Women's History and Ancient History

Book excerpt: This collection of essays explores the lives and roles of women in antiquity. A recurring theme is the relationship between private and public, and many of the essays find that women's public roles developed as a result of their private lives, specifically their family relationships. Despite the public lives that some upper-class Greek and Roman women led, they maintained their female identity and respectability. Moreover, the role of women, even of those active in the public sphere, generally remained complementary to that of men. Essays on Hellenistic queens and Spartan and Roman women document how women exerted political power and show how political upheaval created opportunities for them to exercise powers previously reserved for men. Essays on the writings of Sappho and Nossis focus on the interaction between women's public and private discourses. The collection also includes discussion of Athenian and Roman marriage and the intrusion of the state into the sexual lives of Greek, Roman, and Jewish women as well as an investigation of scientific opinion about female physiology. -- From publisher's description.