Ormand began by outlining the differences between Euripides' Electra play and the other two versions, by Sophocles and Aeschylus. In the Euripides version, the conflict is much more realistic and the characters feel smaller and less heroic. The revenge killings in the Euripides play also feel more brutal and less moral.
The main difference which Ormand focuses on, however, is the setting. In the Euripides play, Electra begins the story in exile, outside her city of Argos, having been married off to a poor farmer. Her brother, Orestes, has also been exiled and has returned, putting the story into motion. As Ormand showed with a handout containing excerpts from the play, there is a definite difference between the language which is used to describe the respective exiles of Electra and Orestes. This difference, Ormand argued, stems from the ways in which citizenship was differentially contrusted for males and females in ancient Greece.
Women in ancient Greece were not considered as citizens in the same sense as men. Ormand discussed the Athenian laws regarding citizenship and women, showing that women were considered to be citizens of the city only through their connection with a family and a home. In fact, the first time women were given any degree of citizenship was when a rule was made saying that only Athenian women were capable of producing Athenian offspring, contrary to previous rules which only emphasized the citizenship requirements of the father. As Ormand put it, Athenian women gained some level of citizenship when another group of non-citizen women was created. They only gained citizenship when there was a risk of losing it, he said.
There are different words in Greek for the city as a political body (polis) and as a geographic homeland (astu). As Ormand showed through examples from the text, men such as Orestes considered themselves members of the polis, while women such as Electra considered themselves citizens only because of their relationship with their home and the astu. Euripides is meticulous with making this difference clear throughout the text, said Ormand, by being "rigorously gender specific." Electra views her exile as being from her home, family, and the social structure of the city, and laments that no one will want to marry her. Orestes views his exile as both familial and political, lamenting that there is no polis where he can now go. Ormand connected this difference in attitude and language between the characters to the larger patterns of citizenship present in the Ancient Greek society about which the play was written.
After Ormand's lecture, there were questions and comments from the audience of students and professors, leading to further discussion of the role of gender in ancient Greek citizenship.
The Winslow Classical and Archaeological Lectureship was established in 1943 by William Winslow.
-- by Caroline R. O'Shea '07
