Greek Tragedy: A Rape Culture?

Abstract

This essay looks at rape in Greek tragedy through the lens of several moments of feminist theorizing and activism about rape. Starting with a study of second and third wave feminist approaches, it analyzes those plays that seem closest to modern ideas of rape (non‑consensual sexual contact) – Aeschylus ‘Suppliants, Euripides’ Ion and Hippolytos, as well as the Trojan War plays, Trojan Women and Andromache. It shows that in each case there is ambiguity between rape and marriage. In the end, it asks the question of how should we read and teach these texts? The ambiguous discourse supports the notion that the plays, like epic, are part of the normalization of rape (that is, establishing a rape culture), but if read with care, we can avoid reproducing that effect for ourselves and our students.