Engendering the Future: Divination and the Construction of Gender in the Late Roman Republic (Potsdamer Altertumswissenschaftliche Beitrage)

"Chris Mowat brings together understandings of divinatory traditions and of gender in the Late Roman Republic to consider how each influenced the performative nature of the other. The identity of the divinatory actor(s) is an important element that plays a part in confirming the correctness of interpretations, and as such gender is an important aspect in understanding divination within Roman religious traditions. Beginning with Cicero's On Divination, Mowat's reading shows how gender is axiomatic to - but never explicit in - the opposing viewpoints presented. Four extended case studies follow, each focusing on a specific divinatory tradition: the Sibylline Books, as written prophetic guides for the State; the portentous nature of the birth of an intersex child under the Republic, and the ritual response it garnered; the sacrificial specialism of individual diviners, specifically through the story of a woman named Martha; and, finally, the construction of prophetic dreaming in the Roman Republic. Together, these studies demonstrate how the performativity of gender informed, but was also informed by, the performativity of divination in the Roman world, in a reciprocal and inseparable relationship"--Back cover Acknowledgements Table of contents List of tables Note on the texts Chapter One: Introduction 1.1 Engendering the Future 1.2 Divining Definitions 1.3 Sex, Bodies and Beyond 1.4 The Performing Arts 1.5 Fabia 1.6 The Structure of This Book Chapter Two: Marcus 2.1 Arguing with Oneself 2.2 Women as Diviners I: The World According to Quintus 2.3 Women as Diviners II: The World According to Marcus 2.4 Making an Example of Cassandra 2.5 Cicero and the Pythia – a Deceptive Construction? 2.6 Nothing but an Old Wives’ Tale? 2.7 Women as Diviners III: The World According to Cicero Chapter Three: Sibyl(s) 3.1 Lost in a Book 3.2 Death of the Sibyl 3.3 The Creation of a Sibyl 3.4 The ‘I’ in Sibyl 3.5 Whose Line Is It, Anyway? 3.6 Sex and the Sibyl 3.7 Aeneas’ Adventures Underground 3.8 What’s in a Name? Chapter Four: Callo/n 4.1 A Tale of Two Sexes 4.2 It’s All Part of the Process 4.3 One Is Not Born a Woman 4.4 Gender Troubles 4.5 Crimen Punishment 4.6 How to Get Away with Murder 4.7 One Hundred Years of Intersexuality 4.8 Bodies That Matter? Chapter Five: Martha 5.1 Beyond Official Priesthoods 5.2 Why Is Martha a Woman? 5.3 Free Movement of Peoples 5.4 Acceptably Foreign 5.5 You Can’t Handle the Truth 5.6 Mulier Necans 5.7 Well, That’s Just (Stereo)typical Chapter Six: Calpurnia 6.1 Calpurnia and the Disruption of the Roman State 6.2 Interpreting Structures 6.3 Dreams as Prodigies 6.4 Putting Calpurnia Back in the Picture 6.5 Comparing Calpurnia I: Lucan’s Tragical Dreamers 6.6 Comparing Calpurnia II: Share and Share Alike 6.7 Comparing Calpurnia III: Cicero’s Concession 6.8 The Personal Is Political Chapter Seven: Fabia, or: a conclusion Bibliography Subject index Index locorum