Browsing by Author "Delany, Ann Moreton."

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Dominandi avida : Tacitus' portrayal of women in the Annals.
(1993) Delany, Ann Moreton.; Gosling, Anne.
This thesis deals with Tacitus' portrayal of women by examining in detail a number of the female characters in the Annals in order to identify certain themes and ideas relating to women. The most striking theme to emerge from such an examination is that of the strong, powerful, almost masculine woman, and several of the characters examined exemplify this recurring theme. In portraying these characters Tacitus uses certain language patterns and techniques of characterisation, and this thesis is concerned with identifying such patterns and techniques. These include the recurring use of certain words with a specific connotation, and the employment of several methods of directing the reader's perception in the manner Tacitus desires. This manipulation of the reader's response is an example of Tacitus' direct and indirect authorial control, which is also evident in his technique of using his own and other authors' usage to create resonances for particular expressions. Of note is the fact that Tacitus avoids direct description of his characters, but rather allows their actions to reveal character. Given that Tacitus' main preoccupation in the Annals as a whole is the nature of the principate, he uses his portrayal of women to illuminate and comment upon his view of this form of government. The women chosen for study, with one exception, belong to the imperial circle since, with the inauguration of one man rule, those with ready access to the princeps had the most opportunity to break out of the mould of the traditional ideal of Roman womanhood. Boudicca, the British queen of the Iceni, has been chosen for study as a foil to the Roman women in order to highlight their manoeuvrings for personal power, while Octavia has been selected as an exemplar of the Roman ideal of womanhood. Although this is not a historical or sociological study, it must be noted that the evidence we have of the period about which Tacitus is writing is in fact one-sided evidence derived from a restricted social class, recorded by men, and an attempt to redress this balance is made by reference to contemporary studies of the legal and social position of women in Roman society. Consequently chapters on the historical background and the position of women respectively have been included as background. In addition other ancient sources have been consulted where this is appropriate in order to determine areas of bias in Tacitus.
Women in the Histories of Herodotus.
(2001) Delany, Ann Moreton.; Mackay, E. Anne.
This thesis examines the portrayal of women in the Histories of Herod at us against the backdrop of two influences, Greek mythology, and the social customs and thought pertaining to women in ancient Greek society. Herodotus' Histories are particularly wide-ranging and, unlike Thucydides' later account of the Peloponnesian War, not confined to the exclusively political and military spheres. As a result. Herodotus' female characters appear naturally in the course of the stories he is telling, stories he has found as the result of his inquiries. Since his researches are so wide-ranging, the information so acquired comes from many and varied sources, both chronologically and geographically. In the course of placing the information he has gathered before his readers or audience, Herodotus has to present it in terms that can be understood and readily assimilated by those receiving it. It is my contention that in order to achieve this end he naturally moulds his stories according to two systems of information with which he and his audience are familiar, that of mythology and that of the social practices and attitudes of his time concerning women, and that these two systems of information act as a backdrop against which the stories he has collected are viewed. When dealing with information from societies very different from the Greek, Herodotus frequently has occasion to define such information in terms of its alterity or 'otherness' in comparison with what for him and his audience is accepted practice. In this way he is able to render strange, alien and foreign customs comprehensible for his audience by expressing them in terms of what they are not and for this purpose he uses Greek societal norms as his reference point. Conversely, he is also able to render stories from foreign lands familiar by recasting his tales using mythological elements well known to his audience, elements which would enjoy instant recognition in the minds of those receiving the information he is imparting. For ease in examining the social context against which Herodotus is telling his stories concerning women, his female characters have been assigned to the categories of daughter, sister, wife and mother, and in each chapter the customs, attitudes and beliefs pertaining to such categories in both societal and mythological terms have been laid out before examining the characters in each category in the text. There is a final category of Women in Power since the women in this category are an excellent example of alterity in relation to Greek thought and practice.