Slave-Wives, Single Women and “Bastards” in the Ancient Greek World

Slave-Wives, Single Women and “Bastards” in the Ancient Greek World PDF Author: Morris Silver
Publisher: Oxbow Books
ISBN: 178570866X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Greek scholars have produced a vast body of evidence bearing on nuptial practices that has yet to be mined by a professional economist. By standing on their shoulders, the author proposes and tests radically new interpretations of three important status groups in Greek history: the pallakē, the nothos, and the hetaira. It is argued that legitimate marriage – marriage by loan of the bride to the groom – was not the only form of legal marriage in classical Athens and the ancient Greek world generally. Pallakia – marriage by sale of the bride to the groom – was also legally recognized. The pallakē-wifeship transaction is a sale into slavery with a restrictive covenant mandating the employment of the sold woman as a wife. In this highly original and challenging new book, economist Morris Silver proposes and tests the hypothesis that the likelihood of bride sale rises with increases in the distance between the ancestral residence of the groom and the father’s household. Nothoi, the bastard children of pallakai, lacked the legal right to inherit from their fathers but were routinely eligible for Athenian citizenship. It is argued that the basic social meaning of hetaira (companion) is not ‘prostitute’ or ’courtesan,’ but ‘single woman’ – a woman legally recognized as being under her own authority (kuria). The defensive adaptation of single women is reflected in Greek myth and social practice by their grouping into packs, most famously the Daniads and Amazons.

Slave-Wives, Single Women and “Bastards” in the Ancient Greek World

Slave-Wives, Single Women and “Bastards” in the Ancient Greek World PDF Author: Morris Silver
Publisher: Oxbow Books
ISBN: 178570866X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Greek scholars have produced a vast body of evidence bearing on nuptial practices that has yet to be mined by a professional economist. By standing on their shoulders, the author proposes and tests radically new interpretations of three important status groups in Greek history: the pallakē, the nothos, and the hetaira. It is argued that legitimate marriage – marriage by loan of the bride to the groom – was not the only form of legal marriage in classical Athens and the ancient Greek world generally. Pallakia – marriage by sale of the bride to the groom – was also legally recognized. The pallakē-wifeship transaction is a sale into slavery with a restrictive covenant mandating the employment of the sold woman as a wife. In this highly original and challenging new book, economist Morris Silver proposes and tests the hypothesis that the likelihood of bride sale rises with increases in the distance between the ancestral residence of the groom and the father’s household. Nothoi, the bastard children of pallakai, lacked the legal right to inherit from their fathers but were routinely eligible for Athenian citizenship. It is argued that the basic social meaning of hetaira (companion) is not ‘prostitute’ or ’courtesan,’ but ‘single woman’ – a woman legally recognized as being under her own authority (kuria). The defensive adaptation of single women is reflected in Greek myth and social practice by their grouping into packs, most famously the Daniads and Amazons.

Sacred Prostitution in the Ancient Greek World. From Aphrodite to Baubo to Cassandra and Beyond.

Sacred Prostitution in the Ancient Greek World. From Aphrodite to Baubo to Cassandra and Beyond. PDF Author: Morris Silver
Publisher: Ugarit-Verlag - Buch- und Medienhandel GmbH
ISBN: 3868353003
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
This book does not intend to demonstrate that Greeks and other ancient Mediterranean peoples, men and women, married and unmarried, sought and participated in sex for its own sake. That is, it is taken as obvious, a given, that they were able to separate sex for pleasure from sex for reproduction. There never were human beings who concerned themselves only with “fertility”. Neither, does this study seek to demonstrate that some ancient Greeks were willing to provide sexual services to partners in return for the receipt of nonsexual benefits. Again, this is self-evident. Nor does this study intend to show that the ancient Mediterranean world was familiar with individuals and enterprises that regularly earned incomes by selling sexual services. Clearly, the ancient world knew prostitution as an occupation and as a form of enterprise. In an article published by Ugarit-Forschungen in 2008, Silver (2006a) challenged the view that temple/sacred prostitution did not exist in the ancient Near East. Contrary to such scholars as Julia Assante (1998, 2003), Martha T. Roth (2006) and Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge (2010), ample evidence indicates that it did. For the convenience of readers this article is included as a Supplement to the present volume. The original article has been reformatted to correct some typographical errors and to make it blend seamlessly into the present volume but otherwise it is unchanged. More recent materials from the ancient Near East are considered mostly in footnotes, however. The present study seeks to leap beyond this finding by showing that temple prostitution also flourished in the ancient Mediterranean. That it did is of course an “old” view, but the old supporting arguments often lack rigor and even clarity and the supporting evidence is fragmentary, contradictory and often facially absurd (e.g. Herodotus 1.199.1–5). Work of this kind has been discredited by scholars such as Fay Glinister (2000) and Stephanie Lynn Budin (2008).

Sex and the Ancient City

Sex and the Ancient City PDF Author: Andreas Serafim
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110695790
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 551

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Book Description
This volume aims to revisit, further explore and tease out the textual, but also non-textual sources in an attempt to reconstruct a clearer picture of a particular aspect of sexuality, i.e. sexual practices, in Greco-Roman antiquity. Sexual practices refers to a part of the overarching notion of sexuality: specifically, the acts of sexual intercourse, the erogenous capacities and genital functions of male and female body, and any other physical or biological actions that define one’s sexual identity or orientation. This volume aims to approach not simply the acts of sexual intercourse themselves, but also their legal, social, political, religious, medical, cultural/moral and interdisciplinary (e.g. emotional, performative) perspectives, as manifested in a range of both textual and non-textual evidence (i.e. architecture, iconography, epigraphy, etc.). The insights taken from the contributions to this volume would enable researchers across a range of disciplines – e.g. sex/gender studies, comparative literature, psychology and cognitive neuroscience – to use theoretical perspectives, methodologies and conceptual tools to frame the sprawling examination of aspects of sexuality in broad terms, or sexual practices in particular.

Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature

Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature PDF Author: Marguerite Johnson
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000523454
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 462

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Book Description
This second edition includes an updated review of sexuality in Greece and Rome, an expanded bibliography and numerous new passages with original translations. This book provides readers with detailed information, notes, and original translated passages on the fascinating and multi-faceted theme of ancient sexuality. The sources range from the era of Homer and Hesiod through to the Graeco-Roman world of the Fourth Century CE and explore the diversitiy of approaches to sexuality and sexual expression, as well as how these issues relate to the rest of ancient society and culture. Sexuality in Greek And Roman Society and Literature is an invaluable resource to students and academics alike, providing a detailed series of chapters on all major facets of sexuality in ancient Greece and Rome. It will particularly appeal to those interested in sexuality and gender in antiquity, as well as ancient literature and social studies.

All Things Ancient Greece [2 volumes]

All Things Ancient Greece [2 volumes] PDF Author: James W. Ermatinger
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1440874549
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 641

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Book Description
As an invaluable resource for students and general audiences investigating Ancient Greek culture and history, this encyclopedia provides a thorough examination of the Mediterranean world and its influence on modern society. All Things Ancient Greece examines the history and cultural life of Ancient Greece until the death of Philip II of Macedon in 336 BCE. The encyclopedia shows how the various city-states developed from the Bronze Age to the end of the Classical Age, influencing the Greek world and beyond. The cultural achievements of the Greeks detailed in this two-volume set include literature, politics, medicine, religion, and the arts. This work has entries on the various city-states, regions, battles, culture, and ideas that helped shape the ancient Greek world and its societies. Each entry delves into detailed topics with suggested readings. Many entries include sidebars containing primary documents from ancient sources that explore ancillary ideas, biographies, and specific examples from literature and philosophy. Readers, both students of ancient history and a general audience, are encouraged to interact with the material either chronologically, thematically, or geographically.

Euripides and the Myth of Perseus

Euripides and the Myth of Perseus PDF Author: P.J. Finglass
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3111384144
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
A recently-published second-century papyrus, P.Oxy. 5283, contains prose summaries (hypotheses) of six plays by the Greek dramatist Euripides, including two lost plays depicting the hero Perseus, Dictys and Danaë. This book demonstrates the significance of this discovery for our understanding of Greek tragedy. After setting out the mythological and dramatic context, and offering a new text and translation based on autopsy, the book analyses the light which the papyrus sheds on these plays, whose narratives, centred on female resistance to abusive male tyrants, speak as powerfully to us today as they did to their original audiences. It then investigates Euripides’ tragic trilogy of 431 BC, which ended with Dictys and began with Medea, whose dramatic power now stands in sharper focus given our improved understanding of the production in which it originally appeared. Finally, it ponders the purpose which these hypotheses served, and why readers in the second century AD should have wanted a summary of plays written more than half a millennium before. All Greek (and Latin) is translated, making the book accessible not just to classicists, but to theatre historians and to anyone interested in Greek literature, drama, and mythology.

Phryne of Thespiae

Phryne of Thespiae PDF Author: Laura McClure
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197580858
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
Although Phryne is considered the most famous of the many Greek courtesans who flocked to Athens during the fourth century BCE, until now there have been no modern attempts to reconstruct her life. Phryne of Thespiae offers an innovative biography that examines key moments of Phyrne's life that have been dismissed as male fantasies, arguing that many of them could have plausibly originated in historical events. The portrait that emerges is that of a powerful and socially consequential woman whose wealth and connections helped to shape the society in which she lived.

Sexuality in Premodern Europe

Sexuality in Premodern Europe PDF Author: Franz X. Eder
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350341088
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 537

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Book Description
How did sexual relationships work before, in and outside of marriage in the pre-modern era? What problems did contraception and sexually transmitted diseases pose? How did people deal with prostitution and pornography back then? What were the possibilities for same-sex and queer desire and practice? Using numerous examples and sources from across the continent, Sexuality in Premodern Europe shows that even in earlier centuries, sexual life had an elementary significance for the coexistence of couples and communities. It was just as decisive for how individuals saw themselves and others as it was for maintaining the social, economic and political order. Franz X. Eder interestingly emphasises the socio-historical view of sexuality, offering an apt foil for the cultural perspective which is so prevalent in the field. In this book, sexual behaviour is understood and thought about as social practice. From this vantage point, Eder deals with the function of the sexual in upbringing and socialization, its significance for the image of men and women, its role in marriage initiation, and the importance of sexual life for marital relationships and concubinage. Deviant and discriminated sexual forms such as prostitution, pornography and same-sex acts are also addressed throughout. The book explores the ways in which many people gained sexual experiences before, besides or beyond marriage, even if these experiences were forbidden in former societies. While research into the history of sexuality has so far dealt with such forms of the sexual primarily from the point of view of regulation and sanctioning, here they are understood as 'positive' practices that allowed people to understand and take ownership of their sexual desire.

Phryne

Phryne PDF Author: Melissa Funke
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350371882
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
How did Mnesarete, a girl from Boeotia, turn into Phryne the famous beauty, and how did she end up as an enduring symbol of ancient Greek culture? This book pieces together the story of the notorious fourth-century Athenian sex worker, Phryne. It considers her early life and her development into a cultural figure, whose influence and legacy have lasted from her own lifetime to the present day. It also investigates her infamous nude courtroom appearance, her influence on one of the most well-known statues from antiquity and her connection to celebrated figures from Alexander the Great to the artist Apelles. Her appearances in modern culture, ranging from Belle Epoque cabaret shows to 1950s Italian film, are also analysed, offering an account of how the real life of a woman turned into the biography of a dream girl. Nothing but fragmentsremain of Phryne's story, short anecdotes passed on and on again in literary compendia, that tell the story of a witty and beautiful woman who amassed great wealth, associated with some of the most well-known historical figures of ancient Greece. They create an image of a life that is glamorous and titillating, yet they also hint at the tenuous position of a foreign-born sex worker in a society structured to privilege male citizens above all others.

Dress in Mediterranean Antiquity

Dress in Mediterranean Antiquity PDF Author: Alicia J. Batten
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567684687
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
Insights from anthropology, religious studies, biblical studies, sociology, classics, and Jewish studies are here combined to provide a cutting-edge guide to dress and religion in the Greco-Roman World and the Mediterranean basin. Clothing, jewellery, cosmetics, and hairstyles are among the many aspects examined to show the variety of functions of dress in communication and in both establishing and defending identity. The volume begins by reviewing how scholars in the fields of classics, anthropology, religious studies, and sociology examine dress. The second section then looks at materials, including depictions of clothing in sculpture and in Egyptian mummy portraits. The third (and largest) part of the book then examines dress in specific contexts, beginning with Greece and Rome and going on to Jewish and Christian dress, with a specific focus on the intersection between dress, clothing and religion. By combining essays from over twenty scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds, the book provides a unique overview of different approaches to and contexts of dress in one volume, leading to a greater understanding of dress both within ancient societies and in the contemporary world.