An Analysis of Symbolic Violence in Classical Texts Comparatively to Modern Feminist Adaptations

This thesis explores the symbolic violence and misogyny present in Classical texts, and then compares them to modern feminist adaptations or retellings of the same stories. We explore the treatment of Briseis and other enslaved women in the Greek camp throughout the Iliad, and compare Homer’s perspective to Pat Barker’s in her book Silence of the Girls. We then look at Ovid’s Metamorphoses compared to Wake, Siren by Nina Maclaughlin, and finish with the comparison of Euripides’ plays Iphigenia at Aulis, Iphigenia Among the Taurians, and Hecuba to A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes. The thesis concludes that the adaptations bring a previously unheard and marginalized perspective to light, and also work to undo some of the damage that the original stories did on women’s rights through to the present day, helping women to redetermine and reannounce what their role in their society should be