Live stream preview

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Start your free trial

Already subscribed? Sign in

The Owl's Legacy: Misogyny, or the Snares of Desire

Love Stories • 26m

Directed by Chris Marker • Documentary • 1989 • 26 minutes

“Greek love, Greek eroticism, is a paradigm for us. But it’s something about which we are very hypocritical.” --John Winkler

Classicist Giulia Sissa takes center stage in this episode, which explores desire in ancient Greece (primarily Athens), the social status of women, and the erasure of women by classics scholars. 

Homosexual and heterosexual relationships co-existed, each within their own spheres. Any notions of romantic love resided with same-sex relationships, which were also seen as rites of passage for boys initiated into the ways of philosophy. Marriage was a different story—with the father as head of the household, and the mother akin to a child or subject. (Angelique Ionatos says she takes little comfort in the notion that a woman was queen within the household.) While the Greeks celebrated some forms of desire, they also recognized it as an omni-present and potentially powerful source of destruction.

Tags
ancient greece, ancient history, anthropology and archaeology, art and architecture, artists, asia, balkans, chris marker, critical thinking and ethics, culture, doc, east asia, europe, expository, filmmakers, france, gay and lesbian studies, gender studies, greece, historical anthropology, history, homestream, icarus films, japan, ovid, philosophy, s_0013, s_0118, s_0136, s_0219, s_0339, s_0344, s_0427, s_0501, the, the owl's legacy, title_nopqrs, title_o, western europe, world regions

Up Next in Love Stories

  • August at Akiko's
    1:15:00
    August at Akiko's

    August at Akiko's

    Directed by Christopher Makoto Yogi • Drama • With Alex Zhang Hungtai, Akiko Masuda • 2019 • 75 minutes

    Armed with just his suitcase and a sax, cosmopolitan musician Alex Zhang Hungtai (from the band Dirty Beaches) returns home to the Big Island of Hawaii having been away for nearly a decade. Hu...

  • A Teacher
    1:15:38
    A Teacher

    A Teacher

    Directed by Hannah Fidell • Drama • With Lindsay Burdge, Will Brittain • 2012 • 76 minutes

    Part psychological thriller and part provocative character study, A TEACHER explores the unraveling of a young high school teacher, Diana (Lindsay Burdge), after she begins an affair with one of her teenag...

  • Metamorphoses
    1:46:09
    Metamorphoses

    Metamorphoses

    Directed by Christophe Honoré • Drama • With Amira Akili, Sébastian Hirel, Mélodie Richard, Damien Chapelle, George Babluani
    • 2014 • 102 minutes

    When Europa skips class and meets a magnetic young man named Jupiter, she embarks on an unexpected and magical journey. Traveling on board Jupiter’s ...

×