The story of Philomela and Procne has long been a figure of violence in literature. However, male mythologizers write Philomela out of existence, whereas women writers use the myth as a metaphor for female oppression and silencing. This paper examines the mutually exclusive strategies of Philomela's male and female mythographers. Chapters one through three explore how classical and medieval poets rewrote the myth to sublimate their fear which the story's themes represent. Rendered speechless, hence powerless within a masculine construct, Philomela creates a new idiom and reconstitutes her identity in weaving. Recognizing the immanent consequence of this feminine poetic, male mythologizers, epitomized by Coleridge in the nineteenth century, seek to silence Philomela once and for all. Nevertheless, the Philomela/Procne myth resonates throughout the texts of women. Chapter four analyzes Trifles and "A Jury of Her Peers", by Susan Glaspell, revealing the life of a frontier woman domineered by an unyielding husband she finally kills. The male investigators overlook evidence they deem "trifles" because it lies in woman's work. The neighbor women, on the other hand, deduce the truth of Minnie's existence, and unite to subvert the law and establish a new form of justice based on the caring and connectedness of women, not the abstract principles of men. Chapter five illustrates Alice Walker's utilization of the myth to expose the worldwide oppression of women. In The Color Purple and Possessing the Secret of Joy, Celie and Tashi find meaning for their existence in a confederacy of women who bond to repudiate the tyranny of culture and redefine themselves as worthy and whole. Philomela raped, mutilated and silenced is a familiar image for women. The strength in an otherwise horrific tale lies in Philomela's ability to subvert the patriarchy that would subjugate her by usurping the power of language into a call to sisterhood and an affirmation of such power in that bond.

Erchempert, a ninth-century Lombard monk attached to the monastery of Monte Cassino in Southern Italy, wrote the History of the Lombards of Benevento around 889, a history intended to contrast with Paul the Deacon's earlier History of the Lombards by including the Carolingian conquest of the Lombard kingdom in 774 and by showing Lombard failings rather than achievements through narrating the decline of Lombard rulership in the South, which had flourished for three centuries in the Lombard duchy (later principality) of Benevento. Three known aspects of Erchempert himself--as Lombard, monk, and chronicler--connect him to his society and provide a basis for examining his History. As a Lombard, his primary concern is loss of unified rule at Benevento following civil war and splitting of the principality into three more or less autonomous rulerships at Benevento, Salerno, and Capua, a division which weakens the Lombards' ability to resist the competing claims of Carolingian and Byzantine rulers and the attacks of Islamic invaders. As a monk, Erchempert is present during events which occur following Monte Cassino's destruction by Muslims in 883, when the monks are exiled to Teano and Capua and the abbey suffers loss of its property. As a chronicler and known grammaticus, Erchempert is an evident participant in the widespread system of monastic education; he later applies elements of this education to the writing of his History, which falls within the Christian chronicle tradition. A translation of Erchempert's History from Latin into English is included in this study.

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Inaug.-Diss.--Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Melbourne, 1994. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2008. / Principal faculty advisors: James Dean and Mary Richards, Dept. of English. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of English, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-10, Section: A, page: 4305. Adviser: Lawrence M. Clopper. Title from dissertation home page (viewed May 20, 2008).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1900. / Vita. Bibliography: p. [110]-113.