Lampas - Volume 56, Issue 3, 2023

In this article I aim to show the importance of forms of address in ancient Greek tragedy. In several case studies of Sophocles’ plays, I highlight, examine, and interpret how forms of address are used. I first examine women’s ways of addressing other women in the Antigone and Electra, then men’s ways of addressing other men by looking at the Philoctetes, and finally the interactions between a man and a woman in Oedipus Tyrannus. These case studies demonstrate that forms of address are important to understand the complex and intricate relationships between characters in Greek drama, as they significantly contribute to those relationships. Additionally, I pursue the question of how gender comes into play when addressing an interlocutor.

‘[Congenital eunuchs] form a third class of half men, in addition to hermaphrodites and eunuchs.’ In his Natural History, Pliny identifies (congenital) eunuchs and hermaphrodites as gender variables that are neither male nor female. These gender variables are heuristically called the third gender, which offers the opportunity for scholars to study gender variables that do not conform to a binary sex/gender system of male and female. These gender variables have always existed and various historical environments have discussed who and what they are and how to place them in society. As Pliny demonstrates, ancient Rome discussed the third gender as well. Unfortunately, these debates are generally overlooked by academia. Therefore, by means of an introduction to the third gender, this article examines medical and legal sources that discuss the perception and regulation of eunuchs and hermaphrodites as a third gender. In this article, I will argue that studying the third gender exposes (implicit) ideas and ontologies about the binary gender system and notions of masculinity and femininity. As a result, this article forms an important introductory historical perspective to modern gender debates about gender variables and the binary system.

During the fourth century, Christianity developed from a persecuted religion to the only official religion of the Roman Empire. Written sources suggest that this came at the expense of religious tolerance. Egypt and Syria play an important role in this narrative. In this article, I argue that the practice of religious life was much more nuanced than the writings suggest at first glance. This argument is illustrated by means of several case studies pertaining to Egypt and Syria during the third and fourth centuries, using traditional literary sources, papyri as well as remains of material culture.