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Scenes of departure: Women on desire and responsibility in Homer, Vergil, and Elisabeth Eybers
Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2026.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
2026
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| _version_ | 1867613831074676736 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Muller, Louise-Mari |
| author2 | De Villers, Annemarie |
| author_browse | De Villers, Annemarie Muller, Louise-Mari |
| author_facet | De Villers, Annemarie Muller, Louise-Mari |
| author_sort | Muller, Louise-Mari |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | Stellenbosch University |
| description | Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2026. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/136127 |
| institution | Stellenbosch University (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:42:21.587Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| publisherStr | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| spelling | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/136127 Scenes of departure: Women on desire and responsibility in Homer, Vergil, and Elisabeth Eybers Muller, Louise-Mari De Villers, Annemarie Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Ancient Studies. Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2026. Muller, L. 2026. Scenes of departure: Women on desire and responsibility in Homer, Vergil, and Elisabeth Eybers. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University [online]. Available: https://scholar.sun.ac.za/items/3c611482-39bf-45b1-93fb-ec8c42412d7a In the ancient epics of Homer (c.750 BCE) and Vergil (c.19 BCE), where the plots revolve around warfare, journeys, homecoming, migration and episodes of farewell, the notions of loss and letting go are integral. Men go to war, while women stay behind, each fulfilling their respective roles. It is telling that in the twentieth century, South African poet Elisabeth Eybers chose specifically these themes for her engagement with the Classical epics, in her poems where she reworks female characters from Graeco-Roman mythology. Scenes of parting in epic poems, as well as in Eybers’ work, address a fundamental aspect of human existence, which is as relevant today as it was more than two millennia ago. In this research project, I discuss the roles of women in scenes of arrival, abidance, and departure in Homer’s Iliad, Odyssey, and Vergil’s Aeneid, arguing for the recognition of a new structural framework, which I call the approach and entreaty type-scene. I also examine a selection of poems from Eybers’ oeuvre, which reflect various thematic and structural elements from the aforementioned epics. Furthermore, I elucidate some of my most notable findings to illustrate how a parallel reading of these works lends significant reciprocal insight into the ancient and modern poems. One of the key findings is that scenes of departure in epic literature should no longer be viewed as mere monuments to women’s passivity and the futility of their resistance to the patriarchal status quo. Instead, these scenes, which describe the women’s decisions to either stay behind or move forward, should be regarded as narrative moments that display the women’s agency through their active engagement with their own social code, driving them to protect the interests of their households, their communities and their own honour. Significantly, there is also an increase in women’s direct action and agency that is traceable through these departure scenes from Homer, to Vergil, to Elisabeth Eybers. Doctoral 2026-04-23T07:19:38Z 2026-04-23T07:19:38Z 2026-03 Thesis https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/136127 en Stellenbosch University 204 pages application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| spellingShingle | Muller, Louise-Mari Scenes of departure: Women on desire and responsibility in Homer, Vergil, and Elisabeth Eybers |
| title | Scenes of departure: Women on desire and responsibility in Homer, Vergil, and Elisabeth Eybers |
| title_full | Scenes of departure: Women on desire and responsibility in Homer, Vergil, and Elisabeth Eybers |
| title_fullStr | Scenes of departure: Women on desire and responsibility in Homer, Vergil, and Elisabeth Eybers |
| title_full_unstemmed | Scenes of departure: Women on desire and responsibility in Homer, Vergil, and Elisabeth Eybers |
| title_short | Scenes of departure: Women on desire and responsibility in Homer, Vergil, and Elisabeth Eybers |
| title_sort | scenes of departure women on desire and responsibility in homer vergil and elisabeth eybers |
| url | https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/136127 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mullerlouisemari scenesofdeparturewomenondesireandresponsibilityinhomervergilandelisabetheybers |