Daughters of Gaia

Bella Vivante received her PhD in Classics from Stanford University. Her research examines women's roles in ancient Greek drama, poetry, religion, and society, exploring recently how the complex figure of Helen, as goddess and mortal, crystallizes views of women's cultural roles. Feminist, anthropological, religious, and multi-cultural theoretical perspectives shape her research. In particular, from her extended contact with Native American peoples and learning indigenous concepts of women's identities that differ radically from western views, Dr. Vivante has crafted new models for viewing women's roles in the ancient world.

• Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations Timelines Introduction 1. Ancient Goddesses—The Primacy of Female Divinity 2. Sanctifying Women's Lives—Ancient Women's Rituals 3. A Woman's Life in Ancient Cultures 4. Health and Medicine 5. From Home to Market—The Economic Bases of Women's Lives 6. From Matrons to Female Kings—Women Who Ruled from Home and from the Throne 7. Women and War—Symbol, Object, and Warrior 8. In Her Own Voice 1—Women's Philosophical Writings 9. In Her Own Voice 2—Women's Poetry Epilogue Glossary Notes Further Readings Index

American scholar of classics Vivante explores the divine figures and the actual women who embodied the various transmutations of the concepts of femaleness in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome across four millennia. She considers such aspects as women's rituals, health and medicine, the economic bases of women's lives, women who ruled, war, and women's philosophical writings and poetry.