Daughters of Gaia: Women in the Ancient Mediterranean World

by Bella Vivante

Overview

From their personal lives at home to their roles in the realms of religion, health, economics, governance, war, philosophy, and poetry, this is the story of ancient women in all their aspects. Vivante explores women's lives in four ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome. While the experiences of women in ancient cultures were certainly very different from those of most women today, a tendency to focus too much on negative or restrictive images has until now provided readers with a rather incomplete picture. Looking at this important era from a female-oriented perspective, Vivante widens the perceptual lens and makes it possible to highlight the fundamental empowered aspects of women's activities in order to present them in balance with the various limits imposed on their societal participation.

Beginning with powerful images of goddesses and women's roles in the religious sphere, Vivante details the foundation for women's activities in all other social realms. While these four Mediterranean civilizations were distinctive, they also influenced each other through various forms of contact—trade, colonization, and war. Both the similarities and the differences permit richer comparisons and promote a deeper understanding of the lives of women in each.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275982492
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	11/30/2006
Series:	Praeger Series on the Ancient World
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Bella Vivante received her PhD in Classics from Stanford University. Her research examines women's roles in ancient Greek drama, poetry, religion, and society, exploring recently how the complex figure of Helen, as goddess and mortal, crystallizes views of women's cultural roles. Feminist, anthropological, religious, and multi-cultural theoretical perspectives shape her research. In particular, from her extended contact with Native American peoples and learning indigenous concepts of women's identities that differ radically from western views, Dr. Vivante has crafted new models for viewing women's roles in the ancient world.

Table of Contents

Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations Timelines Introduction 1. Ancient Goddesses—The Primacy of Female Divinity 2. Sanctifying Women's Lives—Ancient Women's Rituals 3. A Woman's Life in Ancient Cultures 4. Health and Medicine 5. From Home to Market—The Economic Bases of Women's Lives 6. From Matrons to Female Kings—Women Who Ruled from Home and from the Throne 7. Women and War—Symbol, Object, and Warrior 8. In Her Own Voice 1—Women's Philosophical Writings 9. In Her Own Voice 2—Women's Poetry Epilogue Glossary Notes Further Readings Index

What People are Saying About This

Lillian E. Doherty

"A readable and inspiring account. Without denying the limitations under which women labored in these ancient cultures, Vivante keeps the emphasis where it belongs: on the amazing range of their achievements and on the value-to themselves and their contemporaries-of the roles they assumed."

Editorial Reviews

American scholar of classics Vivante explores the divine figures and the actual women who embodied the various transmutations of the concepts of femaleness in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome across four millennia. She considers such aspects as women's rituals, health and medicine, the economic bases of women's lives, women who ruled, war, and women's philosophical writings and poetry.” —Reference & Research Book News

From the Publisher