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utterly incapable of rational thought, were suited to silence and submission 14 .

However, even within the Roman moral frameworks Lucretia’s choice can be conceived as both rational and honourable. Sextus Tarquinius’ murder of Lucretia would significantly weaken the despotic Roman monarchy, and her execution as an adulteress would further weaken traditional morality. The absence of emotional description appears to suggest a rational and self-possessed choice. This interpretation suggests a Lucretia who remains politically and morally conscious within the structures of patriarchal state morality: Lucretia retains rationality and morality even during the uniquely female experience of penetration. Sextus’ actions force Lucretia to emerge from the purely domestic sphere into the male realm of politics. Bravely summoning her father and husband, Lucretia chooses to interact with the political sphere exclusively through her male relations, however to force them into revolutionary action against the despotic monarchy Lucretia must abandon the submission of her female role. Lucretia’s feminine tears (‘Lacrimae’) contrast with her aggressive appropriation of male oratory: ‘minime … quid enim salvi est mulieri amissa pudicia? Vestigial viri alieni, collatine, in lecto sunt tuo; ceterum corpus est tantum violatum, animus insons; mors testis erit. Sed date dexteras fidemque haud inpune adultero fore. Sex. est Tarquinius, qui hostis pro hospite priore nocte vi armatus mihi sibique. Si vos viri estis, pestiferum hinc abstulit gaudium.’ Transcending and problematizing gender boundaries Lucretia’s speech is an extraordinary combination of confrontation and submission. Her rape becomes merely a threatening penetration of Tarquin’s space (‘lecto sunt tuo’), defining womanhood as akin to property. But Lucretia challenges her relative’s masculinity with her conditional phrase ‘si vos viri estis’. By implication her husband’s effeminate neglect of male martial values has created a crisis of gender definition. Lucretia therefore attempts to reconstruct the Roman social roles immorality has destroyed. Lucretia forces the male political and moral leadership on her husband and redefines herself as property. Lucretia’s suicide appears to assert a right to an independent consideration of morality but paradoxically she employs her stolen agency to champion patriarchal institutions. Rejecting her husband’s absolution for her perceive pollution , Lucretia sacrifices her life to protect narratives which specifically deprive women of agency. Her final words are a patriarchal moral manifesto, ‘nec ulla deinde inpudica Lucretiae exemplo’, appearing to accuse her husband of overly forgiving sentiments, while reaffirming patriarchal conceptions of sexual pollution. Despite her self-sacrificing devotion to patriarchy, Lucretia’s political leadership is a problematic dislocation resolved only by her death. Lucretia’s effort to protect virtue from despotism paradoxically forces her to sacrifice the female submission and domesticity endangering Rome’s gender roles. Moreover, Lucretia’s frenzied rejection of male morality echoes perverted female moralities of classical literature (such as Medea’s infanticidal distorted morality). Lucretia’s prominent role in a Roman historical narrative constitutes by definition an intrusion. Livy’s Lucretia is not merely a passive and chaste wife but a moral actor whose dilemmas create a space for Livy’s male readership to explore the boundaries of morality. The presentation of Lucretia’s actions exclusively through male voyeurs force readers to form personal interpretations and engage with Rome’s legacy. Lucretia constitutes a female other whose moral decisions serve to explore and promote male identity and morality. Though initially an exemplum of chaste morality, Lucretia becomes increasingly problematic and morally ambiguous. Lucretia’s submission to Tarquinius’ rape suggests female moral superficiality and problematically intrudes into the male sphere of politics while her seemingly irrational rejection of her husband’s affectionate forgiveness in favour of morally justified self-destruction seems to cast doubt on women’s ability to exercise moral agency. Indeed, Lucretia becomes defined by her confrontational patriarchalism’s paradoxical conflict with the social

14 P110 Helene P. Foley, Female Acts in Greek Tragedy (Princeton and Woodstock; Princeton University Press) 2001

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