Clodia metteli in “pro caelio” cicero’s speech: a subversive female archetype
Keywords:
Archetype, dichotomy materfamilias - meretrix, gender normativity, subversionAbstract
This article studies the representation of Clodia Metelli in the speech In Defense of Celio by M. Tullius Cicero. The analysis of this discourse aims to extract and describe each of the elements that make up the portrait of Clodia and build a concrete female archetype: the mulier - meretrix. As it is well known from various historiographical sources, Clodia Metelli possessed an immense fortune, so in this case meretrix does not depict a woman who does sex work. Cicero is aware that such allegations against Clodia will benefit him at trial, since the censor and derogatory effect of the term meretrix will discredit the image of this Roman patrician and her testimony will be invalidated by the judges and the public. Thus, he plays with the matron vs. prostitute dichotomy, a duality that is based on normative ontological discourses on gender categories in ancient Rome (which has evolved until today). The character of Clodia will also be vindicated, in the sense that, whatever her real acts were, she is described as a woman who subverts the traditional gender roles stipulated for a Roman patrician woman and that is defined by opposition to the Roman matron or materfamilias.
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