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Reading Medea Through Her Veil in the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2009

MARIA PAVLOU
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Extract

Clothing has both a material and a non-material dimension. Far from merely covering one's body, clothes reveal and reflect something about the wearer's identity: his or her character, gender, social status, ideas, and emotions. The opposite is also true, insofar as clothes can be used in order to ‘disguise’ and conceal one's real values and beliefs, thus transforming existing identities and creating new ones. In other words, clothing has the power both to reveal and to conceal levels of reality. According to Gilman, symbolism is one of the strongest of the primary motives in dress: we dress not only in order to cover the body but also, and most importantly, because clothing is a kind of costume and, as such, it enables us to communicate and at the same time to confirm our identity. As she remarks, ‘The element of symbolism is interwoven with even such a practical garment as the trousers. The small boy's mad desire to get into his first trousers is not based on added comfort or freedom, but on the proud exhibition of the fact that he is a boy.’

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 56 , Issue 2 , October 2009 , pp. 183 - 202
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2009

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References

* Warm thanks are due to Professor Robert Fowler and Professor Richard Buxton, who kindly agreed to read and comment on an earlier version of this paper, as well as to my MA supervisor, Dr Ray Clare, who encouraged me to write the article in the first place. I would also like to express my gratitude to the anonymous referee for his acute criticisms and valuable suggestions.