TRAGEDY AND RITUAL

murder in an attempt to restore domestic order. Both Aeschylus’ Clytemnestra and Euripides’ Medea remind us that unlimited female autonomy cannot sustain itself, ultimately destroying the very social fabric it seeks to protect. In the μnal section, Foley turns to another positive model of female authority: the virtuous older mothers who attempt to persuade men to act on behalf of their children, Aethra in Euripides’ Suppliants, Hecuba in Hecuba, and Jocasta in Phoenissae. Building on the previous chapters, Foley argues that because women cannot act autonomously to challenge male positions, the art of persuasion comprises a ‘critical moral activity’ for women. Foley’s articulation of the importance of social status for interpreting the actions of tragic women—virgins, wives, and mothers make different ethical choices based on their stages in the female life cycle—makes an essential contribution to the μeld. It should be noted that among the examples cited by Foley, the ethical deliberations of female agents are not dramatized, with the notable exception of Medea. Thus we do not witness Clytemnestra agonizing over her decision to kill Agamemnon, in contrast to the lengthy deliberations of Orestes in Choephori. Euripides does not dwell on Alcestis’ decision to sacriμce her life in exchange for her husband’s, but presents it as a fait accompli. Sophocles also does not portray the decision-making process of Antigone, but only her deμant resolve to carry out her plan. Even a putative scene of deliberation, such as the agon between Clytemnestra and Electra in Euripides’ play of the same name, does not result in action, but merely showcases contemporary attitudes toward proper female behavior. This reservation notwithstanding, Female Acts provides a welcome challenge to recent analyses of tragic women that emphasize their status as powerless objects of male exchange. By focusing on women as moral agents capable of ethical intervention, Foley compellingly identiμes moments of resistance that potentially critique and even mitigate male patterns of control. Her work is part of a growing trend in the study of women in antiquity that emphasizes, in Linda Gordon’s words, resistance over domination. At the same time, Foley’s nuanced and evocative readings repeatedly demonstrate the particular ways in which tragedy deploys women, albeit indirectly, as a vehicle for exploring contemporary social, political, and philosophical issues debated by men. Indeed, Female Acts suggests that the tragic female, constrained by her dependency, perhaps best incarnates tragedy’s central dilemmas—the fragility of the human condition and the limits of human action.