Women and female homoeroticism in Ancient Greece: from oikos to polis and the phallogocentric system’s fissures

Abstract

Over the last century, philosophy has questioned foundations that had brought it to life before, specially through the reviewing of logocentrism. Related to this tendency, which propose examining critically the history of Western thought, the philosopher Hélène Cixous has been known because of her research in a particular, repeated and continuated association between logos –as knowledge enabler– and hegemonic masculinity, giving a diagnosis which persist in every theorical and philosophical approximation to reality in Western history: the concept named phallogocentrism.

In line with the aforementioned, this paper tries to investigate the gradual inclusion of the logocentric thought in Ancient Greece through two different paths. The first one is socio-political, where the transition from oikos to polis happens, and the second path is cultural and describes the logocentric thought’s insertion in Greek world. At the same time, the position and idea of women is going to be explained in connection with the two contexts –oikos and polis– proving how logos inclusion in Greek thought codifies female social exclusion and avoids women getting into culture. Finally, this essay tries to show how female supeditation can be reversed. This reversion is explained through female homoerotic relationships which are considered a way to transgress both their recommended social behaviours and the new way of thinking that was increasing in Ancient Greece and was modifying the ethic and politic fields: logos.