Petronius’s “The Matron of Ephesus” and gender equality

De Beauvoir, as an existential feminist, offers two options for women. Firstly, she offers women to accept “their men-ordained roles as women,” and secondly, an opposite one, to choose and to take responsibility for themselves

Simone de Beauvoir considers the present-day gender-based superiority and inferiority duel between male/female as a social conception based on the “myth of the woman as inferior.” Interestingly, de Beauvoir and her assumption become more relevant and comprehensible, if one reads the Roman short story, “The Matron of Ephesus,” written by Petronius two-thousand years back. The story justifies de Beauvoir’s attitude dealing with the social conceptualisation of a woman’s construction, as she comments: “One is not born a woman but becomes a one.”

However, the short story, “The Matron of Ephesus,” narrates the events related to the life of “a certain matron,” who has to live with her husband’s dead body (according to the tradition) in the grave. The act is considered as “a unique example of conjugal love and fidelity,” though a living is left there in the grave to die with a dead one. The ant-humanistic collective attitude towards the woman is not considered as inhumanly because the society or the system believes in male supremacy whether the man is dead or alive, he is a man after all. From the traditional viewpoint of the story, a dead man is far better than his living counterpart. This particular story, for sure, has a link with the subcontinental rite of widow (sati) sacrificing with the dead husband by means of burning the wife alive along with her husband’s dead body.

As the story proceeds, a soldier, who has been ordered to guard the dead bodies of crucified thieves, discovers the woman following “the moans” coming directly from the sepulchre. The soldier, finding her in a very lost position, offers her food, and tries to bring life into her thought by introducing her with the ‘warmness’ of life and living. The soldier stays with her for three days in the sepulchre and tries to make her understand the value of a life. Meanwhile, the parents of one of the crucified thieves, seeing the soldier not guarding properly, have succeeded to bury the body of their son. As a result, the soldier, who has succeeded to give life into a half-dead woman, is now in fear of losing his own life because of not performing his duty accordingly. And instead of being punished by a military court, he decides to commit suicide, and very interestingly, he wants the matron to do precisely what she has been doing for her latehusband.

The author of the short story, Petronius, is known as a satirist, and in a very smooth way, he ridicules ‘the soldier-character’ at the end of the story revealing his will, that is quite androcentric, though, in the beginning, he seems little humanistic, as he has shown respect––in contrast to the society––to a life of a woman. In the very beginning, the soldier says, “All man…had the same fate and the same last resting place,” and describes her grief and weeping for her dead-husband as “useless.” But he turns pretty quickly to his manhood that narrates woman as unequal in comparison with the value of his living-body, as well as to his deadbody.

D. H. Lawrence in his composition, “Why the Novel Matters,” establishes ‘Novel’ as a superior literary genre above the others. In doing so, he describes ‘Novel’ as the “bright book of life” because, according to him, “In the novel, the characters can do nothing but live,” and Lawrence equally celebrates the beauty of life and the living things, as he comments: “Nothing is important but life…. All things that are dead are subsidiary to the living. Better a living dog than a dead lion.” All these are fine and perfect; but at the end of his writing he comments, “in the novel…when the man goes dead, the woman goes inert.” Why does it happen in any novel, or in any piece of writing?

To find out the answer, it is necessary to look at Virginia Woolf’s interpretation of the dominating authorship and the used language in the text. What she says is that the dominating authorship is “patriarchal and inherently sexist.” Her argument has its ground, otherwise, Lawrence would not comment, “in the novel … when the man goes dead, the woman goes inert.” Only a male-centric narrative can do such a thing because the language and the notion used in the text are part of a ‘patriarchal social discourse’ that has been dominating timelessly. And to ridicule the androcentric social attitude towards woman––living woman––Petronius sets the plot of his story to reveal the inner man of his time by revealing the character of the soldier.

Let’s get back to the short story. In the very last paragraph, the half-dead woman speaks up; she talks about life and death, and most outstandingly, she decides for herself for the very first time. She becomes an existential being; she chooses to live. She makes herself free from the androcentric social discourse. The lady talks like Lawrencewhen the soldier thinks about killing himself, and after his death, wishes to be taken care by the lady––whom he, at first, wanted to live. She says, “It were better to hang up a dead body than to kill a breathing man.”And the soldier does exactly what the lady tells him to do; he takes the dead body of the matron’s husband and puts “it upon the cross that was vacant.” The story does not reveal what has happened to the wife and the soldier but ends narrating that people, in the very next day, wonder “how the dead man had been able to crucify himself.” De Beauvoir, as an existential feminist, offers two options for women. Firstly, she offers women to accept “their men-ordained roles as women,” and secondly, an opposite one, to choose and to take responsibility for themselves, to live or to create roles for themselves out of “the roles and identities fostered or imposed on them by patriarchy.” The character of matron resembles both the options offered by de Beauvoir: at first, she accepts the social norm and becomes “a shining example to all womankind,” and finally, she, as a character, chooses to live and, notably, choice is all about “social transformation,” says de Beauvoir.

Petronius portrays the transformation of the socially constructed matron in his story, who brings herself out of the labyrinth––a myth that presents womanhood as inferior. The ‘androcentric social discourse’ presents womanhood from the biological viewpoint to maintain “inequality between men and women.” De Beauvoir narrates, the “injustice and inequality” based on the biological differences cannot be the defining factor as the differences are natural, not socially constructed. De Beauvoir suggests women to take responsibilities of defining themselves by choosing for themselves, and by choosing for themselves, according to de Beauvoir, “they choose for the entire society.” And, finally, to choose, to become responsible, to be women alive, women need to educate themselves following no “patriarchal education system,” but a system that is free from the male/female binary, free from the androcentric attitude––a system beyond superiority and inferiority complex.

    The writer is a freelancer

 

 

Petroniuss “The Matron of Ephesus” and gender equality

De Beauvoir, as an existential feminist, offers two options for women. Firstly, she offers women to accept “their men-ordained roles as women,” and secondly, an opposite one, to choose and to take responsibility for themselves

Simone de Beauvoir considers the present-day gender-based superiority and inferiority duel between male/female as a social conception based on the myth of the woman as inferior. Interestingly, de Beauvoir and her assumption become more relevant and comprehensible, if one reads the Roman short story, The Matron of Ephesus, written by Petronius two-thousand years back. The story justifies de Beauvoirs attitude dealing with the social conceptualisation of a womans construction, as she comments: One is not born a woman but becomes a one. However, the short story, The Matron of Ephesus, narrates the events related to the life of a certain matron, who has to live with her husbands dead body (according to the tradition) in the grave. The act is considered as a unique example of conjugal love and fidelity, though a living is left there in the grave to die with a dead one. The ant-humanistic collective attitude towards the woman is not considered as inhumanly because the society or the system believes in male supremacy whether the man is dead or alive, he is a man after all. From the traditional viewpoint of the story, a dead man is far better than his living counterpart. This particular story, for sure, has a link with the subcontinental rite of widow (sati) sacrificing with the dead husband by means of burning the wife alive along with her husbands dead body. As the story proceeds, a soldier, who has been ordered to guard the dead bodies of crucified thieves, discovers the woman following the moans coming directly from the sepulchre. The soldier, finding her in a very lost position, offers her food, and tries to bring life into her thought by introducing her with the warmness of life and living. The soldier stays with her for three days in the sepulchre and tries to make her understand the value of a life. Meanwhile, the parents of one of the crucified thieves, seeing the soldier not guarding properly, have succeeded to bury the body of their son. As a result, the soldier, who has succeeded to give life into a half-dead woman, is now in fear of losing his own life because of not performing his duty accordingly. And instead of being punished by a military court, he decides to commit suicide, and very interestingly, he wants the matron to do precisely what she has been doing for her latehusband. The author of the short story, Petronius, is known as a satirist, and in a very smooth way, he ridicules the soldier-character at the end of the story revealing his will, that is quite androcentric, though, in the beginning, he seems little humanistic, as he has shown respectin contrast to the societyto a life of a woman. In the very beginning, the soldier says, All manhad the same fate and the same last resting place, and describes her grief and weeping for her dead-husband as useless. But he turns pretty quickly to his manhood that narrates woman as unequal in comparison with the value of his living-body, as well as to his deadbody. D. H. Lawrence in his composition, Why the Novel Matters, establishes Novel as a superior literary genre above the others. In doing so, he describes Novel as the bright book of life because, according to him, In the novel, the characters can do nothing but live, and Lawrence equally celebrates the beauty of life and the living things, as he comments: Nothing is important but life. All things that are dead are subsidiary to the living. Better a living dog than a dead lion. All these are fine and perfect; but at the end of his writing he comments, in the novelwhen the man goes dead, the woman goes inert. Why does it happen in any novel, or in any piece of writing? To find out the answer, it is necessary to look at Virginia Woolfs interpretation of the dominating authorship and the used language in the text. What she says is that the dominating authorship is patriarchal and inherently sexist. Her argument has its ground, otherwise, Lawrence would not comment, in the novel when the man goes dead, the woman goes inert. Only a male-centric narrative can do such a thing because the language and the notion used in the text are part of a patriarchal social discourse that has been dominating timelessly. And to ridicule the androcentric social attitude towards womanliving womanPetronius sets the plot of his story to reveal the inner man of his time by revealing the character of the soldier. Lets get back to the short story. In the very last paragraph, the half-dead woman speaks up; she talks about life and death, and most outstandingly, she decides for herself for the very first time. She becomes an existential being; she chooses to live. She makes herself free from the androcentric social discourse. The lady talks like Lawrencewhen the soldier thinks about killing himself, and after his death, wishes to be taken care by the ladywhom he, at first, wanted to live. She says, It were better to hang up a dead body than to kill a breathing man.And the soldier does exactly what the lady tells him to do; he takes the dead body of the matrons husband and puts it upon the cross that was vacant. The story does not reveal what has happened to the wife and the soldier but ends narrating that people, in the very next day, wonder how the dead man had been able to crucify himself. De Beauvoir, as an existential feminist, offers two options for women. Firstly, she offers women to accept their men-ordained roles as women, and secondly, an opposite one, to choose and to take responsibility for themselves, to live or to create roles for themselves out of the roles and identities fostered or imposed on them by patriarchy. The character of matron resembles both the options offered by de Beauvoir: at first, she accepts the social norm and becomes a shining example to all womankind, and finally, she, as a character, chooses to live and, notably, choice is all about social transformation, says de Beauvoir. Petronius portrays the transformation of the socially constructed matron in his story, who brings herself out of the labyrintha myth that presents womanhood as inferior. The androcentric social discourse presents womanhood from the biological viewpoint to maintain inequality between men and women. De Beauvoir narrates, the injustice and inequality based on the biological differences cannot be the defining factor as the differences are natural, not socially constructed. De Beauvoir suggests women to take responsibilities of defining themselves by choosing for themselves, and by choosing for themselves, according to de Beauvoir, they choose for the entire society. And, finally, to choose, to become responsible, to be women alive, women need to educate themselves following no patriarchal education system, but a system that is free from the male/female binary, free from the androcentric attitudea system beyond superiority and inferiority complex. The writer is a freelancer