Glenn Gibney Greek Archaeology Female Homosexuality on Greek Vase Painting With the rise of modern gender and sexuality studies, Greek sexuality is often at the forefront as examples of homosexual behaviour and attitudes in ancient times. What is noticeable about these studies is the focus on male homosexuality and the many representations found on classical vase paintings. Female homosexuality and sexual identity however, are less frequently discussed. Depictions of male sexual encounters are numerous but images of female sexuality or female homosexuality appear to be far less evident. For male sexuality there is a vast amount of ancient and modern discussions from imagery to literature. Yet, female homosexuality is often focused solely on the poems of the 7th Century female poet Sappho. Sappho s poetr alludes to her possible homosexuality but no discourse on her sexuality emerges until centuries after her death, during the Hellenistic period.1 I deed, the oder ter les ia derives from her home on the island of Lesbos.2 With researching homosexuality in ancient Greece and the greater ratio of male imagery, the question arises on female vase imagery. Why is the discourse on male rather than female sexuality? While few depictions have been so far uncovered, they do exist. There appears to be a scale of male sexual encounters in vase painting. For example, some images show explicit sexual encounters, some portray courting rituals and others imply that a sexual encounter has or will happen. However, this does not always apply to female imagery. Few, if any, scenes are implicit in their depictions of female homosexuality. This paper will seek to analyse a selection of Greek vase painting which depict possible female homosexual encounters. The production of these images, their iconography and the audience and context of the vase will be looked at and, where possible, comparisons to male homosexual imagery will be discussed. Before we look at specific example it is worth questioning who made these vessels and who painted them. It is likely that women not were not only involved in the production process but may also have been skilled painters. Martin Kilmer believes that women were sometimes pot-painters but he fails to give any evidence of where 1 2 Kenneth James Dover, Greek Homosexuality (Cambridge, 1978), p 174 Catherine Johns, Sex or Symbol? Erotic Images of Greece and Rome (London, 1982), p. 103 Page 1 of 11 Glenn Gibney Greek Archaeology this is found.3 On a 5th Century Attic hydria (Fig. 1), from a private collection in Milan, a woman is shown working on the handle of a crater suggesting that women were part of the potting process. However, Marjorie Susan Venit questions this theory, believing that the presence of the gods in the scene infers a fantastical element to the image. 4 If the image is fantastical, does that mean the presence of the woman in vase production is too? It may be more likely that the woman is included in the scene because women were known to ancient Greeks as being involved in craft workshops in some capacity. What we do not have, in the wealth of surviving Greek pottery, is any pottery signed by a woman. Thus far, all named potters and painters that are known appear to be male.5 What is assumed then is that all the pottery mentioned in this paper are the products of male potters and painters, therefore, it is likely they were made by men to be viewed by men. Another issue with the images discussed below is where the pottery evidence comes from. The majority of the pottery comes from Attica which gives us an Athenocentric view of homosexual behaviour. It is possible that images from other areas of Greece that do not survive or have yet to be discovered, may show further evidence of female sexuality or homosexuality. Attitudes to which may differ from Attica. The ancient Greek practice of pederasty, where an older male (erastes) would have a sexual relationship with a younger male (eromenos), is a reoccurring theme on Greek vase painting. Fig. 2 is an Attic 5th Century B.C black-figure vase which illustrates ritual pederastic behaviour. An older man reaches for the younger mans genitals with one hand and touches his chin with the other. The eromenos holds in his hand a gift of a wreath. While this motif appears on many different vases with two men or a man and a woman, there is one that shows two women engaging in the same behaviour, as can be seen in Fig. 3. This 7th Century B.C plate shows two women facing each other eye to eye. Both women hold wreaths in their hands and one is touching the chin of the other. This is a hallmark of the courting motif. The lack of an obvious age difference between the two women is highlighted by Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz who 3 Martin F. Kilmer, Greek Erotica on Attic Red-Figure Vases (London, 1993), p.175 Marjorie Susan Venit, The Caputi Hydria and Working Women in Classical Athens . The Classical World 81 (4), p. 269 5 John Boardman, The History of Greek Vases, Potters, Painters and Pictures (London, 2001), p146 4 Page 2 of 11 Glenn Gibney Greek Archaeology compares it to the distinctive older male and younger male in homosexual imagery.6 This is difficult to argue against as the image is not as well preserved as later vase paintings and the reproduced image in her book is in black and white making it hard to fully appreciate the figures. The behaviour, gazing, chin touching and gift giving all suggest a sexual relationship similar to the depictions of pederastic relationships. The abundance of explicit male homosexual imagery compared to female suggests that there was a wider social acceptance of same sex relationships between men. However, just because female homosexual imagery does not survive does not ea that it did t o ur. Boardman and La Rocca suggest that it must have occurred in ancient Greece due to the rigidity of gender segregation.7 In pederastic homosexual relations between men there was an active partner and a passive one. The erastes was the active partner and the passive was the eromenos. Passive older men were not generally as accepted and this may be also true for women in general who participated in same sex encounters. Both male and female gender roles and behaviour in ancient Greece were idealised and any deviation was perceived as an inversion of gender norms.8 However, writing in the 4th Century B.C, philosopher Plato, through Aristophanes, speaks of love between men, men and women, and women and women.9 This can perhaps be visualised on a 6th Century black-figure pyxis from Attica, Fig. 4. On this vessel we see male couple engaging in intercrural sex, a man and a woman gazing at each other and two women, draped in a mantle, also face one another. It is suggested that because of the presence of several different sexual motifs, such as the sexual acts between the men and the gazing couples, the two women are representative of a lesbian relationship.10 If this is true the depiction of male homosexual relationship versus female homosexual relationships contrast on this pyxis. The men are completely naked and some are locked in sexual activity. The women on the other hand are fully dressed and separated by a significant amount of space. So how can we say that they are a couple? Perhaps the most obvious sign may Sorki ‘a i o itz, E a ati g Wo e s Ho oeroti is i A ie t Gree e. The E ide e fro Atti Vase Pai ti g , i Na Sorki ‘a i o itz a d Lisa Aua ger eds. , A o g Women, From the Homosocial to the Homoerotic in the Ancient World (Austin, 2002), p.146 7 John Boardman and Eugenio La Rocca, Eros in Greece (London, 1978), p. 110 8 Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth (eds.), The Oxford Classical Dictionary (Oxford, 2012), p.703 9 Plat. Sym. 191e 10 Rabinowitz, p.130 6 Na Page 3 of 11 Glenn Gibney Greek Archaeology be the gaze. This theme is used throughout Greek vase painting as a motif for sexual desire. The mantle too has been suggested to represent the relationship between the two women.11 In discussing pederastric encounters Marilyn Skinner states that lovers may be portrayed facing one another wrapped in one cloak.12 This is further developed by Kilmer who states that lovers enveloped in a cloak were common on black figure vases.13 However, the issue with both these statements is that neither offers any supporting examples of this. No vase depicting cloaked males are referenced and I have not come across any images which may support this during research for this paper. If this image does imply two females in a relationship, it is interesting to mention the type of vessel it appears on. A pyxis was a small vase often decorated with scenes of female activity and used to store small items such as jewellery or cosmetics.14 This suggests that it was mainly used or intended to be used by women. This a e sig ifi a t i that it is a pote tiall les ia i age o a ite used a woman. Perhaps the woman who owned the item was engaged in a homosexual relationship and the image was a representation of this relationship. Unfortunately, no modern sources discuss the image in relation to the vessel. For explicit female homosexuality one image is consistently referenced by modern sources, a 6th Century B.C Attic red-figure kylix known as the Apollodoros cup.15 As can be seen in Fig. 5, this image shows two naked women, one standing and one kneeling. The kneeling figure holds her hand up to the genitals of the standing woman. At first glance this may appear to show two women during a sexual encounter with one stimulating the other. However, several different interpretations of this scene have been suggested. Boardman believes that the two women are hetairai and one is merely putting perfume on the other.16 This is echoed by Eva Keuls who says that it may actually represent prostitutes preparing to meet a man.17 In contrast, Kilmer states that the erect nipples of both women indicates sexual arousal but it is his 11 Ibid. Marilyn B. Skinner, Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture (Malden, 2005), p.138 13 Kilmer, p.14 14 Beazley.ox.ac.uk.,( http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/tools/pottery/shapes/pyxis.htm) [accessed. 11 Mar. 2016] 15 Kilmer, pp. 27-28 16 Boardman and La Rocca, p.110 17 Eva Keuls, The Reign of the Phallus (Berkeley, 1985), p.85 12 Page 4 of 11 Glenn Gibney Greek Archaeology interpretation of the items that surround the figures that he claims it to be a sexual encounter.18 The presence of oil and the context of bathing have been suggested by Kilmer to be evidence of female homosexual encounter. He compares other vase paintings with male homosexual scenes that include bathing items as a basis for his argument. In Fig.6 we see two men engaging in pederastic behaviour on a 5th Century Attic red-figure plate. To the left of the erastes are what appear to be a sponge and a strigil, both used in Greek bathing rituals. It is worth suggesting what Apollodorus vessel, and image, was used for and by whom. The kylix was usually used by Greek men in symposia, therefore it may be possible that this image was for a male viewer and that the two prostitutes were having a sexual encounter for male sexual gratification. However, like the previously discussed images, I have not come across any historian, art historian or archaeologist who comments on the relationship between the image and the kylix. Who were the women depicted in the images? Were they prostitutes, highclass professionals or citizens? Representation of the status of women on Greek pottery is often pointed towards the hair on the figures with short hair denoting slavery or prostitution.19 If this is true, perhaps the women courting in Fig. 3 are citizens due to their long hair and the women engaged in a possible sex act on the Apollodorus cup, who appear to have stereotypical hetairai hair, are prostitutes. The hair on the draped women in a possible relationship is much harder to analyse due to the poor reproduction of the image. However, their dress, coupled with the presence of both homosexual and heterosexual couples suggest they are not professionals. Although, it is possible that they could be high-class professionals who are on display or performing for the men in the scene. However, Kilmer argues against grouping images of women into particular categories especially when sexually explicit images appear with long haired women such as on Fig. 7. The problem with distinguishing ho ose ual free o e a d ho ose ual activity by hetairai or pornai is that there are so few examples of female homosexuality to make any significant comparisons. 18 19 Kilmer, p,28 See Kilmer, pp. 159-160, Keuls, p.262 Page 5 of 11 Glenn Gibney Greek Archaeology Despite the difficulties with interpreting some of these pieces, it is clear that modern sexual attitudes did not correspond with ancient ones. Indeed, attitudes to sexuality have only opened up quite recently in western culture. Would these images be interpreted differently had they been excavated in more modern times? This question is difficult to answer because no modern source gives any information on how or when these pieces were discovered. One wonders that, if they were uncovered during antiquarian period of the 19th/early 20th Century would they be kept or dis arded for their ulgarit . Is it possible that further evidence of female homosexuality has been uncovered but those who found it did not agree with its subject matter? Perhaps depictions of explicit female homosexuality, such as the Apollodorus Cup, are so rare because of those who excavated them did not keep or value them. There is also a chance that, due to the domestic expectation of upper class women coupled with female homosexuality being an inversion of the norm, that no further physical evidence will be uncovered because it may not exist. However, as we have seen with the image of chin touching and the figures draped in the mantle, possible female homosexuality may not be as vivid as male homosexuality on ancient Greek pottery. What is clear is that the theme of female homosexual activity and relationships are confined to a very narrow space on Greek vase painting, a narrow space similar perhaps to those who conducted these relationships within Greek society. When compared to the accepted male homosexual imagery, it is evident that some images of women as same sex partners share many of the same symbolisms. This can be seen in all the images discussed in this paper. Gazing, chin touching and gift giving can be seen on the Archaic plate of two women. On the pyxis, we see the gaze again and the possible representation of a sexual relationship with the draped mantle. Finally, the arguments for the image on the kylix, as representing a homosexual encounter, are very strong. The erect nipples, the bathing paraphernalia and the physical shape of the cup all point to a homosexual scene. Page 6 of 11 Glenn Gibney Greek Archaeology Fig. 1. 5th Century Attic hydria showing a women working on the handle of a crater Fig. 2. Attic 5th Century B.C black-figure vase illustrating ritual pederastic behaviour. Page 7 of 11 Glenn Gibney Greek Archaeology Fig. 3. 7th Century Attic plate showing the possible courtship between two women Fig. 4. 6th Century pyxis showing two women gazing at each other while both drapped in the same mantle Page 8 of 11 Glenn Gibney Greek Archaeology Fig. 5. 6th Century B.C Attic red-figure kylix, Apollodoros cup, showing possible female homosexual activity Fig. 6. 5th Century Attic red-figure plate with items used in bathing Page 9 of 11 Glenn Gibney Greek Archaeology Fig. 7. Woman with long hair in a sexually suggestive vase image. Page 10 of 11 Glenn Gibney Greek Archaeology Bibliography Primary Sources Plato, Symposium Secondary Sources Beazley.ox.ac.uk. ( http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/tools/pottery/shapes/pyxis.htm) [accessed. 11 Mar. 2016] Boardman, John and La Rocca, Egenio, Eros in Greece (London, 1978) Boardman, John, The History of Greek Vases, Potters, Painters and Pictures (London, 2001) Dover, Kenneth James, Greek Homosexuality (Cambridge, 1978) Hornblower, Simon and Spawforth, Antony (eds.), The Oxford Classical Dictionary (Oxford, 2012) Johns, Catherine, Sex or Symbol? Erotic Images of Greece and Rome (London, 1982) Keuls, Eva, The Reign of the Phallus (Berkeley, 1985) Kilmer, Martin F., Greek Erotica on Attic Red-Figure Vases (London, 1993) Skinner, Marilyn B., Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture (Malden, 2005) Sorki ‘a i o itz, Na E ide e fro , E a ati g Wo e s Ho oeroti is Atti Vase Pai ti g , i Na i A ie t Gree e. The Sorki ‘a i o itz a d Lisa Auanger (eds.), Among Women, From the Homosocial to the Homoerotic in the Ancient World (Austin, 2002), pp. 106-166 Susa Ve it, Marjorie, The Caputi Hydria and Worki g Wo e i Classi al Athe s , The Classical World 81 (4), pp. 265–272. Page 11 of 11