ABSTRACT
We can think about a feminine intelligence that lies at the foundation of the polis. Politics is the struggle of humans to integrate irreducible, split-off elements of the feminine core of existence that are expressed in mythical religious and poetic acts. Much of Euripides’ use of argumentation depicts the human effort to buffer the acute paranoid fear of attack from outside when an integration takes place. Paranoia is inherent in an organization. It is a disturbance of the linking between psychic and social reality, that simplifies complex things. There is a parallel between the neo-reality of the paranoiac and the early relationship between a daughter and her mother. Central to Suppliants’ tragedy is the Demeter-Kore (mother-daughter) relationship, with its melancholia and paranoia. Evadne’s suicide is presented as a sacrifice of the individual for the common good and as an active act of freedom. She opens the way for Athena to take her place and give Athenians the truth about politics, and for the Epigonoi to undertake future action. Euripides brings the lamenting mothers to the agora. Aethra tells us that we can take as model for our social wellbeing the complex and painful reality of motherhood.
