Muzy i płeć meta poetyki

• Authors: Tomasz Mojsik

Title variants

EN

MUSES AND GENDER OF METAPOETICS DISCOURSE

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

This paper focuses on the question of the place of gender traits in the image of the Muses as protectors of poetry and poets. The article points out that while certain features peculiar to the image of the Muses – their virginity, their dependence on other deities, especially male gods, their relative uniformity, equality and anonymity within the group, are already present in the earliest representations, their independent identification as mothers of particular mythical poets is already apparent from about the end of the 6th century BC onwards, as is the occurrence of other elements characteristic of the female sex in the poetologische Bildersprache. The author has tried to locate aspects of their image within the method in which poetry was conceptualized, the influence of poetry, and the social position of poets within the Greek world. The analyses outlined above stemmed from a conviction that in the sphere of poetry the role of the Muses was most evident, and that they held an unquestionable advantage in this sphere over Apollo or Dionysus. Thus the question is: what were the actual gender traits of the Muses that made them associated with the spheres of music and poetry, and thus, which of the female traits, imposed as a construct functioning in Greek culture, allowed the poets to conceptualize – in this very manner – poetry, music and their actions. Why and when their image became dominated by male features – which are testified by the image of the mythical poets as sons of the Muses, with no information about their paternity – and whether they belong to the divine or to the metapoetic sphere. It seems that certain traits attributed to the female sex in Greek culture – the relationship with knowledge, mimesis, ambiguity, and pleasure as the result of an action – as well as much more general model of the perception of socially marginalised groups, allow us to understand the phenomenon of female protectors of the male sphere of knowledge, memory, word, and verbal expression.

Keywords

EN

GENDER OF MUSES; METAPOETICS; CULTURE AND RELIGION IN ANTIQUITY

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Polskiego Towarzystwa Historycznego
• Journal: Rocznik Antropologii Historii
• Year: 2011
• Issue: 1-2
• Pages: 73-93

Contributors

author

Tomasz Mojsik

• Uniwersytet w Białymstoku, Instytut Historii i Nauk Politycznych, Plac Uniwersytecki 1, 15-420 Białystok, Poland