A To Z Of Ancient Greek And Roman Women

Presents a biographical dictionary profiling more than 500 important ancient Greek and Roman women, including when and where they lived, and notable accomplishments.

This highly acclaimed collection provides a unique look into the public and private lives and legal status of Greek and Roman women of all social classes-from wet nurses, prostitutes, and gladiatrixes to poets, musicians, intellectuals, priestesses, and housewives. The third edition adds new texts to sections throughout the book, vividly describing women's sentiments and circumstances through readings on love, bereavement, and friendship, as well as property rights, breast cancer, female circumcision, and women's roles in ancient religions, including Christianity and pagan cults.

This highly acclaimed collection, the first sourcebook on ancient women and now in its fourth edition, provides a unique look into the public and private lives and legal status of Greek and Roman women. The texts represent women of all social classes, from public figures remembered for their deeds (or misdeeds), to priestesses, poets, and intellectuals, to working women, such as musicians, wet nurses, and prostitutes, to homemakers. The editors have selected texts from hard-to-find sources, such as inscriptions, papyri, and medical treatises, many of which have not previously been translated into English. The resulting compilation is both an invaluable aid to research and a clear guide through this complex subject. The brand new design of the fourth edition integrates the third edition's appendix and adds many new and unusual texts and images, as well as such student-friendly features as a map and chapter overviews. Many notes and explanations have been revised with the non-classicist in mind. Its readings cover women's legal status, domestic conditions, health issues, and relations with other people. The emphasis throughout is not so much on what ancient writers thought about women, as on what women actually did, both within the home and outside it, from their intellectual achievements, benefactions, and religious roles, to humble jobs and acts of physical and moral courage.

A rich collection of source material on women in the ancient Greek world including literary, rhetorical, philosophical and legal sources, and papyri and inscriptions.

This sourcebook includes a rich and accessible selection of Roman original sources in translation ranging from the Regal Period through Republican and Imperial Rome to the late Empire and the coming of Christianity. From Roman goddesses to mortal women, imperial women to slaves and prostitutes, the volume brings new perspectives to the study of Roman women's lives. Literary sources comprise works by Livy, Catullus, Ovid, Juvenal and many others. Suggestions for further reading, a general bibliography, and an index of ancient authors and works are also included.

Alphabetically listed entries identify and explain the characters, events, important places, and other aspects of Greek and Roman mythology.

Largely excluded from any public role, the women of ancient Greece nonetheless appear in various guises in the art and writing of the period, and in legal documents. These representations, in Sue Blundell's analysis, reveal a great deal about women's day-to-day experience as well as their legal and economic position - and how they were regarded by men.