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Sensitivity to Shame in Greek and Roman Epic, with Particular Reference to Claudian and Nonnus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2014

R. F. Newbold
R. F. Newbold*
Affiliation:
University of Adelaide
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Extract

English shame and German scham derive from the Gothic schama, ‘to hide, cover, conceal’. German Hemd (shirt) and English and French chemise are other derivatives. In some languages the word for ‘shame’ and the word for ‘wound’ are the same. A wound exposes and can thereby advertise vulnerabilty and a cause for shame. Hiding or covering may seek to guard against wounding, humiliating exposure.

Shame is self-evidently an important human emotion. Insofar as animals are innocent of shame, experience of it is a mark of humanity. Much human behaviour is influenced by fear of shame and embarrassment. Living in the face and eyes, shame is very close to the experienced self. Self-image and self-esteem are heavily determined by one's susceptibility to shame. Experience of shame is impossible without a sense of individuation, without a sense of discreteness from the world and of being an object in the eyes of another. Study of shame sensitivity therefore offers many clues to an individual's or a culture's behaviour, sense of identity and relationship to the environment.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ramus , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , January 1985 , pp. 30 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © Aureal Publications 1985

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References

Notes

1. Shame's etymological roots may go back to Sanskrit Kshan, ‘wound’. Cf. Schneider, C. D., Shame, Exposure and Privacy (Boston 1977), ix–xiii, 29Google Scholar; Wurmser, L., The Mask of Shame (Baltimore 1981), 39Google Scholar; Riezler, K., ‘Comment on the Social Psychology of Shame’, American Journal of Sociology, 48 (1942–1943), 457–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The nouns hide and skin are synonyms but as verbs they are antonyms.

2. Tr. Rouse, W. H. D., Dionysiaca (London 1940), iii. 239Google Scholar. Subsequent translations of quotations from the Dionysiaca and the other works studied are mostly taken from Loeb translations.

3. Cf. Schneider (n.1 above), 113, 165; Lynd, H. M., On Shame and the Search for Identity (New York 1961), 25Google Scholar.

4. Reik, T., Myth and Guilt (New York 1957), passim, esp. 235ffGoogle Scholar.

5. On some of the links between Claudian and Nonnus, cf. Braden, G., The Classics and English Renaissance Poetry (New Haven 1978), 70–75Google Scholar.

6. Besides the works listed in n.1 above, valuable discussions can be found in Lewis, H. B., Shame and Guilt in Neurosis (New York 1972Google ScholarPubMed); Buss, A. M., Self-consciousness and Social Anxiety (San Francisco 1980), ch.9Google Scholar; Peristany, J. G. (ed.), Honour and Shame (Chicago 1966Google Scholar); Piers, G. and Singer, M., Shame and Guilt 2 (New York 1971Google Scholar); Jacobson, E., The Self and the Object World (New York 1964), 144ffGoogle Scholar. Cf. too: Ausabel, D. P., ‘Relationships between Shame and Guilt in the Socialising Process’, Psychological Review 62 (1955), 378–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Isenberg, A., ‘Natural Pride and Natural Shame’, Ph and Phen R 10 (1949), 1–24Google Scholar; Levin, S., ‘The Psychoanalysis of Shame’, International Journal of Psychoanalysis 52 (1971), 355–62Google ScholarPubMed.

7. So was, e.g., Claud Rap. 3. 277: ‘This is, I suppose, the reward for those chaste (pudici) embraces.’ Although a shame-suggestive word is present, the outburst has to do with anger and sarcasm rather than shame.

8. The samples comprise the first 125 lines from 24 books of the Iliad, Odyssey and Dionysiaca; the first 250 from all books of the Aeneid and Thebaid; the first 250 from the first 12 books of the Punica and Metamorphoses; the first 375 from all books of V.F.'s Argonautica; the first 750 from all books of A.R.'s Argonautica; and the first 300 from all books of Lucan's Bellum Civile.

9. Cf. the sense of French pudeur, in contrast to honte/disgrace.

10. This self-exposure category includes references to a subject removing armour ana clothing.

11. On the complementarity of self- and other-exposure, cf. Rothenberg, A. B., ‘Why Nixon Taped Himself: Infantile Fantasies behind Watergate’, The Psychoanalytic Review 62 (1975–1976), 201–204Google ScholarPubMed, and Miller, J. P., ‘The Psychology of Blushing’, International Journal of Psychoanalysis 46 (1965), 188–99Google ScholarPubMed, who also comments on the unconscious sadistic element involved in looking.

12. Obviously aesthetic impulses may be involved, but as the etymology and English cognates of ‘decorate’ show (decet, it is seemly, dignified; decorous, decorum), they can be hard to disentangle. See the discussion of Claudian below, p.39.

13. Cf. Massey, I., The Gaping Pig: Literature and Metamorphosis (Berkeley 1976Google Scholar).

14. Cf. Curran, L., ‘Rape and Rape Victims in the Metamorphoses’, Arethusa 11 (1978), 213–42, and esp. 224fGoogle Scholar.

15. The first 29 plus 29 lines from no. 30, i.e. pp. 1-74 of Kwakiutl Tales (New York 1935Google Scholar). In the discussion on the sample scores I have referred to the Kwakiutl total but decided to restrict the averages to the 11 representatives of classical culture.

16. Cf. Postal, S. K., ‘Body-image and Identity: a Comparison of Kwakiutl and Hopi’, American Anthropologist 67 (1965), 455–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17. Eclogues 1.1-7.65; Georgics 1.1-545; Heroides 1.1-4.129; Amores 1.1.1-10.39; Silvae 1.1.1-4.16.

18. 129 lines of Cons. Stil. were added to the 371 lines used in the 3000-line sample to give a 500-line sample; i.e. 1. 372-85 and 2. 1-115 were added. 1. 1-500 made up the In Eutropium sample. The Carmina Minora sample employed 2, 5, 7, 22, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30.1-10.

19. Browning, R. in Kenny, E. J. and Clausen, W. V. (edd.), The Cambridge History of Literature (Cambridge 1982), 11.708Google Scholar; Raby, F. J., A History of Secular Latin Poetry in the Middle Ages (Oxford 1957), 1.92Google Scholar.

20. As noted earlier, his score (6) for E (Discretion) is the joint highest.

21. E.g. Ruf. 1. 221-2, Eut. 1. 152, 210-14, 238-42, 252f., 484.

22. Cf. Braden, G., ‘Claudian and his Influence: the Realm of Venus’, Arethusa 12 (1979), 203–32, at 219Google Scholar.

23. C.M.2: cf. C.M.5 and the tranquil ending of De Bell. Gild. 516-26, with vessels in secure havens.

24. Cf. Nonnus' description of Dionysus' underwater refuge, Dion. 21. 170-87: the security and cosseted comfort he can enjoy there is womb-like. The emphasis is on closeness and warmth rather than impenetrability. Cf. too Newbold, R. F., ‘Space and Scenery in Quintus of Smyrna, Claudian and Nonnus’, Ramus 10 (1981), 53–68, esp. 59, 64fCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25. Cf. the sentiments of Roma, Gild. 105-9: ‘Happier I, had my power been less. Better to have put up with Samnium and Veii; in narrower bonds I passed securer days. My very magnitude undoes me; would that I could return to my former boundaries and the walls of poor Ancus.’ It may not be coincidental that Claudian's sparsely elided hexameters offer a smoother, gleaming, less porous surface than those of his epic predecessors. Cf. Braden (n.22 above), 223-7, on the unusual nature of Claudian's vision of the walls of Venus' palace: they are gold or jewels, not simply overlaid, and are thus impossible to strip (Epith. 87-91). Decoration has become reality.

26. Cf. Newbold, R. F., ‘Boundaries and Bodies in Late Antiquity’, Arethusa 12 (1979), 93–114, esp. 105Google Scholar. One could argue that Claudian's concern with decorated and layered surfaces, and his wish for correspondence between outer and inner, face and heart(Cons. Stil. 21. 32–67Google Scholar: cf. 135-9, 163-5), result from spending so much time amidst the opulence and intrigues of the imperial court or wealthy households. But Vergil, Lucan, Statius and Silius, at least, moved in such circles without becoming so preoccupied.

27. Cf. Wurmser(n.1 above), 154-168.

28. Other relevant words are listed and the whole subject well discussed by Lindsay, J., Life and Pleasure in Roman Egypt (London 1965), 379–87Google Scholar.

29. Cf. Winkler, J. J., In Pursuit of the Nymphs: Comedy and Sex in Nonnos' Tales of Dionysus (U. Texas Diss., 1974), 9Google Scholar. The verbs opipteuō (‘stare at’, ‘lie in wait for’, ‘watch’), 48 times, and hyperkyptō (‘peep over’), 14 times, also tend to evoke the image of tremulous curiosity, like Voyeurs who both want to look and are afraid to. Winkler points out that something always prevents a complete and final revelation. Even the modesty of the viewer welling up can prevent a full genital show. Shamelessness and a craving for observing the mysterious readily interchange.

30. Cf. Winkler (n.29 above), 1-16, 52-67 for references (24 voyeur scenes); and also Newbold, R. F., ‘Discipline, Bondage and the Serpent in Nonnus' Dionysiaca’, CW 78 (1984), 89–98Google Scholar.

31. Cf. Piers and Singer (n.6 above), 30; Fenichel, O., The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (New York 1945), 71, 346–8Google Scholar; Barnes, H., The Meddling Gods (Lincoln 1974), 21–30Google Scholar.

32. Cf. 41. 258: Beroe appears to blush as she undresses.

33. A child, having found a successful refuge in a game of hide-and-seek, experiences just these anxieties.

34. A well-observed and powerful case study involves the story of the nymph Aura (48. 238-942). Shyly aloof, proud of her beauty, virginity, speed and archery, Aura is a ripe subject for humiliation when she shamelessly stares at the naked and excessively modest Artemis. She vaunts her superior beauty and strength. Artemis covers herself, offended, ashamed even to recall the incident and has condign punishment inflicted on the mocker. Aura is deprived by Dionysus of her prized virginity while in a drunken sleep, victim of a deceitful stream of wine. Mocked by Artemis and too ashamed to look upon the light of day, Aura hurls herself into a river and finds refuge by becoming a river herself.

35. Cf. McCary, W. T., Childlike Achilles: Ontogeny and Phytogeny in the Iliad (New York 1982), 142Google Scholar.

36. Cf. Ausabel (n.6 above); Obeyesekere, G., Medusa's Hair (Chicago 1981), 79ffGoogle Scholar. Hamartia does not occur in the Dionysiaca.

37. The concept of creativity positively exalting the self is found in Claudian's dream of himself standing at the summit of the sky, laying his song at Jove's feet and being applauded by all the deities (VI Cons. Hon. praef. 11-16). Cf. Lynd (n.6 above), 247; Wurmser (n.1 above), 65-9, 293-302; Schneider (n.1 above), xiii, 14, 122.