'
Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1426-1430 (Loeb edition)
