Virtue, Masculinity, and Hierarchies of Domination in Plutarch’s Antony and De Iside

Abstract

Plutarch's Antony and De Iside et Osiride together tackle the manly woman and the effeminate man. I suggest that De Iside is the theoretical exposition of the metaphysics underlying this problem of gender, resolved by gendering the parts of the tripartite soul. In the Antony, these expressions of gender in the body are examined in practice. Female masculinity is defined as a manifestation of virtue without contradicting the natural fact of the female body, while manliness is an unvirtuous expression of a desire to dominate. Plutarch refines the hierarchy of domination that affirms women's claim to virtue and preserves traditional social order by examining the relation between embodied sex and ensouled gender and assigning an ethical value to its expressions.

Like a Captive Bird

“…See also van Nuffelen (2012: 50) on the unity of philosophy and religion in Plutarch. For example, in the identification of Antony with Heracles and Dionysos, more fully discussed in Warren (2019). Cf.…”

“…Russell 1973: 136-142. Brenk 1992; see Warren (2019) on the parts of the soul ruling each of the actors in this part of the biography. See Pelling (1988a: 193), who notes the connotations to war and violence the language here evokes.…”