Domestic architecture as rhetorical device: The gynaeconitis in Greek and Roman thought

Domestic architecture as rhetorical device: The gynaeconitis in Greek and Roman thought Public Deposited

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McArdle, Kelly
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Classics

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In this thesis, I explore the gap between persistent literary reference to the gynaeconitis, or “women’s quarters,” and its elusive presence in the archaeological record, seeking to understand why it survived as a conceptual space in Roman literature several centuries after it supposedly existed as a physical space in fifth and fourth-century Greek homes. I begin my study by considering the origins of the gynaeconitis as a literary motif and contemplating what classical Greek texts reveal about this space. Reflecting on this information in light of the remains of Greek homes, I then look to Roman primary source material to consider why the gynaeconitis took up a strong presence in Roman thought. I argue that Roman writers, although far-removed from fifth and fourth-century Greek homes, found the gynaeconitis most useful as a mutable and efficient symbol of male control and a conceptual locus of identity formation.

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