And now she is back with the old dilemma – who caused the war? She has been blamed, Paris has been blamed but, fundamentally, it was the fault of Thetis, mother of Achilles. There is the old argument regarding Mésalliance, a goddess marries a mortal, some social discord is sure to arise[1] Some social disruption! The destruction of Troy, the wasting of a generation of men on both sides of… Read more
Diogenes Laertius’s main intention was to write biographies of male philosophers[1]. However, his writings also reveal, sometimes unintentionally, women’s roles and attitudes to women in ancient times. His anecdotes and longer exploratory writing include references to wives, daughters, slaves and courtesans. He quoted from wills and letters, and also from hearsay. The general themes include misogyny, as explored in part 2, but he also gave examples of respectful behavior towards… Read more
We were excited to welcome Jan-Mathieu (Mat) Carbon for an Open House entitled “A Middle Ground in the Middle Sea: the “Marriage” of Salmakis and Halikarnassos.” The event took place on Friday, April 16 at 11:00 a.m. EDT and was recorded. He provides this overview of the topic: A—literary, archeological, epigraphical—survey of the city of Halikarnassos can help us to understand how the identity of this multicultural community was constructed.… Read more
In this part of our series on marriage in ancient Greek texts (following part 1: Music, and part 2: Wedding), we look at the courtship phase. How are suitors or prospective bridegrooms portrayed, what agency does the bride-to-be have, and how are marriages arranged? Émile Benveniste, in Indo-European Language and Society[1], discusses how “there is, properly speaking, no Indo-European term for “marriage.”” He explains that the words are different for… Read more
We were pleased to welcome Kathryn R. Topper of University of Washington, Department of Classics for an Open House discussion entitled “Coming of Age at Thermon: Marriage and Its Discontents on the Metopes of Temple C.” It took place on Thursday, March 1, at 11:00 a.m. EST, and was recorded. In preparation, you might like to read the handout (PDF): Thermon Metopes You can watch the event in the frame… Read more