Damocrita’s Story in Plutarch’s Love Stories: Disorder and Transgression or Restoration of Civic Order?

Abstract

Among Plutarch’s “Love stories” —Erotikai Diegeseis—, there is a story of a Spartan woman named Damocrita. She was the wife of Alkippos, a Spartan citizen, and mother of two daughters. Her husband was forced into exile by the Ephors while Damocrita was required to remain in the city. Moreover, she and her daughters were, deprived of property and, therefore, the daughters lost the possibility of having a dowry, marrying, and having legitimate children. During a religious celebration, Damocrita set fire to a building where the wives of the Spartan magistrates met. Then she killed her daughters and committed suicide. This article examines the gender aspects of this story. Far from describing an “exceptional event” caused by Damocrita’s violent nature, the account is a dramatization of the resistance of a citizen’s wife to the loss of her matrimonial, economic and political status. The disorder is not to be found in the behaviour of the spouse and mother, but rather in the behaviour of the city.