The veil and the voice: A study of female beauty and male attraction in ancient Greece

This thesis examines the response of the ancient Greek male to female beauty as it is presented in a wide range of literary sources. The discussion analyzes how ancient Greek writers localized the physically attractive features of a woman in her hair and her voice. Women's hair is still a great source of male sexual interest, but in the ancient Greek world a married woman's uncovered head was placed on the same level of sexual allure as a bare breast would be today. Parallel to a woman's uncovered head is her voice. Greek males considered a woman's voice both intrusive and seductive. The hair and voice together were a danger and a delight. This thesis explores how, starting with Hesiod, a woman does not have to be intentionally seductive or flirtatious in order to be dangerously alluring for the male. All she has to do is be seen or heard.; The thesis goes on to investigate how Greek males endeavored to protect both themselves and their women from adultery. The essential element of Greek male sexual defense was the seclusion of women. This seclusion took the form of confinement within the house and the wearing of a veil when outside the house. The veil became an extension of the domicile, a movable wall and a portable ceiling. The analysis of this phenomenon offered here attempts to explain from this perspective some of the dissonances in the tone of the hospitality in Homer's Odyssey and the combination of progressiveness and conservatism in the much later Plutarch.; The thesis considers Greek literature from Homer to Philostratus. The approach is diachronic rather than by genre. In a final chapter, the investigation attempts to throw light from the classical Greek sources on the problematic injunction of Paul to the women of the early church (I Corinthians 11.2-16) on veiling and silence. A thorough examination from this text will be made of the meaning of the controversial Greek word akatakalyptos.