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Gendered Voices in the Iliad: Lament and Heroic Glory
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Gendered Voices in the Iliad: Lament and Heroic Glory

Celsiana Warwick
Oxford University Press
2026

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Abstract

Summary:Warwick explores the ways in which the Iliad constructs competing gendered voices that comment on the value system of the poem's warrior society. Prominent within the poem is a discourse of warrior masculinity that valorises over all else the acquisition of time (honour) and kleos (glory) through prowess in battle. Within Iliadic society, this form of masculinity is hegemonic, meaning that it is the dominant and most ideologically privileged, configuration of masculine gender practice within its culture. However, the poem also presents other perspectives and ways of being that interact with and counter the discourse of hegemonic warrior masculinity in complex ways. In particular, the discourse of lament, which is primarily associated with women, presents a counterpoint to masculine warrior ideology by emphasising the damage that the pursuit of time and kleos does to a hero's family and community.

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