Finding Persephone: Women's Rituals in the Ancient Mediterranean (Studies in Ancient Folklore and Popular Culture) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253219388 ISBN 13: 9780253219381

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2007

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Maryline Parca teaches at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is author of The Franchetti Collection in Rome: Inscriptions and Sculptural Fragments.

Angeliki Tzanetou teaches at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has published articles on women's rituals and politics in Greek drama.

Edition details

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0253219388
• ISBN 13: 9780253219381
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 344
• Editor: Parca Maryline, Tzanetou Angeliki