Wiener Studien 130/2017, pp. 153-170, 2017/06/26
Zeitschrift für Klassische Philologie, Patristik und lateinische Tradition
This paper explores the portrayal of Aphrodite, Athena, Helen and other women as realized through the comments made by Aphrodite and Paris on femininity and the lack of it in Colluthus’ Rape of Helen. It is argued that in making Paris state that Helen’s female ‘Argive’ entourage lacks womanly features, Colluthus is making reference to Theocritus’ Encomion of Helen and to Callimachus’ Bath of Pallas, in which Spartan women and Athena respectively are endowed with masculine characteristics. Colluthus is further conversing with the Homeric image of Aphrodite in the passage in which the goddess is defeated by Athena and Diomedes and is mocked for her feebleness. In Colluthus, it is Aphrodite’s turn to exult over her Homeric opponents (namely Athena) and to show that beauty, which shines in her victory in Paris’ judgment, is the real female power which masculine women lack and thus to proclaim the superiority of love to war.