Missing mothers : Maternal absence in Antiquity : [international and interdisciplinary conference, Basel, Switzerland, May 2016

The last forty years of research have cast new light on the lives of ancient Mediterranean women in the penumbra of our patriarchal sources, including the pervasive risks they faced in becoming mothers. Current demographic models suggest that perhaps as many as one in five children would have lost their mothers by age ten. The inescapable conclusion is that the absence of ancient mothers is not merely an artifact of bias in our sources, but also a fundamental condition of antiquity, with profound implications for ancient family life and the experience of childhood. 'Missing Mothers: Maternal Absence in Antiquity' is the first volume dedicated to studying mother absence as an integrated phenomenon in the ancient Mediterranean, from its obvious manifestation as total absence in the wake of maternal death, to the partial absences of maternal separation brought about by economic necessity, divorce, slavery, social conventions, and occasionally choice. The fifteen essays collected here explore the gaps left by absent mothers and how individuals, families, and societies in the ancient Mediterranean conceptualized, represented, and responded to those gaps, practically, psychologically, artistically, and politically between the 5th century BCE and late antiquity Cover 1 Title Page 4 Table of Contents 8 Acknowledgements 10 1 .MOTHERLESS ANTIQUITY: AN INTRODUCTION 12 PART I. BORN MOTHERLESS 24 2. MOTHERLESS INFANCY IN THE ROMAN AND THE LATE ANCIENT WORLD 26 3. EVERY WOMAN COUNTS: RETHINKING MATERNAL MORTALITY IN THE BIOARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXT 54 PART II. GROWING UP MOTHERLESS 66 4. WAS THE ATHENIAN STATE IN THE CLASSICAL PERIOD INDIFFERENT TO MATERNAL ABSENCE? 68 5. THE RISK OF VIOLENCE TOWARDS MOTHERLESS CHILDREN IN ANCIENT GREECE 82 6. THE LAST WILL OF ALCESTIS: MOTHERLESS CHILDREN AND THEIR WIDOWED FATHERS IN GRAECO-ROMAN EGYPT 100 7. A LONG WAY FROM HOME: MOTHERLESS CHILDREN IN SLAVE SALE CONTRACTS 116 8. FACT, FICTION, AND FAMILY: STEPMOTHERS IN THE VALENTINIAN-THEODOSIAN DYNASTY 138 PART III. MINDING THE GAP: REPRESENTING MOTHER ABSENCE 152 9. ABSENT MOTHERS BY CHOICE: UPPER CLASS WOMEN IN CLASSICAL ATTIC VASE PAINTING 154 10. MOTHERLY ABSENCE IN EURIPIDES’ FAMILY REUNION PLAYS 178 11. MATERNAL ABSENCE AND HEROIC IDENTITY IN VIRGIL’S AENEID 198 12. MISSING MOTHERHOOD: ENVISIONING THE CHILDLESS EMPRESS OF THE TRAJANIC-HADRIANIC ERA 220 PART IV. FILLING THE VOID: MOTHER ABSENCE AND MEMORY 246 13. MOSES: MOTHERLESS WITH TWO MOTHERS 248 14. ASCETIC ABSENTEES: LATE ANCIENT READING STRATEGIES IN PURSUIT OF THE MATERNAL IDEAL 262 15. TOPOGRAPHIES OF MOTHER LOSS AND MOTHER ABSENCE IN LATE ANTIQUE PALESTINE: A VIEW FROM RABBINIC AND LITURGICAL SOURCES 278 BIBLIOGRAPHY 298 ABOUT THE EDITORS 332 THE CONTRIBUTORS 334 INDEX OF TEXTS CITED 338 GENERAL INDEX 354 Interdisciplinary Studies in Ancient Culture and Religion 360