Page 20 - GALIET THESMOPHORIAS AND EUPHORIAS: Of Eyes and Funnels, Of Tracks and Traces IV

Galiet & Galiet
phosphorescence and penumbra. Similarly, whether their phalluses were venerated or despised, worshipped or castrated23 in rejection of men requires a more penetrating study on transgression of feminine-masculine boundaries for phallic findings cannot be simply interpreted as women compensating, in fantasy, the real separation from men.24 Only then shall the pomegranate reveal its Dionysian and Demetrian pips. Until then, we shall dwell as Demeter temporarily dwelt:
3⁄4 But no one would tell us [her] the truth, neither god nor mortal man; and of the birds of omen none came with true news for us [her]25 3⁄4
“That faire field
Of Enna, where Proserpin gathring flours Her self a fairer Floure by gloomie Dis Was gatherd, which cost Ceres all that pain To seek her through the world.” (Milton – Paradise Lost)
23 “A myth tells of Battos, King of Cyrene, who was castrated by the celebrants of the Thesmophoria in punishment for intruding on the secret parts of the rite.” Dillon, M. “Women-only Festivals,” Ch.4 in Girls and Women in Classical Greek Religion, London 2002: 109-25 plus notes. 110.
24Burkert, W. “Thesmophoria,” Ch. V sec. 2.5 in Greek Religion, Cambridge (USA) 1985: 244
25 West, Martin. Homeric Hymns. Homeric Apocrypha. Hymn to Demeter. Lives of Homer. London: Harvard University Press, 2003.
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