Women's Life in Greece and Rome: A Source Book in Translation

Mary R. Lefkowitz, Maureen B. Fant

JHU Press, 2005 - History - 420 pages

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.

Contents

• WOMENS VOICES: 1
• Nossis: 7
• Sulpicia: 8
• A fragment of a comedy: 14
• Literary sources: 21
• The best days in a womans life: 27
• Bereavement: 34
• Educating women to make them more like: 41
• Men and women should be treated alike: 47
• The home: 48
• Crete: 55
• Provisions for female children: 61
• The case for the prosecution in a poisoning trial: 71
• Amorgos: 82
• 4: 84
• The behaviour of Etruscan women: 88
• A wife requests restitution of a dowry: 92
• LEGAL STATUS IN THE ROMAN WORLD Early Rome 107 The laws of the kings: 94
• The Twelve Tables excerpts: 95
• Husbands punishment of wives: 96
• Punishment for adultery: 97
• On womens status within the family: 98
• Patria potestas and adoption: 99
• Patria potestas: 100
• Pregnancy status and paternity: 101
• Children of slaves: 102
• Men must marry: 103
• The consequences of adultery: 104
• Petitions to the emperor: 105
• Concubinage: 107
• The right of life and death: 108
• Social status and marriage: 109
• Social status: 110
• On marriage: 111
• Marital subordination: 112
• Social status and citizenship of children: 114
• Conditions for the dissolution of marriage: 115
• On legal powers of women: 116
• The husbands liability: 117
• Prostitution: 118
• How a woman loses her social status: 119
• A final dowry payment: 120
• Dowry payment through a bank: 121
• A mothers last will and testament: 122
• Calpurnia Heraclea a woman landowner: 123
• A womans petition to act without a kyrios: 124
• A prostitute and her mother: 125
• A woman greengrocer brings a charge: 126
• A wifes complaint against an abusive husband: 127
• 777: 129
• Marpessa and the defence of Tegea: 130
• Cloelia the hostage: 131
• The rape of Lucretia: 132
• History: 133
• Women who risked their lives to save their husbands: 134
• A funeral eulogy: 135
• Pythias a courageous slavewoman: 139
• On Arria: 140
• Arrias death: 141
• Political life 173 Women demonstrate and obtain repeal of the Oppian law: 142
• Sempronia a revolutionary: 147
• Hortensias speech: 149
• Caenis concubine of the Emperor Vespasian: 151
• Electioneering: 152
• The family of Julia Domna: 153
• Womens organisations 181 A trade union?: 155
• The curia of women: 156
• A meeting of married women: 157
• Honorific inscriptions 191 The chaste Asë: 158
• Food for children: 159
• Junia Theodora: 160
• Scholasticia: 161
• From the Panathenaic victor lists: 162
• PRIVATE LIFE Correct behaviour 208 Chastity: 163
• Greek and Roman customs compared: 164
• Imperial upbringing: 165
• Education of females 213 The education of Eurydice: 166
• Intellectual life 216 Platos female pupils: 167
• Epigram on Hipparchia: 168
• A philosopher: 169
• Sayings attributed to Aspasia by Socrates: 170
• Going to a festival: 172
• The gobetween: 174
• Lesbians as a bad omen: 175
• A letter from a soldiers wife: 176
• Birth control: 178
• Disadvantages of a liberal education: 179
• Melite: 180
• A butcher and his wife: 181
• Advice on marriage: 182
• To Calpurnia Hispulla: 184
• To his wife Calpurnia: 185
• To Calpurnia: 186
• Exposure of a female child: 187
• Graxia who nursed her own children: 188
• Parents and children 254 Posilla Senenia: 190
• Cornelias children: 191
• Seneca to his mother: 192
• The death of the Helvidiae: 193
• The death of Minicia Marcella: 194
• Julia daughter of Augustus: 195
• How to train a wife: 196
• Letter from a woman about domestic matters: 203
• Attempts to explain Roman marriage customs: 204
• A wedding invitation: 205
• Bitte: 206
• From the second husband: 207
• OCCUPATIONS Apprenticeship 283 An apprenticeship agreement: 208
• Valeria Maxima owner of a farm: 209
• The trial of the hetaera Phryne of Thespiae: 210
• Justinian on pimps: 211
• Vibia Calybenis the procuress: 212
• Graffiti: 213
• Lady gladiators: 214
• Septimius Severus calls a halt: 215
• A tumbler: 216
• An actress: 217
• Phoebe Vocontia: 218
• Handiwork: 219
• A grocer: 220
• Inscriptions: 221
• Women in the service of the imperial household: 222
• Occupations in Roman Athens: 224
• MEDICINE AND ANATOMY Philosophers observe nature 338 Origins of the desire for procreation: 225
• The female role in generation: 226
• Menstruation: 229
• Writings of practising physicians The Hippocratic Corpus: 230
• A contraceptive: 233
• Displacement of the womb: 237
• Hysterical suffocation: 238
• Dislocation of the womb: 239
• Dropsy in the womb: 240
• The dangerous periods during pregnancy: 241
• Hysteria in virgins: 242
• Case histories: 243
• Psychological origins of hysteria: 246
• Aretaeus of Cappadocia: 248
• Inflammation of the womb: 249
• Soranus: 250
• instructions for the midwife: 255
• Treatment for hysterical suffocation: 256
• Writings on medical matters by laymen 358 The women of Miletus a traditional story: 259
• Treatments for diseases of the womb: 260
• The dangers of sharing a bath with women: 262
• Case histories from inscriptions 363 Epitaph for a woman who died while pregnant: 263
• Socratea: 264
• Four doctors: 265
• A midwife and physician: 266
• Epitaphs of midwives: 267
• Advice on hiring a wetnurse: 268
• Two contracts for wetnurses for slave children: 270
• Receipt of wages for nursing: 272
• RELIGION DionysusBacchus 383 Imported Phrygian rituals: 273
• Epitaph for a priestess: 274
• Senatus consultum de bacchanalibus: 275
• Rules in the cult of Dionysus: 276
• Chrysis priestess of Hera: 277
• The story of Persephone: 278
• Thesmophoria: 280
• Regulations for women attending the festival of Demeter: 281
• The priestess and temple of Athena Nike: 282
• A puberty ritual: 283
• Offerings to Artemis at Brauron: 284
• Dedication of statues of women: 285
• A petition to Ptolemy and Cleopatra: 287
• Vestal Virgins: 288
• Vestal Virgins: 290
• Augustus and the Vestal Virgins: 291
• Desecration of the rites of the Bona Dea: 292
• Medea: 294
• A love potion: 295
• Bittos curse: 296
• Epitaph with a curse: 298
• A curse against Aristocydes: 299
• Mamia: 300
• Priestesses at the sanctuary of Hilaeira and Phoebe: 301
• Tullia priestess of Hestia: 302
• Cassia Victoria: 303
• A priestess of Demeter at Eleusis: 304
• Christianity: 307
• The martyrdom of St Perpetua: 313
• Gnostic ritual: 323
• Late pagan saints: 331
• Abbreviations: 360
• Appendix to the third edition: 367
• Concordance of sources: 402
• General index: 414

Bibliographic information

• Title: Women's Life in Greece and Rome: A Source Book in Translation
• Authors: Mary R. Lefkowitz, Maureen B. Fant
• Editors: Mary R. Lefkowitz, Maureen B. Fant
• Translated by: Mary R. Lefkowitz, Maureen B. Fant
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: JHU Press, 2005
• ISBN: 0801883091, 9780801883095
• Length: 420 pages
• Subjects: History / Ancient / General; History / Ancient / Rome; History / General; History / Women; Literary Criticism / Ancient & Classical; Literary Criticism / Semiotics & Theory; Social Science / Gender Studies; Social Science / Women's Studies