Thesis Presentation

I found this folded up and thought it was a paper I presented at a gender studies conference. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the presentation I gave at the end of my undergraduate thesis program, but I was already part-way through re-typing it. Oops.

Myth is not static. The stories which have been passed down across generations do not arrive at their next location untouched by social and historical circumstances, nor do those who receive them accept them readily and uncritically. My thesis examines three authors now considered to be Classical, in that they produced their respective works in the Mediterranean region from as early as 700 BCE to as late as the dawn of the common era, around 10 CE. It examines each author's work in how it receives existing myth, and then transforms or criticizes it to its own end.

The archaic Greek author called Hesiod received the myth of the earth goddess Pandora and the myth of the first woman, created as the cost for man acquiring fire. My thesis argues that the myth of Pandora found in Works and Days combines these two earlier traditions in order to justify a chauvinistic view of women, and to explain why men feel like they must toil under marriage and agriculture. This culminates in a new understanding of Hope in Pandora's jar, which I argue is a symbol of what men feel like they are prevented from having by the gods, and thus what they have to toil to acquire from women and Earth. This relates intimately to Hesiod's assertion at the beginning of the poem that there is not only bad strife that torments men, but also good strife that compels men to work for their individual valorization. The Pandora myth is thus Hesiod's explanation for why his audience must cultivate Earth and marry women in order to survive.

The Epicurean philosopher-poet Lucretius, from the Late Roman Republic in the first century BCE, seems to criticize Hesiod for creating a false myth of human history in order to justify behaviors and institutions that do not facilitate true pleasure, but are indeed counterproductive to realizing an otherwise attainable lifestyle without pain or distress. Lucretius accomplishes this in his didactic epic poem On the Nature of Things by telling a rational story of humanity and of the origin of the world, explaining how things do not happen because of the gods but because of natural forces which operate at every level of existence from the atomic to the social. He thus attempts to make his audience conscious of the false beliefs which hold them captive to a detrimental set of habits and behaviors.

Ovid, the last of these authors, wrote an epic poem from which popular culture has derived many of its notions of Greek myth. The Metamorphoses indeed is the earliest source we have of the myths of Apollo and Daphne, of Narcissus and Echo, and of Pygmalion and his ivory sculpture—despite dating to the early Roman empire! My thesis argues that not only are the episodes of this epic poem original to Ovid, but they were written precisely to cast doubt upon myth as a vessel of truth, and to criticize those who take advantage of myth and language to obscure violence exerted over others. The Metamorphoses is therefore a metapoetic work which purposefully tells an unreliable series of myth-like episodes which contradict themselves in order to challenge the reader's own perspective.

Having analyzed each of these three works, my thesis argues that each one presents a particular theory of desire as something which is determined by material and social circumstances, and it argues by extension that myth relates to desire as a cultural expression or articulation thereof. Each author writes in hindsight of their predecessors, and so each contributes to a more cohesive understanding of myth or, over time, discourse and ideology in general. By putting these three authors in order and situating their perspectives in historical continuity with each other, my thesis demonstrates the development of an increasingly insightful and critical view of the role desire plays in individual and social relationships.

This whole research project has taken me almost the entirety of my time as an undergraduate at [University]. It started when I emailed my professor Dr. A–, now my thesis director, a question about Hope in Pandora's jar. Then, my sophomore year, I began researching Hesiod's Works and Days with Dr. A– through the Honors Research Scholar Program, where I wrote the first draft of what would become the first chapter of my thesis. My junior year, I researched Ovid's Metamorphoses under Dr. B– through the same program, and also took Dr. B–'s graduate seminar about Lucretius. By the start of my senior year, I already had a nearly complete draft of all three chapters of my thesis. However, there was still much more to do in order to complete my thesis and ensure that it presented a cohesive argument about all three texts.

I spent much of my senior year revising my individual drafts into one thesis. I was worried at first that it would feel like I was making a Frankenstein out of disparate parts, none of them related to each other. However, as I was copying and pasting everything into one document and writing introductions and conclusions that reflected on what all I had learned and argued in each chapter, I realized the extent to which these three authors were in conversation with each other. Reading everything together, you could see how Lucretius responded to Hesiod and how Ovid responded to both of them. Each author has his own view of myth and desire, but each one's perspective is informed by those who came before. Much of my work this semester focused on making sure these connections were made explicit, so that the thesis could present a cohesive continuity and development of thought on how myth informs desire and vice versa. The result was my complete thesis.

I'm so grateful for the experiences I've had the past couple of years. I'd like to thank Dr. A– and Dr. B– for taking me under their wings early on and guiding me through the whole process of reading, researching, and writing about each of these works. I'd also like to thank Prof. C– for his guidance in my senior year throughout the official thesis program.