Valeria Spacciante (Columbia University)
Lucian’s De Dea Syria (henceforward DDS) describes the temple and cult of “the Syrian goddess” in Hierapolis. Its distinctive format, with a narrator who self-identifies as “Assyrian” yet imitates the language and style of Herodotus, has led modern scholars to interpret it as an optimistic model of how disparate cultural identities might be satisfactorily negotiated in the Imperial era (Lightfoot 2003; Andrade 2013). I argue for a less optimistic reading of DDS. In my view, the text shows how difficult the negotiation of identities is for individuals who do not enjoy the privileges of high social status and are accordingly compelled to modify their identities so as to meet their superiors’ expectations.
I focus on the story of Combabus (DDS 17-27), a handsome youth in the service of Seleucus I. When the king asks him to accompany his queen to Hierapolis and monitor the construction of the temple, Combabus castrates himself to avoid the accusation of infidelity with the queen. Though the longest episode in DDS, Combabus’ story has not received much scholarly attention. Beneviste 1939 and Krappe 1946 examine the historical background for Combabus’ story, and Anderson 1976 considers the role of this character in DDS; more recently, Elsner 2001 interprets Combabus’ story in light of DDS’s concerns with power and identity, while Finglass 2005 posits the Odyssey as a possible hypotext for the story. Putting in dialogue Finglass’s rigorous philological approach with Elsner’s work on identity, I argue that this episode is a mise en abyme that epitomizes how dominant power structures pressure lower-status individuals to modify their identities.
Combabus’ situation mirrors the circumstances faced by Hippolytus in Euripides’ tragedies. To avoid Hippolytus’ fate, Combabus resorts to self-castration, and therefore saves his life. In my argument, Combabus’ self-mutilation is an act of “editing” that complements his effort to “edit” the plot of Euripides’ tragedy. Proof of it is Combabus’ monologue in DDS 20, when the youth justifies his irreversible decision using buzzwords for tragedy, such as τέλος and συμφορή. These words show how Combabus frames his dilemma as something imposed on him as if he were a character in a tragedy. Right after his speech, he becomes ἀτελής (“with no τέλος,” but also “incomplete”). Combabus’ masculinity is thus indissolubly tied to his potential for becoming a tragic object of desire; by rejecting his masculinity, he seeks to avert tragedy, protecting himself from any accusation.
Relying on Haraway 1998’s concept of “situated knowledge,” Rancière 2004’s study of the appropriation of public space by the elite, and Butler 1997’s analysis of the paradoxical nature of power, I further suggest that DDS presents Combabus’ self-castration as an act of hopeless resistance against the entrenched hierarchies of power that were instantiated by the revered literary canon of classical Greece. On this view, Combabus’ violent editing of his own body lends itself to being interpreted as a broad metaphor for the experiences of the lower-status individuals compelled to modify themselves to survive within the restrictions imposed by hierarchies of power.