Girls and Women in Classical Greek Religion

It has often been thought that participation in fertility rituals was women's most important religious activity in classical Greece. Matthew Dillon's wide-ranging study makes it clear that women engaged in numerous other rites and cults, and that their role in Greek religion was actually more important than that of men.Women invoked the gods' help in becoming pregnant, venerated the god of wine, worshipped new and exotic deities, used magic for both erotic and pain-relieving purposes, and far more besides. While traditional scholarship has seen such involvement in religion as escapist, Dillon's skillful presentation of the evidence proves that this denigrates women's religiosity and the real importance they attached to their relationship with the divine.Clear, coherent and comprehensive, this volume challenges many stereotypes of Greek women and offers unexpected insights into their experience of religion. With more than fifty illustrations, and translated extracts from contemporary texts, this is an essential resource for the study of women and religion in classical Greece. It has often been thought that participation in fertility rituals was women's most important religious activity in classical Greece. Matthew Dillon's wide-ranging study makes it clear that women engaged in numerous other rites and cults, and that their role in Greek religion was actually more important than that of men. Women invoked the gods' help in becoming pregnant, venerated the god of wine, worshipped new and exotic deities, used magic for both erotic and pain-relieving purposes, and far more besides. Clear and comprehensive, this volume challenges many stereotypes of Greek women and offers unexpected insights into their experience of religion. With more than fifty illustrations, and translated extracts from contemporary texts, this is an essential resource for the study of women and religion in classical Greece. It has often been thought that participation in fertility rituals was women's most important religious activity in classical Greece. Matthew Dillon's wide-ranging study makes it clear that women engaged in numerous other rites and cults, and that their role in Greek religion was actually more important than that of men. Women invoked the gods' help in becoming pregnant, venerated the god of wine, worshipped new and exotic deities, used magic for both erotic and pain-relieving purposes, and far more besides. Clear and comprehensive, this volume challenges many stereotypes of Greek women and offers unexpected insights into their experience of religion. With more than fifty illustrations, and translated extracts from contemporary texts, this is an essential resource for the study of women and religion in classical Greece. It has often been thought that participation in fertility rituals was women's most important religious activity in classical Greece. Matthew Dillon's wide-ranging study makes it clear that women engaged in numerous other rites and cults, and that their role in Greek religion was actually more important than that of men. Women invoked the gods' help in becoming pregnant, venerated the god of wine, worshipped new and exotic deities, used magic for both erotic and pain-relieving purposes, and far more besides. While traditional scholarship has seen such involvement in religion as escapist, Dillon's skilful presentation of the evidence proves that this denigrates women's religiosity and the real importance they attached to their relationship with the divine. Clear, coherent and comprehensive, this volume challenges many stereotypes of Greek women and offers unexpected insights into their experience of religion. With more than fifty illustrations, and translated extracts from contemporary texts, this is an essential resource for the study of women and religion in classical Greece. ... A work of considerable scholarship, and one on which the author is to be congratulated.' - Minerva It has often been thought that participation in fertility rituals was women's most important religious activity in classical Greece. Matthew Dillon's wide-ranging study makes it clear that women engaged in numerous other rites and cults, and that their role in Greek religion was actually more important than that of men. Women invoked the gods' help in becoming pregnant, venerated the god of wine, worshipped new and exotic deities, used magic for both erotic and pain-relieving purposes, and far more besides. While traditional scholarship has seen such involvement in religion as escapist, Dillon's skillful presentation of the evidence proves that this denigrates women's religiosity and the real importance they attached to their relationship with the divine. Clear, coherent and comprehensive, this volume challenges many stereotypes of Greek women and offers unexpected insights into their experience of religion

It has often been thought that participation in fertility rituals was women's most important religious activity in classical Greece. Matthew Dillon's wide-ranging study makes it clear that women engaged in numerous other rites and cults, and that their role in Greek religion was actually more important than that of men. Women invoked the gods' help in becoming pregnant, venerated the god of wine, worshipped new and exotic deities, used magic for both erotic and pain-relieving purposes, and far more besides.
Clear and comprehensive, this volume challenges many stereotypes of Greek women and offers unexpected insights into their experience of religion. With more than fifty illustrations, and translated extracts from contemporary texts, this is an essential resource for the study of women and religion in classical Greece.

Humanities Book Cover 1 Title 4 Contents 5 List of illustrations 8 Preface 11 Introduction 12 Public religious roles for girls and women 18 Women as dedicators 20 The public religious roles of girls and adolescent women in Athens 48 Women priests 84 Segregated and ecstatic religious rites 118 Women-only festivals 120 Women at the margins of Greek religion 150 Prostitutes, foreign women and the gods 194 Sacrificial and domestic rituals 220 From adolescent girl to woman, wife and mother 222 Women, sacrifice and impurity 247 Women and the corpse: mourning rituals 279 Epilogue 304 Notes 312 Glossary 380 Abbreviations 383 Bibliography 391 Index 414