Date of Award
5-2023
Document Type
Thesis open access
First Advisor
Lawrence Kim
Second Advisor
Timothy O'Sullivan
Abstract
In this thesis, I explore how epigram authors evoke and manipulate gendered modes of dying in their portrayals of suicide. More specifically, I examine how the sword/noose, male/female paradigm underlies their constructions of heroic and humorous suicides. Ultimately, I argue that the epigrams use gender-transgressive modes of self-killing to create their heroic and humorous suicide. This argument not only illuminates how epigrams played with a popular theme from ‘high’ literature but also the very telling ways that suicide was gendered in the Greek imagination.
Recommended Citation
Oyler, Acacia Grace, "The Gender of Greek Suicide: Constructions of Humor and Heroism in Epigrams" (2023). Classical Studies Honors Theses. 8.
https://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/class_honors/8