New Directions in the Study of Women in the Greco-Roman World

Edited by Ronnie Ancona and Georgia Tsouvala

Features contributions by major scholars in the field of the study of women in Greco-Roman antiquity
Examines the many facets of women's lives from cosmetics and athletics, to public visibility, activism and legislation, and the social power of non-elite women
Reflects and builds upon Sarah Pomeroy's landmark publication Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves

New Directions in the Study of Women in the Greco-Roman World

Edited by Ronnie Ancona and Georgia Tsouvala

Description

Sarah Pomeroy's groundbreaking Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves introduced scholars, students, and general readers to an exciting new area of inquiry: women in classical antiquity. Almost fifty years later, New Directions in the Study of Women in the Greco-Roman World builds upon and moves beyond Pomeroy's seminal work to represent the next step in this interdisciplinary field.

The “new directions” for the study of women in antiquity included in this volume of newly commissioned essays feature new methodological questions to be asked, new time periods to be explored, new objects of study, as well as new information to be uncovered. In addressing these new directions, the editors have gathered a distinguished group of contributors that includes historians, philologists, archaeologists, art historians, and specialists in subfields like ancient medicine, ancient law, papyrology, and epigraphy. While some chapters focus primarily on Greece or Rome, others straddle or go beyond these artificial boundaries in interesting ways.

While the focus of the volume is antiquity, the issues it raises will be of interest also to those studying women and theorizing the study of women in other periods as well. The volume will help readers to see women in antiquity with fresh eyes and to view anew important issues related to women today.

New Directions in the Study of Women in the Greco-Roman World

Edited by Ronnie Ancona and Georgia Tsouvala

1. Introduction, Ronnie Ancona
2. Goddesses, a Whore-Wife and a Slave: Euripides' Hippolytus and Epistemic Injustice towards Women, Edith Hall
3. Periphrôn Pênelopeia: The Reception of Penelope in Fifth-Century Athens, H. A. Shapiro
4. The First Basilissa: Phila, daughter of Antipater and wife of Demetrius Poliorcetes, Elizabeth D. Carney
5. Power and Patronage: Rethinking the Legacy of Artemisia II, Walter D. Penrose, Jr.
6. The Murder of Apronia, Barbara Levick
7. A Century of Women's History from the Papyri, Roger S. Bagnall
8. Cosmetics in Daily Life, Ann Ellis Hanson
9. Female Athletes in the Hellenistic and Roman Greek World, Georgia Tsouvala
10. Normalizing Illegality? The Roman Jurists and Underage Marriage, Bruce W. Frier
11. Augustus and the Economics of Adultery, Marilyn B. Skinner
12. Social Laws and Social Facts, Kristina Milnor
13. The Woman in the Street: Becoming Visible in Mid-Republican Rome, Amy Richlin

Bibliography
Index

New Directions in the Study of Women in the Greco-Roman World

Edited by Ronnie Ancona and Georgia Tsouvala

Author Information

Ronnie Ancona is Professor of Classics at Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York. She is the author of Time and the Erotic in Horace's Odes, Horace: Selected Odes and Satire 1.9, and Writing Passion: A Catullus Reader, co-editor of Gendered Dynamics in Latin Love Poetry, and editor of A Concise Guide to Teaching Latin Literature.

Georgia Tsouvala is Associate Professor of History at Illinois State University. She is co-author of Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History and A Brief History of Ancient Greece, and co-editor of The Discourse of Marriage in the Greco-Roman World.

Contributors:

Ronnie Ancona
Roger S. Bagnall
Elizabeth D. Carney
Bruce W. Frier
Edith Hall
Ann Ellis Hanson
Barbara Levick
Kristina Milnor
Walter Duvall Penrose, Jr.
Amy Richlin
H. Alan Shapiro
Marilyn B. Skinner
Georgia Tsouvala

New Directions in the Study of Women in the Greco-Roman World

Edited by Ronnie Ancona and Georgia Tsouvala

Reviews and Awards

"Readers of the volume, following the 'new directions' in the study of women in the ancient world, guided through new approaches, new methodologies and new fields, are led to new questions requiring an increasingly interdisciplinary approach, showing how Pomeroy's perspective, suggested in 1975, has become axiomatic in this research field. Surely, from this point of view the task is well done." -- Classical Review

"These essays in honor of Sarah Pomeroy's groundbreaking work on women in antiquity make visible aspects of women's lives that have often been erased. By using many tools that Classics gives to us in fields such as literature, art history, archaeology, epigraphy, papyrology, law and economics, expanding the usual geographical and temporal boundaries, and embedding analyses in contemporary societal issues, the authors provide new information, new methodologies, and new answers to questions we should all be asking." -- Barbara K. Gold, Hamilton College

"Female athletes, a multifaceted Phaedra, Penelope in Persepolis, underaged brides: these and other fascinating topics are illuminated by the authors of this volume honoring Sarah Pomeroy's trailblazing research on women in Greco-Roman antiquity. From overviews of papyrology's engagement with women's history to demonstrations that Republican Rome's 'man in the street' was often a woman, and beyond, this collection confirms the continuing relevance of exploring women in the classical world." -- Mary T. Boatwright, Duke University

"In outstanding essays covering material from Classical Athens to the Roman Empire, this volume commemorates the ground-breaking work of Sarah Pomeroy in establishing women's studies as an essential part of classical scholarship. One could hardly imagine a better demonstration of the debt owed to her and to her revolution of the discipline, yet moving into the next phase of scholarship. From goddesses to whores, wives, and slaves, they are all here." -- Duane W. Roller, The Ohio State University