Erica Redden

2-28-02

Special Journal Assignment

Response Paper

Largely I agree with Chloe's position about the gendered roles that Desire takes on in Women of Trachis. I would have liked to hear more about the form that Desire takes for women, Deianira especially. I was also left wondering as to why Deainira’s passive sexual desire lead to such dire consequences. Was this indicative of how women are dangerous and not to be trusted, or somehow because a woman dared to desire and be jealous, she had to be punished? I also would more exploration about the dangerous nature that sexual desire creates for people, and if that nature also carries over to the gendered notion of desire that Chloe’s paper describes.

I think that this gendered sexual desire concept applicable to the ancient Roman literature we have read. In Daphnis and Chloe, we see in the relationship between the two main characters that Daphnis, the male, is more aggressive about expressing his desire. In Plutarch’s biography of Mark Antony, Cleopatra’s sexual desire, even though it is not the passive bent that Deianira seems to feel, is expressed through trickery.

Conclusively, I very much agree with Chloe about the passive nature of Deainira’s desire compared to Herecles' active and quite aggressive desire. I often wonder if Sophocles was trying to make a point about desire.