Pandora's Daughters

The Role and Status of Women in Greek and Roman Antiquity

By: Eva Cantarella, Maureen B. Fant (Translator)

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Paperback | 13 February 1987

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248 Pages

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22+

Dimensions(cm)
15.0 x 140.0 x 216.0

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Expanded and updated for this English-language translation, Pandora's Daughters offers the first history of women in ancient Greece and Rome to be written from a legal perspective. Moving outward from an examination of the legal evidence--the laws governing marriage and divorce, sexual behavior, and inheritance--Cantarella demonstrates how literary, anecdotal, and juridical sources can and cannot be used to discover what Greek and Roman men thought about women. She offers a provocative feminist interpretation of the sociological information that can be derived from law codes, lawyers' speeches, records and discussions of custom, and legislation to determine the status of women in society. At the same time she draws upon the evidence of myth, ritual, and literature to question whether women were actually subjugated to the extent that the alws imply.

Cantarella also provides a balanced evaluation of one of the most controversial issues in women's history, the question of matriarchy in prehistoric Greece and Rome. She considers the original sources that have been used as evidence while taking into account the historical contexts in which modern theories of women's societies have been produces.

By examining the structures of Greek and Roman society, Pandora's Daughters reveals the points at which sexual roles became codified and came to be viewed as biological rather than cultural. The societies of ancient Greece and Rome, Cantarella demonstrates, were violently misogynistic. Yet in many respects the position of women in pagan antiquity was higher than it would be under Christianity.

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Society & Culture Social Groups Gender Studies Gender Studies: Women and Girls Social Issues & Processes Feminism & Feminist Theory History Regional & National History European History Earliest Times to Present Day Ancient History to the Year 500

Classical History & Civilisation General & World History

Foreword	p. ix
Translator's Note	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
The Weaving of Discrimination	p. 1
Problems of Method	p. 5
Greece
Matriarchy in Prehistory, Myth, and History	p. 11
The Neolithic Period	p. 11
Minoan Society: The Mediterranean Great Mother	p. 14
The Mycenaean Kingdoms	p. 15
Myths of Matriarchy: Amazons and the Lemnian Women	p. 16
Interpreting Myth: Forgotten History or Unthinkable World?	p. 18
Women and the Origin of Cities	p. 19
Female Initiation Ceremonies	p. 20
Conclusions	p. 23
Origins of Western Misogyny	p. 24
The Homeric Poems	p. 24
Hesiod and Semonides	p. 34
Exclusion from the Polis	p. 38
The First Legislators	p. 39
The Classical Period	p. 43
Philosophers and Women	p. 52
The Reproduction Debate: Does Woman Contribute?	p. 52
Socrates and Aspasia	p. 53
The Virtues of Women	p. 55
Plato: Feminist?	p. 58
Aristotle: Woman-Matter	p. 59
Conclusions	p. 61
Women and Literature	p. 63
Women in Classical Literature	p. 63
Lettered Women	p. 71
Homosexuality and Love	p. 77
Homosexual Love in Myth	p. 77
Crete and Sparta: The Role of Homosexuality in Initiation	p. 79
Homosexuality and Bisexual Divinities	p. 80
Plato	p. 83
Female Homosexuality	p. 86
The Hellenistic Age: New Images, Old Stereotypes	p. 90
Legal Status: Toward Equality	p. 90
Women and Political Power	p. 92
Women in Literature	p. 93
Conclusions	p. 97
Rome
The Hypothesis of Matriarchy	p. 101
The Protoagricultural Phase	p. 101
Tanaquil and Etruscan Women	p. 102
Traces of Ancient Collective Marriage?	p. 105
The Ancient Ethnographers	p. 107
The Debate on the Matriarchy	p. 110
The Period of the Kings and the Republic	p. 113
Legal Status of Women	p. 113
Social Status of Women	p. 124
The Principate and the Empire:
The Emancipation of Women?	p. 135
The Centuries of Expansion	p. 135
The Fall of the Empire	p. 159
The Byzantine Empire	p. 171
Conclusion	p. 177
Abbreviations Used in the Notes	p. 181
Notes	p. 185
Index	p. 221
Books in the Series	p. 231
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

Pandora's Daughters

The Role and Status of Women in Greek and Roman Antiquity

At a Glance

Paperback

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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