Hestia and Eos: Mapping Female Mobility and Sexuality in Greek Mythic Thought

Abstract

This article focuses on the interaction of mobility and sexuality in the characterization of the goddesses Hestia and Eos. It discusses Hestia’s privilege of “centering” space and argues that it should not be connected to Athenian ideology of women’s “seclusion” in the oikos . The second part focuses on the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite and introduces the goddess Eos, the personification of Dawn, as a special instance of a mobile goddess who is also sexually active. The last section suggests a diachronic shift in the myth of Eos from the Archaic to the Classical period, which might be indicative of stricter social ideologies concerning female sexuality and mobility.