Programme & Abstracts :: Registration Details :: Accommodation

THE CLOTHED BODY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
17-19 January 2002

Shelly Hales
Bristol

Men are Mars, Women are Venus?

Recent accounts of women dressing up (or rather down) as goddesses have stressed the normality of such a practice (see Matheson & D'Ambra). They have deproblematised the images, excusing and validating the apparently naked display of Roman flesh as costume. In this paper, however, I am more interested in the possibilities for dressing up to go wrong, particularly in its most high profile instances. Being part of the imperial entourage, on full display, brought plenty of opportunities for the fashion faux pas. For example, Titus' wife might pose as Venus but what about Caligula's attempt to do the same? Is it simply the aspect of cross (un) dressing which upsets the audience? Is it one thing to dress divinely in a statue, but another to do so in the flesh? What costumes must be shed in order to assume new ones? This paper takes another look at what is at stake in these practices. Why can't Antony be Dionysus but Antinous can? Is it because Antony has a high-profile identity as Roman general but Antinous who has no other costume of his own, has nothing to lose? This paper, then, aims to explore some of the transgressions inherent in dressing as the gods and the deliberate exploitation or resolution of those transgressions by those within, and conspiring against, the imperial family.