According to the ancient Greek Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the goddess of grain and fertility Demeter grieved that her younger brother Zeus, the nominal head god in charge of the cosmos, had arranged for hellish Hades to abduct their daughter Persephone. Hades took Persephone to the Underworld to be his wife. Demeter’s grief was not just the grief of a goddess mistreated by a younger brother with whom she had a daughter. Her grief was the grief of every mother separated from her daughter by her daughter’s marriage.
Demeter disguised herself as an old woman and forlornly wandered until she came to Eleusis. In ancient Greece, even princesses weren’t sequestered within the home. The daughters of Queen Metaneira and King Keleos of Eleusis were out fetching water when they came upon Demeter in her old-woman disguise. Calling herself Doso, Demeter claimed that she was fleeing from pirates who had captured her. She said that she was seeking work as a nurse and home-keeper. The princesses brought her back to their home, where their mother Queen Metaneira had agreed to hire her.
When Demeter entered the royal home, Queen Metaneira invited her to sit and offered her food and drink. Demeter was a sullen guest until the servant Iambe warmed her up with obscene jests:
She greeted no one with word or gesture,
but unsmiling, tasting neither food nor drink,
sat there pining for her low-waistbanded daughter,
until at last well-discerning Iambe with mocking and
many a jest diverted the holy lady so that
she smiled and laughed and became benevolent —
Iambe who ever since has pleased her in her moods.{ οὐδέ τιν᾿ οὔτ᾿ ἔπεϊ προσπτύσσετο οὔτέ τι ἔργωι,
ἀλλ᾿ ἀγέλαστος ἄπαστος ἐδητύος ἠδὲ ποτῆτος
ἧστο, πόθωι μινύθουσα βαθυζώνοιο θυγατρός,
πρίν γ᾿ ὅτε δὴ χλεύηις μιν Ἰάμβη κέδν᾿ εἰδυῖα
πολλὰ παρασκώπτουσ᾿ ἐτρέψατο πότνιαν ἁγνήν
μειδῆσαι γελάσαι τε καὶ ἵλαον σχεῖν θυμόν·
ἣ δή οἱ καὶ ἔπειτα μεθύστερον εὔαδεν ὀργαῖς. }[1]
Offering and receiving hospitality properly were major ethical concerns in ancient Greece. Iambe personifies the ancient Greek Iambic tradition of using coarse words and low subjects to serve important ethical concerns. Iambe using obscenity in conversation with Demeter is attested in ancient Greek sources from no later than the third century BGC.[2]
Another literary tradition of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, called the Orphic tradition, has the woman Baubo in the place of Iambe and includes jesting with an obscene gesture. About 195 GC, Clement of Alexandria, a well-informed Christian scornful of the Eleusinian Mysteries of the Athenians, wrote:
And I will not leave unmentioned that Baubo, extending hospitality to Demeter, offers her the drink kykeon. When Demeter refuses it and does not want to drink because she is grieving, Baubo gets angry, perhaps for being disdained. Baubo then exhibits her private parts — she shows them to the goddess. Demeter is pleased with the sight. Delighted with the spectacle, she accepts the drink right away. These are the secret mysteries of the Athenians. And this is what Orpheus has written. I will quote for you the exact words by Orpheus, so that you will receive the testimony of impudence from the very originator of the mysteries:
Having said this, she drew up her robes, and showed
all the unseemly form of her body. The child Iacchus was there
and laughing, plunged his hands below her breasts.
And then the goddess smiled, in her heart she smiled,
and then she drank from the gleaming cup filled with kykeon.{ καὶ δὴ (οὐ γὰρ ἀνήσω μὴ οὐχὶ εἰπεῖν) ξενίσασα ἡ Βαυβὼ τὴν Δηὼ ὀρέγει κυκεῶνα αὐτῇ· τῆς δὲ ἀναινομένης λαβεῖν καὶ πιεῖν οὐκ ἐθελούσης (πενθήρης γὰρ ἦν) περιαλγὴς ἡ Βαυβὼ γενομένη, ὡς ὑπεροραθεῖσα δῆθεν, ἀναστέλλεται τὰ αἰδοῖα καὶ ἐπιδεικνύει τῇ θεῷ· ἡ δὲ τέρπεται τῇ ὄψει ἡ Δηὼ καὶ μόλις ποτὲ δέχεται τὸ ποτόν, ἡσθεῖσα τῷ θεάματι. ταῦτ᾿ ἔστι τὰ κρύφια τῶν Ἀθηναίων μυστήρια. ταῦτά τοι καὶ Ὀρφεὺς ἀναγράφει. παραθήσομαι δὲ σοι αὐτὰ τοῦ Ὀρφέως τὰ ἔπη, ἵν᾿ ἔχῃς μάρτυρα τῆς ἀναισχυντίας τὸν μυσταγωγόν·
ὣς εἰποῦσα πέπλους ἀνεσύρετο, δεῖξε δὲ πάντα
σώματος οὐδὲ πρέποντα τύπον· παῖς δ᾿ ἦεν Ἴακχος,
χειρί τέ μιν ῥίπτασκε γελῶν Βαυβοῦς ὑπὸ κόλποις·
ἡ δ᾿ ἐπεὶ οὖν μείδησε θεά, μείδησ᾿ ἐνὶ θυμῷ,
δέξατο δ᾿ αἰόλον ἄγγος, ἐν ᾧ κυκεὼν ἐνέκειτο. }[3]
Iacchus was associated with the cult of Demeter and the Eleusinian Mysteries from no later than the sixth century BGC. The baby Iacchus apparently reached toward Baubo’s uncovered vulva. That gesture suggests that the sight of Baubo’s vulva cheered the goddess Demeter.[4]
Iacchus and the Eleusinian Mysteries were associated with obscene jesting. In Aristophanes’s play Frogs, performed in Athens in 405 BGC, a chorus of initiates in mock-Eleusinian Mysteries sings:
Just now in fact I stole a glance
at a young girl, a very pretty one too,
a playmate,
and where her dress was torn I saw
her titty peeking out.
Iacchus lover of choruses, escort me on my way.{ καὶ γὰρ παραβλέψας τι μειρακίσκης
νυνδὴ κατεῖδον καὶ μάλ᾿ εὐπροσώπου,
συμπαιστρίας,
χιτωνίου παραρραγέντος
τιτθίον προκύψαν.
Ἴακχε φιλοχορευτά, συμπρόπεμπέ με. }[5]
The female exposure here in the presence of Iacchus is similar to that in Clement’s excerpt. This chorus also provides obscene jesting of the sort plausibly associated with Iambe / Baubo:
And I hear that Cleisthenes’s son
is in the graveyard, plucking
his asshole and tearing his mouth.
All bent over, he kept beating his head,
wailing and weeping
for Humpus of Wankton, whoever that may be.
And Callias, we’re told,
that son of Hippo-coitus,
fights at sea in a lionskin made of pussy.{ τὸν Κλεισθένους δ᾿ ἀκούω
ἐν ταῖς ταφαῖσι πρωκτὸν
τίλλειν ἑαυτοῦ καὶ σπαράττειν τὰς γνάθους·
κἀκόπτετ᾿ ἐγκεκυφώς,
κἄκλαε κἀκεκράγει
Σεβῖνον ὅστις ἐστὶν Ἁναφλύστιος.
καὶ Καλλίαν γέ φασι
τοῦτον τὸν Ἱπποκίνου
κύσθου λεοντῆς ναυμαχεῖν ἐνημμένον. }
This jesting ridicules particular men’s sexuality with specific bodily references. Baubo lifting her robes to expose her vulva has similar bodily specificity. However, Demeter almost surely smiled and laughed sympathetically with Iambe / Baubo, not scornfully at another person.
Ancient Greek texts concerning women exposing their vulvas as communicative acts suggest that Demeter smiled and laughed in earthy appreciation for women gestating and birthing children. In one instance, a woman exposing her vulva to her husband is interpreted as an expression of contempt, perhaps by suggesting that her vulva is of no sexual interest to him.[6] Within an epic context, Lycian women lifted their robes to the demigod Bellerophon in pleading to him to prevent their land from being destroyed by a tidal wave.[7] Their plea suggests that men owe women special solicitude by virtue of women’s sex. A saying attributed to Spartan mothers shames men by communicating that if they flee from violence against men, they are not men but babies in their mothers’ wombs:
Another Spartan mother, when her sons had run away from battle and come to her, said, “Where have you come now in your cowardly flight, vile scoundrels? Do you intend to slink in here from where you came forth?” And with these words she pulled up her garment and showed them her vulva.
{ Ἄλλη, τῶν υἱῶν φυγόντων ἐκ μάχης καὶ παραγενομένων ὡς αὐτήν, “ποῦ,” φησίν, “ἥκετε δραπετεύσαντες, κακὰ ἀνδράποδα; ἢ δεῦρο ὅθεν ἐξέδυτε καταδυσόμενοι;” ἀνασυραμένη καὶ ἐπιδείξασα αὐτοῖς. }[8]
Similar action was attributed to Persian women:
When the Persian men under Cyrus were fighting against the Medes, Oebares the satrap fled from the battlefield. All the Persian men under his command followed him. The Persian women marched out in a body, and met the fugitive men. Lifting up their tunics, they called out to the men, “To where are you fleeing? Or will you hide yourselves again here, from where you came?” The women’s words shamed the Persian men. They returned to the battle and put the Medean men to flight.
{ Πέρσαι Μήδοις παρετάσσοντο. Περσῶν Κῦρος ἡγεῖτο. Κύρου σατράπης Οἰβάρης ἦρξε φυγῆς, καὶ ὅσων ἡγεῖτο Περσῶν, πάντες τῷ σατράπῃ συνέφευγον. ἔνθα δὴ αἱ Περσίδες ἀπαντώμεναι τοῖς φεύγουσιν, ἀνασυράμεναι τοὺς χιτωνίσκους ‘ποῖ’ ἔφασαν ‘φεύγετε; ἢ ὅθεν ἐξέδυτε, πάλιν ἐκεῖ καταδῦναι σπεύδετε;’ ὁ λόγος τῶν γυναικῶν ᾔσχυνε τοὺς Πέρσας καὶ ἀναστρέψαντες ἐπὶ τὴν μάχην τοὺς Μήδους ἐς φυγὴν ἐτρέψαντο. }[9]
These saying associate women’s vulvas with women’s socially privileged labor of gestating and birthing children. Demeter was a mother separated from her daughter Persephone by her daughter’s marriage to Hades. One might imagine the servant Iambe / Baubo lifting her robes, exposing her vulva, and saying to Demeter, “Do you want your daughter back here?” That question humorously subverts Demeter’s grief with bodily appreciation for passages, transitions, and the development of a human life from gestation to death.
Ordinary human lives are filled with complex tradeoffs of losses and gains. Demeter mourning separation from her daughter Persephone arose from Zeus arranging for their daughter Persephone to marry Hades.[10] Seeking to win Persephone’s affection, Hades told her:
I shall not make for you an unsuitable husband to have among the gods,
for I myself am a brother to your father Zeus. By being here,
you will be queen of everything that lives and moves,
and you will have the greatest honors among the gods.
Moreover, there will be punishment forever for those
who act unrighteously and fail to propitiate your fury with sacrifices,
performed with reverent rites and perfectly made with due offerings.{ οὔ τοι ἐν ἀθανάτοισιν ἀεικὴς ἔσσομ᾿ ἀκοίτης
αὐτοκασίγνητος πατρὸς Διός· ἔνθα δ᾿ ἐοῦσα
δεσπόσσεις πάντων ὁπόσα ζώει τε καὶ ἕρπει,
τιμὰς δὲ σχήσηισθα μετ᾿ ἀθανάτοισι μεγίστας,
τῶν δ᾿ ἀδικησάντων τίσις ἔσσεται ἤματα πάντα,
οἵ κεν μὴ θυσίηισι τεὸν μένος ἱλάσκωνται
εὐαγέως ἔρδοντες, ἐναίσιμα δῶρα τελοῦντες. }[11]
In short, marriage to Hades offered Persephone a life of extraordinary privilege. It would, however, be a marriage made in Hell. Ultimately, Persephone and Hades agreed that she would spend eight months a year with her mother Demeter up among other immortals, and four months a year with her husband Hades down in the Underworld.
Iambo / Baubo with obscenity cheering the despondent goddess Demeter is the comic heart of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. About six centuries after this hymn was first sung at an ancient Greek religious festival, the Christian gospels similarly intermixed high and low. The Christian gospels proclaimed that the god who created the heavens and the earth became incarnate in the womb of a lowly, young, provincial woman.[12] That god-man Jesus wandered about on foot, cured the sick in earthly ways, and raised Lazarus from death with outrageous comic drama. Obscenity seems incongruous in a sacred proclamation only for those who don’t appreciate human life and are unable to smile and laugh.
* * * * *
Read more:
- in celibate Hell, resentful Dis threatens civil war & abducts girl
- Hermes and Priapus against oppression: farting isn’t enough
- Hippocleides doesn’t care: great moment of men’s sexed protest
Notes:
[1] Homeric Hymn to Demeter (Homeric Hymns 2, To Demeter {Εισ Δημητραν}), vv. 199-205, ancient Greek text and English translation (modified) from West (2003). Alternate English translations are those of Nagy (2018), Rayor (2004), Shelmerdine (1995), Foley (1994) and Evelyn-White (1914).
West (2003) and others translate the Homeric epithet βαθύζωνος as “deep-girt” (βαθύς {deep} – ζώνη {belt}). I’ve replaced that with the more explicit term “low-waistbanded.” That translation adapts Nagy (2018)’s adjectival clause “with the low-slung waistband.”
This Homeric Hymn to Demeter apparently was composed for recitation at Eleusis, the most important center of the cult of the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone. The hymn probably dates to the first half of the sixth century. West (2003) pp. 8, 9. From not later than the fourth century BGC, Eleusis regarded Orpheus as the founder and revealer of the Eleusinian mysteries. Id. p. 8.
The surviving collection of Homeric Hymns includes another hymn to Demeter, Homeric Hymns 13. That Demeter hymn consists of only three verses:
Of Demeter the lovely-haired, the august goddess first I sing,
of her and her daughter, beautiful Persephone.
I salute you, goddess: keep this city safe, and give my song its beginning.{ Δήμητρ᾿ ἠΰκομον σεμνὴν θεὸν ἄρχομ᾿ ἀείδειν,
αὐτὴν καὶ κούρην περικαλλέα Περσεφόνειαν.
χαῖρε, θεά, καὶ τήνδε σάου πόλιν, ἄρχε δ᾿ ἀοιδῆς. }
Ancient Greek text and English translation from West (2003).
The Homeric Hymn to Demeter narrates effects of Zeus arranging for Hades to abduct Persephone to the Underworld to be his wife. Nowhere in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter does Hades rape Persephone. Hades abducts Persephone according to the ancient practice of bridal capture, in this case with the approval and aid of Persephone’s father Zeus. Here are the verses narrating Hades’s abduction of Persephone:
Persephone in amazement reached out with both hands
to take the pretty flower plaything. But the earth of many broad paths gaped open
on the plain of Nysa, and there the Hospitable Lord Hades rushed forth
with his immortal steeds, Cronos’s son whose names are many.
Seizing her by force, he put her on his golden chariot,
and drove off, with her wailing and screaming
as she called on her father Zeus, the highest and noblest.{ ἣ δ᾿ ἄρα θαμβήσασ᾿ ὠρέξατο χερσὶν ἅμ᾿ ἄμφω
καλὸν ἄθυρμα λαβεῖν· χάνε δὲ χθὼν εὐρυάγυια
Νύσιον ἂμ πεδίον, τῆι ὄρουσεν ἄναξ Πολυδέγμων
ἵπποις ἀθανάτοισι, Κρόνου πολυώνυμος υἱός.
ἁρπάξας δ᾿ ἀέκουσαν ἐπὶ χρυσέοισιν ὄχοισιν
ἦγ᾿ ὀλοφυρομένην· ἰάχησε δ᾿ ἄρ᾿ ὄρθια φωνῆι
κεκλομένη πατέρα Κρονίδην ὕπατον καὶ ἄριστον. }
Homeric Hymn to Demeter, vv. 15-21, sourced as previously. These verses cannot be reasonably interpreted as stating or implying that Hades raped Persephone. She clearly suffered violent abduction, not rape. Cf. Foley (1994) p. 32, commenting that “sexual consumption … is uncertain in this case.” On historical practices of bridal capture, see note [2] in my post on the Sabine women.
Reflecting deeply entrenched bias toward criminalizing men, scholars have assumed that Hades raped Persephone. Foley framed with rape her influential interpretive essay on the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Foley’s essay begins and ends with a quote universalizing men raping women:
Each daughter, even in the millennia before Christ, must have longed for a mother whose love for her and whose power were so great as to undo rape and bring her back from death. And every mother must have longed for the power of Demeter, the efficacy of her anger, the reconciliation with her lost self.
Rich (1976) p. 240, quoted in Foley (1994) pp. 79, 169. Another quote that Foley included in her interpretive essay suggests what it means to “undo rape”:
For the male — and this is inherent in the essential opposition between masculine and feminine — marriage, as the matriarchate recognized, is primarily an abduction, an acquisition — a rape.
Neumann (1956) p. 56. In short, gods and men as husbands are inherently rapists. Hence “to undo rape” requires separating a wife from her husband, as was imperfectly done for Persephone in relation to Hades. Foley readily assumed that Hades raped Persephone and provided a detailed interpretation:
Yet the presence of other females and the physical separation of mother and daughter at the time of the rape suggest something more than a paternal intervention in a blissful infantile unity with the mother. The adolescent girl’s attraction to the seductive narcissus and the location of the rape in the flowery meadow (where such divine rapes typically occur) suggest Persephone’s readiness for a new phase of life (see the Commentary especially on lines 1-14 and 5-14, for further discussion).
Foley (1994) p. 127. Foley’s Commentary on the Hymn to Demeter, lines 1-14 , recognized “sexual consumption … is uncertain in this case.” Id p. 32. In socially constructed rape-culture culture, what actually happened doesn’t matter. Moreover, hateful gender bigotry not only passes without criticism but is honored as deep thought. That helps to explain the criminalization of men in relation to women and the vastly gender-disproportionate imprisonment of men.
[2] Writing early in the third century BGC, Philochorus of Athens stated:
Iambe: Some say that Iambe, the daughter of Echo and Pan, made the grieving Demeter laugh at her pranks, speaking lewdly and making obscene gestures.
{ Ἰάμβη: τινὲς ὅτι Ἰάμβη Ἠχοῦς καὶ Πανὸς θυγάτηρ τὴν Δήμητραν δὲ λυποῦσαν παίζουσα καὶ ἀχρηστολογοῦσα καὶ σχήματα ἄχρηστα ποιοῦσα έποίησε γελάσαι. }
Arans (1988) p. 15, citing “Philochorus, fr. 103 (Atthis II – FGH 328 ed. Jacoby).” The reference to “obscene gestures” suggests the anasyrma {ἀνάσυρμα} of Baubo, as reported by Clement of Alexandria. See subsequent discussion above.
Choeroboscus on Hesphaestion concerning the iambic meter noted that iambus was possibly derived from Iambe compelling Demeter to laugh. Hipponax, Fragments 183 in Gerber (1999). Nagy noted:
Iambē, as we shall now see, is a personification of the iambic tradition, which reflects a ritual discourse that provokes laughter and thereby promotes fertility. This discourse, which makes fun of its targets, is often obscene in nature. The obscenity, it goes without saying, is ritual obscenity.
Nagy (2018) note 18. For more on the ancient iambic tradition, Newman (1998). Iambe’s obscenity is surprising and insightful in the context of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Good iambic poetry, like good obscenity, is innovative, surprising, and consciousness-raising. It’s not ritualistic in the sense of conventional and formulaic.
Iambe’s jesting discourse in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter plausibly reflects obscene discourse associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries at the Kephisos River and the Stenia / Thesmophoria. On such obscene discourse and gestures, scholia to Lucian of Samosata, Dialogues of the Courtesans {Ἑταιρικοὶ Διάλογοι}, cited in Newman (1998) pp. 104-5; and Foley (1994) pp. 68, 72. Diodorus, an ancient Greek historian writing between 60 BGC and 30 BGC, noted:
And it is a custom for Sicilians in these days {of the Thesmophoria, a woman’s festival} to use obscene language during their conversations with one another, because the goddess Demeter, while grieving at the abduction of Persephone, laughed because of the obscene language.
{ ἔθος δ᾿ ἐστὶν αὐτοῖς ἐν ταύταις ταῖς ἡμέραις αἰσχρολογεῖν κατὰ τὰς πρὸς ἀλλήλους ὁμιλίας διὰ τὸ τὴν θεὸν ἐπὶ τῇ τῆς Κόρης ἁρπαγῇ λυπουμένην γελάσαι διὰ τὴν αἰσχρολογίαν. }
Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library / Bibliotheca historica {Βιβλιοθήκη Ἱστορική} 5.4.6, ancient Greek text and English translation (modified) from Oldfather (1939.
[3] Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks / Protrepticus {Προτρεπτικὸς πρὸς Ἕλληνας} 2.18, ancient Greek text and English translation (modified insubstantially) from Butterworth (1919). This text is also known as Kern’s Orphic fragment 52. It’s included in Eusebius’s Preparation for the Gospel / Praeparatio evangelica {Εὐαγγελικὴ προπαρασκευή} 2.3.32-34. Clement literally refers to Deo {Δηώ}, which is another name for Demeter.
Baubo, not Queen Metaneira, is the host to Demeter in Clement’s account. In the Orphic Fragment 49 of Otto Kern, Baubo is the mother of Demophon, the son of Metaneira and Keleos of Eleusis in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Hesychius of Alexandria indicated “‘Baubô’: [. . .] it also means ‘womb,’ as in Empedocles {βαυβώ: [. . .] σημαίνει δὲ καὶ κοιλίαν ὡς παρ’ Ἐμπεδοκλεῖ}.” Laks & Most (2016) Empodocles, Testimonia, Doctrine, D160.
The drink kykeon {κυκεών} consisted of barley-meal, grated cheese and Pramnian wine. Butterworth (1919) p. 43, note a. Kykeon was a drink used in initiating persons into the Eleusinian mysteries. Clement of Alexander, Protrepticus 2.21.2, cited by Foley (1994) p. 68.
The Iambe passage from Clement of Alexander presents textual difficulties:
Variation in manuscripts and the variety of editorial conjectures/emendations indicate a certain degree of scholarly indecision as to what exactly happened in Eleusis between exhibitionistic Baubo, the impetuous child, and the smiling Demeter.
Arans (1988) pp.19-20, n. 34. For documentation of these textual differences, id. pp. 19-20, 25-26. Id. p. 26 provides the edited text, with English translation, of Marcovich (1986) p. 295. Differences between the text quoted above and Marcovich’s edition aren’t relevant to the points of this post.
Writing about a century after Clement of Alexandria, Arnobius of Sicca in present-day Tunisia wrote a Latin passage apparently in the tradition of Clement’s text on Demeter and Baubo:
At that time, five earth-born persons were inhabiting Eleusis. Their names were: Baubo, Triptolemus, Eumolpus, Eubuleus, and Dysaules. Triptolemus was a cow-herd. Dysaules watched over the goats. Eubuleus was a swineherd. Eumolpus tended the wool-growing sheep. From him originated and took its name the clan of Eumolpids, which is famous among the Ceropian race, the Athenians and all those who afterwards held the office of the caduce-carriers, hierophants and heralds. Baubo, whom we have said to be a dweller of Eleusinian country, extended hospitality to Ceres, who had been tired by manifold afflictions. She comforted Demeter with propitious treatment, begged her to attend to sustaining her body, and offered to her as a soothing of her feverish thirst that mixed potion, which Greece calls kykeon. But the mourning goddess turns against and rejects the ceremonies of humanity, for her immortal fortune allows her no concern with her own health. Baubo insisted on the contrary and entreated her, as is customary in such cases. She asked the goddess not to disdain her human nature. Yet Ceres persevered most rigidly and retained the strictness of her implacable defiance.
After this was repeated over and over again, and Baubo, with all her deference, proved unable to mitigate the stubborn attitude of her guest, Baubo changed tactics. She decided to exhilarate with a ludicrous show her guest, whom she had failed to appease in earnest. She had cleared from rather long negligence that part of her body, through which the female sex normally produces posterity and derives the very name of the feminine gender. She made it to appear cleaner and bearing an image of a little boy, still immature and pranky. She approached the grieving goddess. Among all the commonplaces of conventional utterance in consolation and comfort for bereaved persons, Baubo stripped herself, revealing her groin, and exhibited all those places of shame. The goddess fixed her eyes on Baubo’s pubic area, enjoying a unique kind of solace. Then, loosened with laughter, she took and drank the rejected potion. What Baubo’s piety had for a long time failed to achieve was thus brought about by a shameful act of obscenity.
If, by chance, someone suspects us of wicked calumny, let that person consult the books of the Thracian bard Orpheus. Those books, as you recall, have been passed on from divine antiquity. Let that person find that we neither have fabricated something craftily, nor are we looking for an occasion to make a mockery of the goddess, or to invent a fictitious account of the sacred tradition. Let us quote those very verses, which Orpheus the son of Calliope had uttered in Greek. Through perennial recitations he publicized for human judgment:
Saying so, she pulled up her clothes from the bottom,
and exposed to eyes what was fashioned on her groin.
Baubo tossed it up with her free hand — for down there was
a boyish face. She slaps and pulls it amusingly.
Now the goddess opens widely her august eyes and stares at the sight,
as she gradually lets go of her spirit’s troubles
and with laughter gladly empties the whole drink of kykeon.{ Quinque illud temporis has partes incolebant terrigenae, quibus nomina haec fuerant: Baubo Triptolemus Eumolpus Eubuleus Dysaules: boum iugator Triptolemus, capellarum Dysaules custos, Eubuleus porcorum, gregis lanitii Eumolpus, a quo gens ecfluit Eumolpidarum et ducitur clarum illud apud Cecropios nomen et qui postea floruerunt caduceatores, hierophantae atque praecones. igitur Baubo illa, quam incolam diximus Eleusinii fuisse pagi, malis multiformibus fatigatam accipit hospitio Cererem, adulatur obsequiis mitibus,reficiendi corporis rogat curam ut habeat, sitientis ardori oggerit potionem cinni, cyceonem quam nuncupat Graecia: aversatur et respuit humanitatis official maerens dea nec eam fortuna perpetituur valetudinis meminisse. comis rogat illa atque hortatur contra, sicut mos est in huiusmodi casibus, ne fastidium suae humanitatis adsumat: obstinatissime durat Cere et rigoris indomiti pertinaciam retinet.
quod cum saepius fieret neque ullis quiret obsequiis ineluctabile propositum fatigari, vertit Baubo artes et quam serio non quibat allicere ludibriorum statuit exhilarare miraculis: partem illam corporis, per quam secus femineum et subolem producer et nomen solet adquirere generi, tum longiore ab incuria liberat, facit sumere habitum puriorem et in speciem levigari nondum duri atque histriculi pusionis. redit ad deam tristem et inter alia communia quibus moris est frangere ac temperare maerores retegit se ipsam atque omnia illa pudoris loca revelatis monstrat inguinibus. atque pubi adfigit oculos diva et inauditi specie solaminis pascitur: tum diffusior facta per risum aspernatam sumit atque ebibit potionem, et quod diu nequivit verecundia Baubonis exprimere propudiosi facinoris extorsit obscenitas.
calumniari nos improbe si quis forte hominum suspicatur, libros sumat Threicii vatis, quos antiquitatis memoratis esse divinae, et inveniet nos nihil neque callide fingere neque quo sint risui deum quaerere atque efficere sanctitates. ipsos namque in medio ponemus versus, quos Calliopae filius ore edidit Graeco et cantando per saecula iuri publicavit humano:
sic effata simul vestem contraxit ab imo
obiecitque oculis formatas inguinibus res:
quas cava succutiens Baubo manu – nam puerilis
ollis vultus erat – plaudit, contrectat amice.
tum dea defigens augusti luminis orbes
tristitias animi paulum mollita repoint:
inde manu poculum sumit risuque sequenti
perducit totum cyceonis laeta liquorem. }
Arnobius of Sicca, Against the pagans {Adversus nationes / Adversus gentes} 5.25-6, Latin text of Marchesi (1953) via Arans (1988) pp. 21-2, English translation (modified) from id. For an English translation of the full work, Bryce & Campbell (1871). Here are some related texts. From a strictly philological perspective, Arnobius’s testimony about Baubo, Iacchus, and Demeter has been judged to be “worthless.” Marcovich (1986) p. 301. From a historical perspective, Arnobius’s testimony usefully indicates what a Christian in northern Africa writing about 300 GC found plausible about Baubo, Iacchus, and Demeter.
Orpheus and the Eleusinian Mysteries are now understood to be deeply connected. Arans (1988) pp. 20-1, quoting West (1983) p. 263.
[4] As technical terms of anatomy, vulva refers to external female genitals, while vagina refers to the internal passageway to the cervix. The two are obviously connected. In ordinary language, vagina is commonly used to include the vulva. Vulva is used above because of the attention to display. The vagina is implicit in that display.
A woman lifting her garments to display her vulva is known by the ancient Greek term anasyrma {ἀνάσυρμα} / anasyrmos {ἀνασυρμός}. It apparently was an ancient claim to social privilege like a woman exposing her breasts. Fragments from the sixth-century BGC iambic poet Hipponax indicate that anasyrma was known to Hipponax, who used the word “self-exposer {ἀνασυρτόλις}.” The Suda explained:
Hipponax calls her ‘opening of filth’ as of one who is impure, from βόρβορος, ‘filth,’ and ‘self-exposer’ from ἀνασύρεσθαι ‘to pull up one’s clothes.’
{ Ἱππῶναξ δὲ “βορβορόπιν” ὡς ἀκάθαρτον ταύτην φησίν, ἀπὸ τοῦ βορβόρου, καὶ “ἀνασυρτό{πο}λιν” ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀνασύρεσθαι. }
Hipponax, Fragments 135, 135a, 135b, ancient Greek text and English translation from Gerber (1999). Arans seems to have missed this evidence:
In Greece, there is no known custom of women pulling up their clothes; instead, such customs existed in Egypt. (Her. 2.60; Diod. Sic. 1.85.)
Arans (1988) p. 33. In Herodotus, Histories 2.69, women traveling on the Nile to the festival at Boubastis apparently mooned persons on the riverbanks. See note [15] in my post on sardonic medieval literature. In Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica 1.85, women pulled up their garments to display their genitals to the sacred bull Apis in the sanctuary of Hephaestus at Memphis. For other evidence of ancient Greek women pulling up their clothes, see subsequent discussion above.
Women’s genitals were generally regarded much more favorably than men’s genitals. Men didn’t fear women’s genitals. To the contrary, men desired women’s genitals. Considerable implicit cultural continuity exists with ancient Mesopotamian views of women’s genitals.
[5] Aristophanes, Frogs / Ranae {Βάτραχοι} vv. 409-13, ancient Greek text and English translation (modified insubstantially) from Henderson (2002). The subsequent quote above is similarly from Frogs, vv. 422-30.
[6] The example of a women lifting her dress to express contempt for a man (in context plausibly her husband) comes from Artemidorus in the second century GC:
A man dreamed that his wife lifted up her clothes and showed him her genitals. His wife caused him much suffering, for she lifted up her dress as she would to a contemptible person.
{ ἔδοξέ τις ἀναστειλαμένην τὴν γυναῖκα ἐπιδεικνύειν αὐτῶι τὸ αἰδοῖον. πολλῶν κακῶν αἰτία ἐγένετο αὐτῶι ἡ γυνή· ὥσπερ γὰρ εὐκαταφρονήτωι ἀνεστείλατο. }
Artemidorus of Ephesus / Artemidorus Daldianus {Ἀρτεμίδωρος ὁ Δαλδιανός}, Oneirocritica {Ὀνειροκριτικὰ} 4.44, ancient Greek text from Pack (1963), English translation (modified insubstantially) from White (1975).
[7] The Corinthian demigod Bellerophon was the son of the sea-god Poseidon and the Corinthian queen Eurynome. He was unable to hold his position against Lycian women lifting their garments and showing him their vulvas:
Bellerophon waded into the sea and prayed to Poseidon that, as a requital against the Lycian king Iobates, the land might become sterile and unprofitable. After his prayer, he went back, and a wave arose and inundated the land. It was a fearful sight as the sea, following him, rose high in air and covered up the plain. The Lycian men besought Bellerophon to check it. When they could not prevail on him, the Lycian women, pulling up their garments, came to meet him. He then, for shame, retreated towards the sea again. The wave also, it is said, went back with him.
{ ὅθεν εἰς τὴν θάλατταν ἐμβὰς εὔξατο κατ᾿ αὐτοῦ τῷ Ποσειδῶνι τὴν χώραν ἄκαρπον γενέσθαι καὶ ἀνόνητον. εἶθ᾿ ὁ μὲν ἀπῄει κατευξάμενος, κῦμα δὲ διαρθὲν ἐπέκλυζε τὴν γῆν· καὶ θέαμα δεινὸν ἦν, ἑπομένης μετεώρου τῆς θαλάττης καὶ ἀποκρυπτούσης τὸ Bπεδίον. ἐπεὶ δέ, τῶν ἀνδρῶν δεομένων τὸν ελλεροφόντην ἐπισχεῖν, οὐδὲν ἔπειθον, αἱ γυναῖκες ἀνασυράμεναι τοὺς χιτωνίσκους ἀπήντησαν αὐτῷ· πάλιν οὖν ὑπ᾿ αἰσχύνης ἀναχωροῦντος ὀπίσω καὶ τὸ κῦμα λέγεται συνυποχωρῆσαι. }
Plutarch, Moralia, Bravery of Women, “The Lycian Women {Λυκιαι}” 9 (248a-b), ancient Greek text and English translation (modified slightly) from Babbitt (1931).
[8] Plutarch, Moralia, Sayings of Spartan Women, “Other Spartan Women to Fame Unknown” 4 (241b), ancient Greek text and English translation (modified slightly) from Babbitt (1931) pp. 460-1. More on Spartan mothers.
[9] Polyaenus {Πoλύαινoς}, Strategies in War / Strategemata {Στρατηγήματα} 7.45.2, ancient Greek text of Woelfflin & Melber (1887) via Attalus, English translation of Shepherd (1793) as adapted by Attalus. For similar accounts, see Plutarch, Moralia, Bravery of Women, “The Persian Women {Περσιδεσ}” 5 (246a-b); and Justin, Philippic Histories {Historiae Philippicae} / Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus {Epitoma Historiarum Philippicarum Pompei Trogi} 1.6.
[10] Parents arranging marriages for their children has been common across cultures and throughout history. Mothers in actual practice probably dominated the arranging of marriages. Moreover, a marriage was unlikely to occur unless both woman and man consented to it within the actual circumstances of their lives.
[11] Homeric Hymn to Demeter, vv. 363-9, sourced as previously.
[12] Luke 1:26-38 (angel Gabriel announces to Mary her favor in bearing Jesus); Luke 1:48 (Mary declares her low estate). Mary’s social status was such that it was fitting for her to marry a carpenter. Mark 6:13, Matthew 13:55.
[images] (1) Anasyrma Isis figurine from Egypt, second-first century BGC. Preserved as item 206 in the Egyptian Museum, Universität Leipzig. Source image thanks to Einsamer Schütze and Wikimedia Commons. For similar anasyrma Isis figurines, see accession # 88.918 and museum # 1886,0401.1451 (both dates third-second centuries BGC) in the British Museum.
(2) Venus of Hohle Fels / Venus of Schelklingen. Mammoth ivory figurine of a nude woman. Found in a cave near Schelklingen, Germany. Figurine made between 42,000 and 40,000 years ago. Source image thanks to Ramessos and Wikimedia Commons.
(3) Venus of Willendorf. Limestone figurine of a nude woman. Found near Willendorf, a village in Lower Austria. Figurine made between 26,000 and 24,000 years ago. Source image thanks to Captmondo and Wikimedia Commons. Another image of the Venus of Willendorf. Many such prehistoric naked woman figurines have been found.
(4) Anasyrma of Persian women shames retreating Persian men and compels them to return to battle against the Medean men. Painting by Otto van Veen between 1597 and 1599. Preserved as inventory # Gemäldegalerie, 2668 in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. Image thanks to the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Wikimedia Commons. The Persian women’s anasyrma was also the subject of a painting by Frans Francken the Younger in Antwerp between 1587 and 1610.
References:
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