For my blog post this week, I wanted to explore a discussion question that I developed in class: How accurately can we comprehend and or/ conceptualize representations of female power in hetaira?
These perceived functions of the hetaira should not be understood as real data or evidence in favor of any argument, merely as a lens with which we can “bring into focus certain political and ideological conflicts, as well as the fault lines within those ideological formations” (Kurke, 145). It would follow that we also keep in mind the innately elitist construction of hetaira. The very symposium that many of the artifacts we discussed found their purpose and role in, was constructed exclusively as the province of a privileged male elite. While the female, in both representation and reality has power through her sexuality, it is given to her by men, more specifically the men who commissioned, painted or created demand for such works of art.
When thinking about the symbolic sameness of female representation in hetaira similar to that of coinage and korai, I think we can tease apart more implicit functions and gender roles. Namely, that this symbolic sameness creates a more removed, more conforming feminist construction that might be derived from the societally-constructed mold of the ideal woman — be she in art or in reality.
As hetaira were never permitted to be citizens, this meant that they could never marry a citizen either. This likely lead to the theme of “ruinous infatuation” represented in much Ancient Greek mythology and literature, as a warning to young men of the dangers of seductive female sexuality. Paradoxically, however, while keeping in mind the elite nature of the hetaira, I think it is important to remember that women are inherently more powerful in an aristocracy than a democracy in that power is passed on through birth, which would be impossible to do without women. The collision of mixed signals and representations surrounding female power and sexuality and how it was perceived by such a male-dominated society takes a dynamic form in the hetaira trope of Ancient Greece.
References:
Kurke, Leslie. “Inventing the “Hetaira”: Sex, Politics, and Discursive Conflict in Archaic Greece.” Classical Antiquity 16, no. 1 (1997): 106-50. doi:10.2307/25011056.
Ancient Greek Art and Archaeology 
Hi Bryn,
I think your analysis of the complications of talking about gender roles in the context of the heitara and symposiums is really interesting, especially your point about women being more necessary for the function of an aristocracy than for the function of a democracy given the hereditary nature of power in an aristocracy. I’m left with some questions about citizenship though. It’s my understanding that women were never considered citizens of the Athenian democracy. If noncitizens could never marry citizens what does that mean for any marriages between men and women in the Athenian democracy? Or is it more focused on that non-Athenian women could not marry Athenian citizens and enter the democracy? – Ariana
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