Women and Society in Greek and Roman Egypt
A Sourcebook

Jane Rowlandson (Edited by)

9780521588157, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 November 1998

432 pages, 68 b/w illus. 3 maps
22.8 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.7 kg

'… bridges the linguistic differences between the disciplines of Egyptology and papyrology and makes the rich textual sources for Greek and Roman Egypt available to a wider audience of scholars and students alike … valuable … a concise, helpful overview of technicalities … Rowlandson and her collaborators are to be commended for this sound and readable volume, which will repay the reader who consults it for specific material, reads it straight through, or dips into it at will for a taste of Greek and Roman Egypt.' Journal of Egyptian Archaeology

The period of Egyptian history from its rule by the Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty to its incorporation into the Roman and Byzantine empires has left a wealth of evidence for the lives of ordinary men and women. Texts (often personal letters) written on papyrus and other materials, objects of everyday use and funerary portraits have survived from the Graeco-Roman period of Egyptian history. But much of this unparalleled resource has been available only to specialists because of the difficulty of reading and interpreting it. Now eleven leading scholars in this field have collaborated to make available to students and other non-specialists a selection of over three hundred texts translated from Greek and Egyptian, as well as more than fifty illustrations, documenting the lives of women within this society, from queens to priestesses, property-owners to slave-girls, from birth through motherhood to death. Each item is accompanied by full explanatory notes and bibliographical references.

1. Introduction
2. Royalty and religion
3. Family matters
4. Status and law
5. Economic activities
6. Being female.

Subject Areas: Gender studies: women [JFSJ1], Cultural studies [JFC], Social & cultural history [HBTB], General & world history [HBG]