Finding Persephone : women's rituals in the ancient Mediterranean / edited by Maryline Parca and Angeliki Tzanetou.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Parca, Maryline G.

Tzanetou, Angeliki.

Series:

Studies in ancient folklore and popular culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women--Religious life.

Women.

Rites and ceremonies.

Spiritual life.

Feminism--Religious aspects.

Feminism.

Women--Mediterranean Region--History.

History.

Mediterranean Region.

Physical Description:

xiv, 327 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, [2007]

Summary:

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 public 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, women's studies, and classical antiquity will find a unique exploration of the nature and character of women's autonomy within the religious sphere and a full account of women's agency in the public domain.

Contents:

Ritual and gender : critical perspectives / Angeliki Tzanetou

Sources and methodology

The scandal of women's ritual / Deborah Lyons

Gender and agency

Looking for the images : representations of girls' rituals in ancient Athens / Jenifer Neils

Improvising on the Athenian stage : women's ritual practice in drama / Barbara Goff

Sanctissima femina : social categorization and women's religious experience in the Roman Republic / Celia E. Schultz

Threat and hope : women's rituals and Civil War in Roman epic / Vassiliki Panoussi

Performance

Folk songs as ritual acts : the case of work-songs / Andromache Karanika

The rise of the demon womb in Greco-Roman antiquity / Christopher A. Faraone

Thesmophoria and eleusinian mysteries: the fascination of women's secret ritual / Eva Stehle

Appropriations and adaptations

Worshipping demeter in ptolemaic and Roman Egypt / Maryline Parca

Nuptiarum sollemnia? : girls' transition to marriage in the Roman jurists / Lauren Caldwell

Maidens and manhood in the worship of Diana at Nemi / Eve D'Ambra

Male improvisation in the "women's cult" of Eileithyia on Paros / David D. Leitao

Early Christian antipathy toward the Greek "women gods" / Kathy L. Gaca.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-316) and index.

ISBN:

9780253349545

0253349540

9780253219381

0253219388

OCLC:

122291702