Women
in the Ancient World
Interdisciplinary Studies 352/Women’s Studies 352
Professors Nancy Ruff and Allison Thomason
Office: 0214 Peck 2336 Peck Hall
Phone: 650-3649 650-3685
Email: nruff@siue.edu althoma@siue.edu
Office Hours:
Description: In this course we will study the history, representation, literature, social lives, and political roles of women in the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Biblical World, Greece, and Rome. We will integrate methodology from history, art history and archaeology, literary studies, and women’s studies to analyze the documents, artifacts, and literature produced by, for and about women in these important pre-Classical and Classical civilizations. We will not only study the lives of individual “famous” ancient women such as Nefertiti, Cleopatra, Sappho and Livia, but also the accomplishments, treatments and roles of women as a social group within each ancient civilization. We will also seek themes of similarity and difference in the lives of ancient women across cultures and time.
Objectives: We hope that in the course of the semester you will:
1. Achieve an understanding of many important non-Western civilizations.
2. Be introduced to the representation and activities of women who lived during the formative phases of Western Civilization.
3. Become familiar with a variety of different methodologies, sources, and ways of approaching women in the ancient world and be able to compare and contrast the different approaches.
4. Develop critical thinking, oral, and written skills in the progress of class discussions, thoughtful essay assignments and journal entries.
5. Cultivate self-awareness and interest in other cultures as you consider how similar events and issues that faced women in the ancient world continue to confront women around our contemporary world.
Required Readings:
1) Women in the Classical World, eds. Fantham, Foley, Kampen, Pomeroy and Shapiro, Oxford, 1994. Textbook Rental
2) Norton Anthology of World Literature, volume 1, 7th edition. Textbook Rental
3) Women in Ancient Egypt, Robins, G., Harvard, 1993. Purchase at University Bookstore
4) Women and the Lyre, Schneider, SIU Press, 1989. Purchase at University Bookstore
5) Various required articles and ancient texts in the course packet (that will be handed out in class).
6) Various ancient texts published on Perseus internet website: www.perseus.tufts.edu
7) Recommended: a very helpful website with much additional information and bibliography, especially for Greece and Rome: DIOTIMA: www.stoa.org/diotima
Grading:
Journals, attendance, and participation 20%
2 Written Assignments (20% each) 40%
Midterm 15%
TOTAL 100%
Journal: Students will keep “Response Journals” in which they record their responses to lectures, class discussions, and readings regularly each week. We will check the journals at random points in the semester to see that you are writing in them and to see what readings and issues that particularly invoked a response in you. While you need not write perfectly composed treatises and essays, we would like you to demonstrate thoughtful and critical thinking as you progress through the course and the readings. Our “Pop” checks of your journals will also be our way of taking attendance. Your will also hand the journals into us at the end of the course so that we can assess your reception of the course.
REMEMBER to BRING YOUR JOURNALS to CLASS
Papers: You will be asked to write two 5-page papers (typed, double-spaced, 1 inch margins) based on questions that will be handed out during the semester. These papers will be concerned with the course topics and readings and will require critical analysis, organization, proper grammar, and careful editing.
Midterm and Final: Exams will include both short answer and essay questions based on readings, websites, and lectures. Exams will cover material from both readings and lectures. Much of the information from lectures will NOT be found in the course readings, therefore it is essential that you come to class and take good notes.
Make-Up Exam and Late Paper Policy:
Make-up exams will only be given in cases of unforeseen medical or family emergencies. You will need to contact one of us prior to the exam time if you would like to be excused from an exam, and a make-up may or may not be granted, at our discretion. Make-up exams must be taken within one week of the original exam date and the exam time will be scheduled at our discretion (in consultation with you). If you do not show up for an exam and we did not excuse you ahead of time, you will receive a zero (0) on that part of your grade. Late papers will be downgraded a half a letter grade per day.
Attendance, Lateness, and Conduct in Class:
Your classroom is an environment of mutual respect of your fellow students and your professors. In order to ensure this environment, we ask that you attend all classes, come to class on time and stay for the entire class, and generally show consideration for the educational experience of others. We will determine your attendance grade through “Pop” checks of your “Response Journals”, so remember to always bring them to class.
Plagiarism and Use of Internet: Plagiarism is the use of someone else's writing without giving credit to that individual. Plagiarism can take several forms. It can consist of paraphrase or word-by-word transcription; the uncited source can be a published work, from a website or discussion group on the internet, or the unpublished work of another student or acquaintance. It is every student's responsibility to know what plagiarism is and to avoid committing it. If you are in doubt, it is better to document a source than not to. The penalty for this offense, which is quite serious, is outlined in the SIUE Undergraduate Catalog 1999-2001, p. 217. Also see The Student's Handbook.
Class Schedule:
Note: class topics may change with our pace, but assignment due dates and exam dates will always remain the same.
Week 1: Mon., Jan. 7 Orientation and introduction to disciplinary methods
Wed. Jan. 9 How to study women and tenets of Women’s Studies
Readings: Robins, G. Women in Ancient Egypt, pp. 1-20
Gero and Conkey, “Tensions, Pluralities and Engendering
Archaeology” in Gero and Conkey, eds. Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory, Oxford, 1991: 3-30. (Course Packet)
Weeks 2: Mon. Jan. 14 Brief Overview of Mesopotamian history and culture
Readings: Descent of Inanna/Ishtar into the Underworld (Course Packet)
Wed. Jan. 16 Religion and Poetry
Readings: Akkadian Love Poetry (Foster, From Distant Days, CDL, 1995: 331-351. (Course Packet)
Week 3: Mon. Jan. 21 NO CLASS, Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. Holiday
Wed. Jan. 23 Women in the Mesopotamian world: social and legal aspects
Readings: Hammurabi’s Code (Course Packet)
Harris, R. “Independent Women in Ancient Mesopotamia?” in
Women’s Earliest Records, pp. 145-156 (Course Packet)
Week 4: Mon.. Jan. 28 Brief overview of Egyptian history and culture
Readings: Robins, G., Women in Ancient Egypt: pp. 7-21 and 56-141
Wed. Jan. 30 Women in myth, society and art
Readings: Love Poetry
(Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature,
Vol. II,
Univ. of California, 1976: 181-193 (Course Packet)
Excerpt from Egyptian Myths (Course Packet)
Week 5: Mon. Feb. 4 Influential Women in Egypt
Assignment #1 Due Today (Monday)
Wed. Feb. 6 Film and discussion: “Cleopatra” with Liz Taylor
Readings: Robins, G. Women in Ancient Egypt: pp. 21-55
Pomeroy, “Cleopatra “ in Goddesses, Wives….: 185-189 (Course Packet)
Plutarch, “Marc Antony”, in Parallel Lives (Course Packet)
Week 6 Mon. Feb. 11 Women in the Old Testament
Readings: Eve: Gen 2:15-3:22; Sarah and Hagar: Gen 16; Book of Ruth; Samson
and Delilah: Judges 14-16 (Course Packet)
Wed. Feb. 13 Midterm Exam
Week 7: Mon. Feb. 18 Brief overview of Greek history and Homer
Readings: Selections from Iliad and the Odyssey (Norton Anthology:___)
Wed. Feb. 20 Sappho and Sparta
Readings: Selections from Sappho (Women and the Lyre: 1-37)
Simonides’ “On Women” (Course Packet)
“Spartan Women” (Women in the Classical World, pp. 56-67)
Week 8: Mon. Feb. 25 Women in the Greek World: Classical period
Readings: “Women in Classical Athens” (Women in the Classical World: 68-115 )
Wed. Feb. 27 Classical Drama and its place in Greek Culture
Readings: Aristophanes’ Lysistrata (Norton Anthology)
Week 9: Mon. Mar. 4 Women in the Hellenistic World
Readings: “The Hellenistic Period: Women in a Cosmopolitan World”
(Women in the Classical World, pp. 136-182)
Aramaic Papyri from Elephantine: marriage contracts
(Course Packet)
Wed. Mar. 6 Hellenistic Romance
Readings: __________________ (Course Packet)
Week 10: SPRING BREAK
Week 11: Mon. Mar. 18 Brief overview of Roman history and culture
Readings: “Women, Family, and Sexuality in the Age of Augustus and the
Julio-Claudians” (Women in the Classical World, pp. 294-329)
Wed. Mar. 20 Women in Roman myth and satire
Readings: Ovid, Selections from Metamorphoses (Course Packet)
Virgil, Selections from the Aeneid (Norton Anthology: 817-867)
Assignment #2 Due Today (Wednesday)
Week 12: Mon. Mar. 25: Body and Sexuality: approaches
Readings: Winter, I. “Sex, Rhetoric and the Public Monument: The Alluring
Body of Naram-Sin of Agade” in Sexuality in Ancient Art, 11-25 (Course Packet)
Dean-Jones,
L. “Medicine: The ‘Proof’ of Anatomy” (Women
in
the Classical World, pp. 183-205)
Wed. Mar. 27: Body and sexuality in literature and art
Readings: Livy, Rape of Lucretia, (Course Packet)
Ovid’s, excerpts from Metamorphoses (Norton Anthology: ___)
“Portrayals of Abduction in Greek
Art: Rape or Metaphor?” in
Sexuality in Ancient Art, pp. 117-135 (Course Packet)
Week 13: Mon. Apr. 1 Women in Religion: priestesses and prostitutes
Readings: “L’Amour Libre (Free Love) or Sacred Prostitution?” in Leick,
1990, pp. 147-57 (Course Packet)
Wed. Apr. 3 Women in Religion: Greek myth and Roman practice
Readings: Hesiod, Selections from Theogony (Perseus website or handout)
Pomeroy, “The
Role of Women in the Religion of the Romans”, in
Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, pp. 205-226 (Course Packet)
Week 14. Mon. Apr. 8 Women and Power: history
Readings: Hatchepsut (Oxford History of Ancient Egypt: 237-243
(Course Packet)
Kampen, “Between Public and Private: Women as
Historical Subjects in Roman Art”, Women’s History and Ancient History, Chapel Hill, 1991: (Course Packet)
Wed. Apr. 10 Women and power in literature
Readings: “Amazons: Women in Control” (Women in the Classical World,
pp. 128-135)
Kampen, “Omphale and the Instability of Gender” (Course Packet)
Ovid, “The Myth of Omphale and Hercules” (website: _________)
Week 15, Apr. 22-26: Review and Summary
Journals Due
Week 16 Thursday,
May 2, 12:00-1:40 pm Final Exam