List of Figures xi List of Charts xiii List of Boxes xv Preface xvii Acknowledgments xix Abbreviations xxi Timeline of the Classical World xxv Maps xxix Introduction 1 1 Approaches to Women and Gender in Classical Antiquity 3 1.1 Ancient Greek and Roman Sources 4 1.2 Gender in Context: Social Identity in the Ancient World 8 1.3 Critical Approaches 9 1.4 Structuralism 10 1.5 Psychoanalytic Criticism 11 1.6 Feminist Criticism 12 1.7 Cultural Criticism 13 1.8 Conclusion 14 Questions for Review 14 References 15 Further Reading 15 Greece 17 2 Introduction to Ancient Greece 19 2.1 Greece in the Bronze Age: Minoan and Mycenaean Civilizations 20 2.2 Iron Age 24 2.3 The Rise of the Polis in the Archaic Period 28 2.4 Athens and the Classical Period 31 2.5 Conclusion 35 Questions for Review 35 Reference 35 Further Reading 36 3 The Greek Family and Household 37 3.1 Oikos: Family and Household 38 3.2 Greek Domestic Space 39 3.3 Textile Production: Women’s Work 42 3.4 Growing Up Female in the Greek Family 47 3.5 The Ritual Activities of Girls 51 3.6 The Family in Ancient Sparta 53 3.7 Conclusion 54 Questions for Review 54 Reference 54 Further Reading 54 4 Female Adolescence in Greece 57 4.1 Medical Views of Female Adolescence 58 4.2 Aidos: Protecting Purity 59 4.3 Nausicaa: A Teenage Girl in a Heroic World 61 4.4 Choruses of Young Girls 61 4.5 Brides of Death 66 4.6 The Greek Wedding 69 4.7 Conclusion 73 Questions for Review 74 Further Reading 74 5 Greek Marriage and Motherhood 77 5.1 Pandora: The Ambiguity of Wives 77 5.2 Aphrodite: The Power of Female Sexuality 79 5.3 Virtuous Wives: Penelope and Alcestis 83 5.4 How to Train a Wife 86 5.5 The Legal Status of Athenian Women 87 5.6 Pregnancy and Childbirth 89 5.7 Mothers and Children 94 5.8 Conclusion 96 Questions for Review 96 Further Reading 97 6 Adultery and Prostitution in Greece 99 6.1 Eros Unbound 99 6.2 Helen: Archetype of Adultery 100 6.3 Adultery and Athenian Law 101 6.4 Desperate Housewives 104 6.5 Courtesans and Prostitutes 107 6.6 Conclusion 113 Questions for Review 113 Further Reading 113 7 Women, Religion, and Authority in Greece 115 7.1 Older Women 115 7.2 Women as Ritual Agents 118 7.3 Priestesses 118 7.4 Women‐Only Religious Festivals 121 7.5 Women and Funerary Ritual 124 7.6 Conclusion 128 Questions for Review 129 Further Reading 129 Interlude: Women in the Hellenistic World 131 8 Women in the Hellenistic World 133 8.1 The Rise of Macedon and Alexander the Great 135 8.2 Olympias: Mother of Alexander 136 8.3 The Spread of Hellenism 137 8.4 Women and Hellenistic Literature 138 8.5 Aphrodite and the Female Nude 141 8.6 Traces of Women in Hellenistic Egypt 143 8.7 Ptolemaic Queens: Arsinoe II 144 8.8 Ptolemaic Queens: Berenice II 146 8.9 Conclusion 149 Questions for Review 150 Reference 150 Further Reading 150 Rome 153 9 An Introduction to Ancient Rome 155 9.1 Roman Foundation Myth 158 9.2 The Early Republic 161 9.3 Expansion of Roman Rule 163 9.4 Roman Spectacles 164 9.5 The Collapse of the Republic 167 9.6 Julius Caesar 168 9.7 The Transition to Empire 169 9.8 Augustus and Imperial Rome 170 9.9 Conclusion 172 Questions for Review 172 Further Reading 173 10 The Roman Family and Household 175 10.1 Familia and Domus 176 10.2 The Family of Augustus 178 10.3 Roman Domestic Space 180 10.4 Lanificium: Women’s Work 182 10.5 Growing Up Female in the Roman Family 183 10.6 Girls and Roman Religion 188 10.7 Educating Girls 189 10.8 Conclusion 190 Questions for Review 191 Reference 191 Further Reading 191 11 Female Adolescence in Rome 193 11.1 Pudicitia: Protecting Purity 194 11.2 Medical Views of Female Adolescence 196 11.3 Age at First Marriage 199 11.4 Adolescent Girls in Roman Religion 200 11.5 Virgo Docta 201 11.6 The Roman Wedding 203 11.7 Conclusion 209 Questions for Review 209 Further Reading 209 12 Roman Marriage and Motherhood 211 12.1 Marriage and Property 214 12.2 Divorce, Roman Style 215 12.3 Cultus: The Art of Self‐Fashioning 216 12.4 Managing the Household 218 12.5 Roman Views of Contraception and Abortion 220 12.6 Childbirth and Nursing 221 12.7 Mothers and Children 225 12.8 Conclusion 227 Questions for Review 228 Further Reading 228 13 Adultery and Female Prostitution in Rome 231 13.1 Clodia Metelli: A Woman of Pleasure 234 13.2 Women in Latin Love Elegy 236 13.3 The Augustan Law Against Adultery 239 13.4 Concubines 241 13.5 Female Prostitution 243 13.6 Conclusion 247 Questions for Review 247 Further Reading 247 14 Women and Public Life in Rome 249 14.1 Benefactors and Businesswomen 250 14.2 Female Political Protests 255 14.3 Women and Roman Religion 257 14.4 Priestesses 258 14.5 Matronal Cults 261 14.6 Women and Foreign Cults 263 14.7 Conclusion 264 Questions for Review 265 Further Reading 265 Glossary 267 Index 273