Finding Persephone: Women's Rituals in the Ancient Mediterranean (Studies in 2024

Drawing upon the latest research in gender studies, history of religion, feminism, ritual theory, performance, anthropology, archaeology, and art history, Finding Persephone investigates the ways in which the religious lives and ritual practices of women in Greek and Roman antiquity helped shape their social and civic identity. Barred from participating in many civic arenas, women asserted their presence by performing rituals at festivals and presiding over rites associated with life passages and healing. The essays in this lively and timely volume reveal the central place of women in the religious and ritual practices of the societies of the ancient Mediterranean. Readers interested in religion, womens studies, and the ancient world will find a unique exploration of the nature and character of womens autonomy within the religious sphere and a full account of womens agency in the public domain.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Part 1. Introduction

1. Ritual and Gender: Critical Perspectives Angeliki Tzanetou

Part 2. Sources and Methodology

2. The Scandal of Womens Ritual Deborah Lyons

Part 3. Gender and Agency

3. Looking for the Images: Representations of Girls Rituals in Ancient Athens Jenifer Neils

4. Improvising on the Athenian Stage: Womens Ritual Practice in Drama Barbara Goff

5. Sanctissima femina: Social Categorization and Womens Religious Experience in the Roman Republic Celia E. Schultz

6. Threat and Hope: Womens Rituals and Civil War in Roman Epic Vassiliki Panoussi

Part 4. Performance

7. Folk Songs as Ritual Acts: The Case of Work-Songs Andromache Karanika

8. The Rise of the Demon Womb in Greco-Roman Antiquity Christopher A. Faraone

9. Thesmophoria and Eleusinian Mysteries: The Fascination of Womens Secret Ritual Eva Stehle

Part 5. Appropriations and Adaptations

10. Worshipping Demeter in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt Maryline Parca

11. Nuptiarum Sollemnia? Girls Transition to Marriage in the Roman Jurists Lauren Caldwell

12. Maidens and Manhood in the Worship of Diana at Nemi Eve DAmbra

13. Male Improvisation in the "Womens Cult" of Eileithyia on Paros David D. Leitao

14. Early Christian Antipathy toward the Greek "Women Gods" Kathy L. Gaca

Bibliography

Contributors

Index