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Gremium as the Site of Intersecting Maternal and Erotic Identities in Vergil and Beyond

Kannan, Sashini
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1660815716077845

Abstract Details

2022, MA, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: Classics.
Vergil’s systematic deployment of gremium to show coexisting maternity and sexuality is unparalleled by other extant Classical authors. Through a close reading of four passages from Books 1 and 4 of the Aeneid, I argue that gremium becomes the physical site where Dido’s maternal and sexual desire intersect. My argument responds, in particular, to psychoanalytic readings that oversexualize Dido and see her sexuality as corrupting her maternity; Dido’s gremium is a seat of intersecting and overlapping desires, which are related but distinct. In order to preface the discussion of the Aeneid, I first present evidence that the lap and gremium are feminine-coded concepts in the ancient sources and highlight the connections to maternity and sexuality. Building upon these broad observations, I demonstrate how Vergil develops a web of semantic associations surrounding gremium to frame Dido and related characters’ maternal and sexual identities. Then, I analyze how those identities interact with each other within the network. In order to contextualize Vergil’s unique deployment of gremium to speak to female characters’ maternal and sexual identities and desires, I turn to Lucretius who similarly uses gremium systematically in an explicitly feminine-coded context, the image of Mother Earth. An analysis of the four instances of gremium in De Rerum Natura calls attention to the overlapping themes in the use of gremium between Lucretius and Vergil, namely its use with Venus and its use to represent maternity and fertility. My intertextual analysis that compares the similar feminine-coded themes in both authors’ versions suggests that Lucretius directly influenced Vergil’s use of gremium. The comparison to Lucretius results in a widening of the initial network that illuminates the shared associations of gremium in the Vergilian corpus beyond Dido and Venus. This paves the way for a fruitful analysis of gremium in Ovid. Ovid uses gremium with men to subvert gender roles. When he does so in his “little Aeneid,” I argue that this is a direct response to Vergil’s treatment of the same story. By drawing upon gremium’s maternal and erotic connotations, Ovid complicates the Aeneas narrative and recalls elements of the mythological tradition that Vergil tries to circumvent. The intersection of politics with gremium’s feminine-coding informs our reading of gremium’s other uses in the Aeneid. Vergil, in the Venulus and Tarchon episode, similarly employs gremium to subvert gender roles and simultaneously critique a sociopolitical narrative. My thesis, while nominally about the lap, speaks to two of the most important identities for women: motherhood and sexuality, and by looking critically at previous scholarship and employing a close textual analysis, I both complicate representations of women in the ancient world and encourage the disentanglement of modern biases from scholarship.
Daniel Markovich, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Caitlin Hines, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
70 p.
Ancient Languages
Aeneid; Dido; lap; Venus; motherhood; female sexuality

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kannan, S. (2022). Gremium as the Site of Intersecting Maternal and Erotic Identities in Vergil and Beyond [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1660815716077845

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kannan, Sashini. Gremium as the Site of Intersecting Maternal and Erotic Identities in Vergil and Beyond. 2022. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1660815716077845.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kannan, Sashini. "Gremium as the Site of Intersecting Maternal and Erotic Identities in Vergil and Beyond." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2022. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1660815716077845

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1660815716077845
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This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.