Believing Ancient Women
Feminist Epistemologies for Greece and Rome
Edited by Megan Elena Bowen, Mary Hamil Gilbert, Edith Gwendolyn Nally
- Develops recent feminist epistemological views as a literary-critical theory for the interpretation of classical sources
- Explores how identities intersect with constructions of epistemic concepts (e.g., knowledge, belief, rationality, objectivity, testimony, evidence) in Greco-Roman antiquity
- Contributes to reinterpreting and recovering underrepresented voices and ideas in classical sources and their interpretation
This volume deploys recent feminist epistemological frameworks to analyze how concepts like knowledge, authority, rationality, objectivity and testimony were constructed in Greece and Rome. The introduction serves as a field guide to feminist epistemological interpretations of classical sources, and the following sixteen chapters treat a variety of genres and time periods, from Greek poetry, tragedy, philosophy, oratory, historiography and material culture to Roman comedy, epic, oratory, letters, law and their reception. By using an intersectional approach to demonstrate how epistemic systems exclude and pathologize the experiences of ancient women and other oppressed groups, these contributions aid in the recovery of non-dominant narratives and reveal issues of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual identity, religion, age, class, familial status and citizenship in the ancient and modern world. The volume contributes to a more inclusive and equitable study of classical antiquity and builds transhistorical connections capable of exposing similar injustices in our own time.
List of Illustrations AcknowledgementsList of Contributors 1. Believing Ancient Women: An Introduction and Feminist Epistemological Field Guide Edith G. Nally, Mary H. Gilbert and Megan E. Bowen2. ‘For you know how we cared for you’: Sappho and Queer Epistemology Erika L. Weiberg3. En-gendering Knowledge with the Oceanids in Prometheus Bound Mary H. Gilbert4. Women’s Complaints about Violence at Athens: Zobia and Aristogeiton Fiona McHardy5. Bodies of Knowledge: Diotima’s Reproductive Expertise in the Symposium Edith G. Nally6. Monumental Presence and Absence: Approaching the Material Traces of Historical Women in the Classical World Patricia Eunji Kim7. Plautus’s Truculentus and Terence’s Hecyra: Patriarchal Authority and Women’s CredibilitySerena S. Witzke8. Incidental Women in the Letters of Cicero Kristina Milnor9. Signifying Dido: Constructs of Race and Gender in AugustanRome Shelley P. Haley10. But She Didn’t Complain: Ovid’s Leucothoe, Rape Myths andHermeneutical Injustice Megan E. Bowen11. ‘Feebly fighting back’: Stuprum in Eumolpus’s Pergamene Boy Debra Freas12. The Viability of Feminist Stoicism: On the Compatibility of Stoic and Feminist Epistemology Chelsea Bowden13. What Everyone Knows: Hermeneutical Injustice in theMedieval Iphis Jessica Hines14. Religious Authority and Classical Reception in Baroque Rome: Martha Marchina’s Musa Posthuma and Feminist Epistemologies of Care Erika Zimmermann Damer15. ‘Grey’ Rape on the Silver Screen: Rapes of Enslaved People in Mass Media about the Ancient World Anise K. StrongSelected BibliographyIndex
[Believing Ancient Women] serves as a useful primer for feminist epistemologies, its key architects, related concepts, and where they overlap with and diverge from other systems of knowledge. It educates readers on the usefulness of feminist epistemology for excavating texts and objects to reveal the gendered perspectives and knowledge within. This book is informative and full of insights that illuminate the significance of gender in ancient ways of knowing.
This volume, with its strong focus on feminist epistemology together with its wide range of methodologies and classical material, makes a powerful intervention in the elucidation of ancient philosophy and literature, while acting as a showcase for how exploration of the ancient world can contribute to contemporary debates.
The editors and authors have produced an intellectual feast for readers with a lively and thought-provoking volume that is as wide-ranging in its topics as it is in the scholars contributing. From early career scholars to the most-seasoned veterans of the field, this volume shows the continued importance and power of feminist approaches to classical antiquity.
