From the faithful wife to the powerful queen, the untouchable priestess to the high-living prostitute, the daily lives and roles of women in the ancient world of Greece and Rome, Egypt and the Near East were fascinating and varied, often going beyond the traditional view of 'a woman's place'. Through themes such as domestic life, religion, work, mothers and mourners, stereotypes, costume and the body, this lively book explores the traditions and trends of different cultures, using intriguing juxtapositions of images to compare and contrast the attitudes of each society. The author takes a fresh and thought-provoking look at new ways of viewing these images, pointing out the signs that reveal how a woman is to be viewed, whether as an example of perfect femininity or the object of scorn. Beautifully designed and packed with a wide range of illustrations, from public art to domestic artefacts, many specially photographed, this book reveals compelling details about the everyday lives of women in the ancient world that will delight, inform and entertain all readers, often with surprising resonances for our own time.

One of the reasons for the study of the Greek and Roman classics is their perpetual relevance. In no area can this position be more clearly defended than in the investigation of the feminine condition, for it was here that basic attitudes derogatory to the sex were molded by legal and social systems, by philosophers and poets, and by the thinking of men long since gone. Women in the Ancient World brings together essays that examine philosophy, social history, literature, and art, and that extend from the early Greek period through the Roman Empire. Their wide range of critical perspectives throws new light on the personal, political, socio-economic, and cultural position of women.

This volume gathers brand new essays from some of the most respected scholars of ancient history, archaeology, and physical anthropology to create an engaging overview of the lives of women in antiquity. The book is divided into ten sections, nine focusing on a particular area, and also includes almost 200 images, maps, and charts. The sections cover Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, Cyprus, the Levant, the Aegean, Italy, and Western Europe, and include many lesser-known cultures such as the Celts, Iberia, Carthage, the Black Sea region, and Scandinavia. Women's experiences are explored, from ordinary daily life to religious ritual and practice, to motherhood, childbirth, sex, and building a career. Forensic evidence is also treated for the actual bodies of ancient women. Women in Antiquity is edited by two experts in the field, and is an invaluable resource to students of the ancient world, gender studies, and women's roles throughout history.

A COMPANION TO WOMEN IN THE ANCIENT WORLD A Companion to Women in the Ancient World is the first interdisciplinary, methodologically based collection of readings to address the study of women in the ancient world while weaving textual, visual, and archaeological evidence into its approach. Prominent scholars tackle the myriad problems inherent in the interpretation of the evidence, and consider the biases and interpretive categories inherited from centuries of scholarship. Essays and case studies cover an unprecedented breadth of chronological and geographical range, genres, and themes. Illuminating and insightful, A Companion to Women in the Ancient World both challenges preconceived notions and paves the way for new directions in research on women in antiquity.

Ten papers, which originated from a session at the meetings of the American Philological Association held in 1997, draw on a wide range of archaeological, literary and historical sources to reinterpret the significance, or otherwise, of relationships between women in ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt. Subjects include: imaging the woman's world from the Bronze Age frescoes of Akrotiri; Sappho; evidence from Attic vase painting; Classical Attic tombstones; Ovid; Lucian; 5th-century AD Egypt. Contributors are drawn from the fields of archaeology, the classics and queer studies and reflect current trends in gender studies.

Information about women is scattered throughout the fragmented mosaic of ancient history: the vivid poetry of Sappho survived antiquity on remnants of damaged papyrus; the inscription on a beautiful fourth century B.C.E. grave praises the virtues of Mnesarete, an Athenian woman who died young; a great number of Roman wives were found guilty of poisoning their husbands, but was it accidental food poisoning, or disease, or something more sinister. Apart from the legends of Cleopatra, Dido and Lucretia, and images of graceful maidens dancing on urns, the evidence about the lives of women of the classical world--visual, archaeological, and written--has remained uncollected and uninterpreted. Now, the lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched Women in the Classical World lifts the curtain on the women of ancient Greece and Rome, exploring the lives of slaves and prostitutes, Athenian housewives, and Rome's imperial family. The first book on classical women to give equal weight to written texts and artistic representations, it brings together a great wealth of materials--poetry, vase painting, legislation, medical treatises, architecture, religious and funerary art, women's ornaments, historical epics, political speeches, even ancient coins--to present women in the historical and cultural context of their time. Written by leading experts in the fields of ancient history and art history, women's studies, and Greek and Roman literature, the book's chronological arrangement allows the changing roles of women to unfold over a thousand-year period, beginning in the eighth century B.C.E. Both the art and the literature highlight women's creativity, sexuality and coming of age, marriage and childrearing, religious and public roles, and other themes. Fascinating chapters report on the wild behavior of Spartan and Etruscan women and the mythical Amazons; the changing views of the female body presented in male-authored gynecological treatises; the "new woman" represented by the love poetry of the late Republic and Augustan Age; and the traces of upper- and lower-class life in Pompeii, miraculously preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E. Provocative and surprising, Women in the Classical World is a masterly foray into the past, and a definitive statement on the lives of women in ancient Greece and Rome.

Women in the Ancient Near East provides a collection of primary sources that further our understanding of women from Mesopotamian and Near Eastern civilizations, from the earliest historical and literary texts in the third millennium BC to the end of Mesopotamian political autonomy in the sixth century BC. This book is a valuable resource for historians of the Near East and for those studying women in the ancient world. It moves beyond simply identifying women in the Near East to attempting to place them in historical and literary context, following the latest research. A number of literary genres are represented, including myths and epics, proverbs, medical texts, law collections, letters, treaties, as well as building, dedicatory, and funerary inscriptions.