Childhood in Ancient Athens

Lesley A. Beaumont is Associate Professor of Classical Archaeology in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sydney, and was formerly the Assistant Director of the British School at Athens.

• Part 1: Introduction, definitions and methodology 1. Framing the Context 2. Athenian Definitions of Children & Childhood, and the Iconography of Age Part 2: The Juvenile Life Course 3. Birth & Infancy 4. The Developing Child 5. Conclusion

"In this book [Beaumont] turns her attention to mortal children, using Athens’s rich visual culture to understand childhood in its socio-historical context. Beaumont’s work is an important contribution to the field of ancient childhood and is notable for its broad scope and the way she brings together the iconography with the historical and archaeological evidence. The book also contains a large number of high-quality black and white images that supplement the text well.... an authoritative and comprehensive book on Athenian iconography as evidence of the perceptions of childhood and experiences of children." - Katherine V. Huntley, Bryn Mawr Classical Review"Beaumont’s approach, dealing not merely with representations of children but drawing on archaeological and literary evidence, succeeds in producing a comprehensive study of the perception of children in Classical Athenian art...this authoritative account will surely become a standard work of reference, and Beaumont’s proposed study of adolescents in ancient Athens is awaited with great interest." - Georgina Muskett, Childhood in the Past: An International Journal "Lesley Beaumont’s book examines "the iconography of childhood from birth through the whole prepubertal. phase of life as presented by Athenian two- and three-dimensional figured art produced between the late seventh and the late fourth century B.C." (207)… furnished with 120 illustrations and generous references to both ancient literary evidence and modern scholarship, it will immediately become a standard starting-point for discussions of the artistic representation of Athenian children." – Mark Golden, Phoenix"The book is a fine example of a multidisciplinary approach to ancient childhood." - Samna Joska, Arctos