亞馬遜女戰士群像──古希臘人身體與性別觀的探討

Amazon Scenes: Concepts of Gender and Body in Ancient Greece

本文旨在追溯古希臘人對「男性」與「女性」的理解，並探討古希臘人詮釋性別氣質的策略。針對不同時期的亞馬遜女戰士（Amazons）傳奇進行文本分析後，本文指出古代期（Archaic Period, 800－480 BCE）及古典期（Classical Period, 500－323 BCE）及此時期之前的希臘人，多半以精神氣質的表現來界定性別，其精神氣質有可能超脫身體的侷限性；然而希臘化時期（Hellenistic Greece, 323－146 BCE）及羅馬時期（Roman Greece, 146 BCE－330）的希臘人，卻認為性別氣質的表現，深受身體的限制，因此「性別越界」的行為表現，必須輔以身體性質的轉變，才有可能獲得理解與同情。由此可見，不同時期的希臘人會採用不同的策略來詮釋性別氣質的表現，而其詮釋取徑又與當時流行的身體概念及醫學理論息息相關。

This article intends to illustrate the definition of gender as well as the interpretive strategies for masculinity and femininity in Ancient Greece. Through the contextual analysis of Amazonian Legends formed in different periods it is shown that archaic and classical Greek texts tended to define gender as based on spirit rather than biological sex. However, sources stemming from the post-classical period usually understood masculinity and femininity as deeply rooted in human bodies. As a result, they only manifested their comprehension and sympathy for gender-crossing in accordance with bodytransformation. In the end, this study concludes that interpretations of masculinity and femininity were closely related to contemporary medical theories as well as the corresponding concepts of body of Ancient Greece.