Anasyrma
Encyclopedia
Anásyrma also called anasyrmós, is the gesture
of lifting up the skirt
or kilt
. It is used in connection with certain religious
ritual
s, eroticism, and lewd jokes, see e.g. Baubo
. The term is used in describing corresponding works of art
. Anasyrma differs from flashing
, a physically similar gesture as an act of exhibitionism
, in that an exhibitionist has an implied purpose of his/her own sexual arousal, while anasyrma is only done for the effect on the onlookers.
Anasyrma may be a deliberately provocative self-exposing of one's naked genitals and/or buttocks
. The famous example of the latter case is Aphrodite Kallipygos ("Aphrodite of the beautiful buttocks"). In many traditions this gesture also has an apotropaic character, as a mockery towards a supernatural enemy analogous to mooning
.
was an author
, naturalist
, and natural philosopher who wrote Natural History, an encyclopedia published in AD 77-79, that covered the entire field of ancient knowledge based on the best authorities available at the time, which became a model for all subsequent publications. He wrote that a menstruating woman who uncovers her body can scare away hailstorms, whirlwinds and lightning. Anything she touches turns sour including wine and meat. Seeds turn sterile and plants wither. If she strips naked and walks around the field, caterpillars, worms and beetles fall off the ears of corn. Even when not menstruating, she can lull a storm out at sea by stripping.
Women lifted up their skirts to chase off enemies in Ireland
and China
. A story from The Irish Times
(September 23, 1977) reported a potentially violent incident involving several men, that was averted by a woman exposing her genitals to the attackers. According to Balkan
folklore, when it rained too much, women would run into the fields and lift their skirts to scare the gods and end the rain. In Jean de La Fontaine
's Nouveaux Contes (1674), a demon is repulsed by the sight of a woman lifting her skirt.
In Africa
, the idea of a woman stripping naked is a curse even in modern times. The idea is that women give life and they can take it away. The curse is invoked only under the most extreme circumstances and men who are exposed are considered dead. No one will cook for them, marry them, enter into any kind of contract with them or buy anything from them. The curse extends to foreign men as well, who will go impotent or suffer some great harm. The threat has been used successfully in mass protests against the petroleum industry
in Nigeria
and by Leymah Gbowee
during the Second Liberian Civil War
.
and Dionysus
, and figure in the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries
associated with these divinities. The mythographer Apollodorus says that Iambe's jesting was the reason for the practice of ritual jesting at the Thesmophoria
, a festival celebrated in honor of Demeter and Persephone, but in other versions of the myth of Demeter, the goddess is received by a woman named Baubo, who makes her laugh by exposing herself, in a ritual gesture called anasyrma ("lifting up [of skirts]"). A set of statuettes from Priene
, a Greek city on the west coast of Asia Minor, are usually identified as "Baubo
" figurines, representing the female body as the face conflated with the lower part of the abdomen, much like the phallus
es decorated with eyes, mouth, and sometimes also legs that appear on vase paintings and also as statuettes.
Gesture
A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of speech or together and in parallel with spoken words. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or other parts of the body...
of lifting up the skirt
Skirt
A skirt is a tube- or cone-shaped garment that hangs from the waist and covers all or part of the legs.In the western world, skirts are usually considered women's clothing. However, there are exceptions...
or kilt
Kilt
The kilt is a knee-length garment with pleats at the rear, originating in the traditional dress of men and boys in the Scottish Highlands of the 16th century. Since the 19th century it has become associated with the wider culture of Scotland in general, or with Celtic heritage even more broadly...
. It is used in connection with certain religious
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
ritual
Ritual
A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....
s, eroticism, and lewd jokes, see e.g. Baubo
Baubo
Baubo is an old woman in Greek mythology who jested with Demeter when she was mourning the loss of her daughter Persephone.In his Greek Myths, Robert Graves writes that Demeter was the guest of King Celeus in Eleusis...
. The term is used in describing corresponding works of art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
. Anasyrma differs from flashing
Flashing
Flashing may refer to:*Exhibitionism, briefly exposing one's body in a usually sexual way, acceptable or not depending on context*Flashing , construction material used to prevent the passage of water around objects...
, a physically similar gesture as an act of exhibitionism
Exhibitionism
Exhibitionism refers to a desire or compulsion to expose parts of one's body – specifically the genitals or buttocks of a man or woman, or the breasts of a woman – in a public or semi-public circumstance, in crowds or groups of friends or acquaintances, or to strangers...
, in that an exhibitionist has an implied purpose of his/her own sexual arousal, while anasyrma is only done for the effect on the onlookers.
Anasyrma may be a deliberately provocative self-exposing of one's naked genitals and/or buttocks
Buttocks
The buttocks are two rounded portions of the anatomy, located on the posterior of the pelvic region of apes and humans, and many other bipeds or quadrupeds, and comprise a layer of fat superimposed on the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles. Physiologically, the buttocks enable weight to...
. The famous example of the latter case is Aphrodite Kallipygos ("Aphrodite of the beautiful buttocks"). In many traditions this gesture also has an apotropaic character, as a mockery towards a supernatural enemy analogous to mooning
Mooning
Mooning is the act of displaying one's bare buttocks by removing clothing, e.g., by lowering the backside of one's trousers and underpants, usually bending over, whether also exposing the genitals or not...
.
Curse of nakedness
Pliny the ElderPliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
was an author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, naturalist
Naturalist
Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...
, and natural philosopher who wrote Natural History, an encyclopedia published in AD 77-79, that covered the entire field of ancient knowledge based on the best authorities available at the time, which became a model for all subsequent publications. He wrote that a menstruating woman who uncovers her body can scare away hailstorms, whirlwinds and lightning. Anything she touches turns sour including wine and meat. Seeds turn sterile and plants wither. If she strips naked and walks around the field, caterpillars, worms and beetles fall off the ears of corn. Even when not menstruating, she can lull a storm out at sea by stripping.
Women lifted up their skirts to chase off enemies in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. A story from The Irish Times
The Irish Times
The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...
(September 23, 1977) reported a potentially violent incident involving several men, that was averted by a woman exposing her genitals to the attackers. According to Balkan
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
folklore, when it rained too much, women would run into the fields and lift their skirts to scare the gods and end the rain. In Jean de La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine was the most famous French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France, and in French regional...
's Nouveaux Contes (1674), a demon is repulsed by the sight of a woman lifting her skirt.
In Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, the idea of a woman stripping naked is a curse even in modern times. The idea is that women give life and they can take it away. The curse is invoked only under the most extreme circumstances and men who are exposed are considered dead. No one will cook for them, marry them, enter into any kind of contract with them or buy anything from them. The curse extends to foreign men as well, who will go impotent or suffer some great harm. The threat has been used successfully in mass protests against the petroleum industry
Petroleum industry
The petroleum industry includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting , and marketing petroleum products. The largest volume products of the industry are fuel oil and gasoline...
in Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
and by Leymah Gbowee
Leymah Gbowee
Leymah Roberta Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist responsible for leading a women's peace movement that brought an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. This led to the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Liberia, the first African nation with a female president...
during the Second Liberian Civil War
Second Liberian Civil War
The Second Liberian Civil War began in 1999 when a rebel group backed by the government of neighbouring Guinea, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy , emerged in northern Liberia. In early 2003, a second rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia, emerged in the south, and...
.
Greek antiquity
Ritual jesting and obscenity were common in the cults of DemeterDemeter
In Greek mythology, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains, the fertility of the earth, and the seasons . Her common surnames are Sito as the giver of food or corn/grain and Thesmophoros as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society...
and Dionysus
Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...
, and figure in the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries
Eleusinian Mysteries
The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiation ceremonies held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance...
associated with these divinities. The mythographer Apollodorus says that Iambe's jesting was the reason for the practice of ritual jesting at the Thesmophoria
Thesmophoria
Thesmophoria was a festival held in Greek cities, in honor of the goddesses Demeter and her daughter Persephone. The name derives from thesmoi, or laws by which men must work the land. The Thesmophoria were the most widespread festivals and the main expression of the cult of Demeter, aside from the...
, a festival celebrated in honor of Demeter and Persephone, but in other versions of the myth of Demeter, the goddess is received by a woman named Baubo, who makes her laugh by exposing herself, in a ritual gesture called anasyrma ("lifting up [of skirts]"). A set of statuettes from Priene
Priene
Priene was an ancient Greek city of Ionia at the base of an escarpment of Mycale, about north of the then course of the Maeander River, from today's Aydin, from today's Söke and from ancient Miletus...
, a Greek city on the west coast of Asia Minor, are usually identified as "Baubo
Baubo
Baubo is an old woman in Greek mythology who jested with Demeter when she was mourning the loss of her daughter Persephone.In his Greek Myths, Robert Graves writes that Demeter was the guest of King Celeus in Eleusis...
" figurines, representing the female body as the face conflated with the lower part of the abdomen, much like the phallus
Phallus
A phallus is an erect penis, a penis-shaped object such as a dildo, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. Any object that symbolically resembles a penis may also be referred to as a phallus; however, such objects are more often referred to as being phallic...
es decorated with eyes, mouth, and sometimes also legs that appear on vase paintings and also as statuettes.
Sources
- Wesleyan.edu - Homeric hymn to Demeter.
- Weber-Lehmann, C. (1997 (2000)) Anasyrma und Götterhochzeit. Ein orientalisches Motiv im nacharchaischen Etrurien, in: Akten des Kolloquiums zum Thema: Der Orient und Etrurien. Zum Phänomen des 'Orientalisierens' im westlichen Mittelmeerraum. Tübingen.
Further reading
- Hairston, Julia L. (Autumn 2000) Skirting the Issue: Machiavelli's Caterina Sforza. Renaissance Quarterly. Vol. 53, No. 3. pp. 687–712.
- Marcovich, M. (September 1986) Demeter, Baubo, Iacchus, and a Redactor. Vigiliae Christianae. Vol. 40, No. 3. pp. 294–301.
- Säflund, Gösta. (1963) Aphrodite Kallipygos. Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm, Sweden.
- Stoichita, Victor I.; Anna Maria Coderch. (1999) Goya: The Last Carnival. Reaktion Books. pp. 118. ISBN 1861890451
- Thomson De Grummond, Nancy. (2006) Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend. UPenn Museum of Archaeology. ISBN 1931707863
- Zeitlin, Froma I. (1982) Cultic models of the female: Rites of Dionysos and Demeter, Arethusa. pp. 144–145.