ABSTRACT
An older woman, Baubo, jests and/or lifts up her skirt, displaying her genitals to the despondent Demeter. Responding to this gesture, Demeter laughs, is brought out of her depression and accepts food and drink. The Baubo episode further convinces us of the feminine genital and erotic meanings in the myth. The very name “Baubo” is associated with a Greek noun for body, cavity, womb, vagina or nurse. Over the ages the image of Baubo has assumed myriad forms in inscriptions, poems, figurines, carvings, and rituals. The pleasure and fertility of Baubo continued to be celebrated until the fourth century. Recognition of Baubo’s unfettered sexuality had to go underground, just as Persephone went underground with her sexuality. Early psychoanalytic theory also had no place for the specifically female pleasure and pride in female genitals depicted in the Baubo story. Bisexual meanings of Baubo/Iambe figures have also been suggested.
