Woman, Voice, and Civic Society

Abstract

This theoretical dissertation is concerned with the suppression and especially the silencing of women in the Western world. In order to unearth the root of this oppression, it focuses on the civic and political institution of the ancient Greek city, in particular Athens. Ancient Athens constituted a self-worshipping male society where the supremacy of the male was manifested as the “reign of the phallus,” a phrase used by Eva Keuls to describe phallic dominance and the suppression of the “non-phallic” population. The phallus was an instrument that advertised its bearers’ masculine philosophical, political, and civic capabilities. The study includes a systematic exploration of the symbolic role played by the phallus and its connections to Hermes and Dionysus. The phallic basis of society is juxtaposed against the systematic marginalization and alienation of women as “other” and the grave consequences of this fraught dichotomy for social development.