I’ve been thinking a lot about how women have told stories historically.
There are many variations of Philomela’s story, the most popular being the Tereus tragedy by Sophocles however her story is most developed in book VI of Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Philomela was the daughter of King Pandion I and was the sister of Procne, who married King Tereus of Thrace. After five years of marriage Procne asked her husband if he could go and bring Philomela back from Athens because she was feeling homesick and wanted to be with her sister. Tereus agreed and travelled to Athens to escort Philomela back to be with her sister. However, on the way back he viciously raped her and threatened her not to say anything to her sister. When Philomela disagreed with him, he cut out her tongue and abandoned her in a forest telling his wife that her sister had, sadly, passed away.
Philomela, violated and mutilated is left powerless and alone but she is unwilling to be silenced; she sets up a loom and begins to weave an elaborate tapestry that tells the story of her journey, her rape, and the abominable behaviour of Tereus. She gives the tapestry to an old woman to deliver to Procne. Procne, incensed by her husband’s behaviour frees her sister and together they begin to plot their revenge. Procne in seeing the likeness between her son, Itys and his father, kills the boy, cooks him in a stew and serves it to her husband. When Tereus has finished eating Philomela enters, holding the head of Itys and Tereus becomes aware of the horrific deed that has been done to him. In absolute fury he pursues the sisters, axe in hand, ready to kill. The sister’s flee, praying to the Gods to be turned into birds to escape the rage of Tereus.
Procne then transforms into a swallow and Philomela, a nightingale; both birds known for their beautiful songs. Although Ovid gives songs to both of the sisters at the end of their story, in reality it is only the male nightingale that sings and so, Philomela is technically silenced once again.
We see that “communication could transcend the human voice” in Philomela’s tapestry woven to depict her rape and mutilation and thus, denounce the rapist. We see something similar in Titus Adronicus. Lavinia’s tongue and hands are removed to prevent her revealing the identity of her violators. Determined, she points to the passage in Ovid’s Metamorphoses which describes Tereus’s rape of Philomela and then guides a staff using her mouth and arms to write the names of her attackers in the sand. Whether women have been silenced by mutilation or socially excluded from literary and artistic culture we have always found a way of telling and exchanging stories.
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