The Routledge Companion to Women and Monarchy in the Ancient Mediterranean World

Cover
Half Title
Endorsement
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of contents
Figures
Table
Contributors
Part I Women and monarchy in the ancient Mediterranean
1 Introduction to thinking about women and monarchy in the ancient world
Part II Egypt and the Nile Valley
2 The king’s mother in the Old and Middle Kingdoms
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
3 Regnant women in Egypt
Cultural context and sources
The terminology and scope of this chapter
Current state of research
Examples of (co-)regnant women in ancient Egypt
Dynasty 1: Neithhotep and Meretneith
Dynasties 4–5: the king’s mother Khentkaus and an unknown king’s wife
Dynasty 6: Nitokris
Dynasty 12: Neferusobek (or Sobeknofru, Skemiophris)
Dynasties 17–18: Tetisheri and Ahmes-Nefertari
Dynasty 18: Hatshepsut
Late Dynasty 18: Tiy and Nefertiti
Dynasty 19: Nefertari and Tawosret
Powerful royal women after the late New Kingdom
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
4 The image of Nefertiti
Introduction to the image of Nefertiti
Thebes, the early years
The queen in the new capital
The aftermath
An alternative ending?
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
5 The God’s Wife of Amun: Origins and rise to power
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
6 The role and status of royal women in Kush
Introduction
Sources
Archaeological sources
Pictorial presentations
(Egyptian) texts
Classical authors
Appearance in textual and visual representations
Names and titles
Costume
The functions of the royal women in the Kushite kingdom
Roles in cultic actions
Roles in succession and coronation
Roles in the ideology of kingship
Ruling queens
Final remarks
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
7 Ptolemaic royal women
Introduction
The valorization of the royal conjugal couple
Royal partnership in political matters and joint rules
The dynastic cult and the representation of the rulers in Egyptian temples
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
8 Berenike II
Introduction
Berenike’s early years
Berenike as a Ptolemaic basilissa
Poetic images of Berenike II
Regency and co-rule?
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
9 Royal women and Ptolemaic cults
Arsinoë II – the religious role model of the deified basilissa
Arsinoë – a new Greek goddess in Alexandria and beyond
Arsinoë: becoming an Egyptian goddess
Berenike II – the political role model of Ptolemaic female pharaohs
The Kleopatras
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
10 Ptolemaic women’s patronage of the arts
Ptolemaic patronage: gendered strategies of representation
Berenike I
Arsinoë II and Berenike II
Arsinoë III
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
11 The Kleopatra problem: Roman sources and a female Ptolemaic ruler
Introduction
Kleopatra and Caesar
In Rome
Back in Alexandria
Kleopatra and Mark Antony
The eastern “land grants”
The Parthian Campaign
Celebrating the Armenian victory
The war against Octavian
The battle of Actium
Showdown in Egypt
Suicide
Conclusions
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Part III The ancient Near East
12 Invisible Mesopotamian royal women?
Mesopotamian textual evidence
Terminology
Heavenly queens
Ninsun—the loving mother
Inanna/Ishtar—the dangerous lover
Earthly queens
Ku-Baba of Kish
Enheduanna
Sammu-ramat
Naqi'a
Adad-guppi
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
13 Achaimenid women
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
14 Karian royal women and the creation of a royal identity
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
15 Seleukid women
Introduction
Apama, Seleukos I, and their progeny
Stratonike and Antiochos I
The clan of Achaios
Laodike (2), Antiochos II Theos, and Berenike Phernophoros
Split in the dynasty—the families of Seleukos II and Antiochos Hierax
Laodike (5), Antiochos III, and their progeny
Laodike (6) and (7): from Seleukos IV to Demetrios I (187–150)
Kleopatra Thea and her royal consorts (150–121)
The epilogue—in the shadow of Kleopatra Tryphaina and Selene
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
16 Apama and Stratonike: The first Seleukid basilissai
Royal titles
Early usages
The title’s benefits
The basilissa’s duties?
Apama and Stratonike’s legacy
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
17 Seleukid marriage alliances
Antiochos I and Stratonike I
Antiochos II and Laodike I
Antiochos III and Laodike III
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
18 Royal mothers and dynastic power in Attalid Pergamon
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
19 Hasmonean women
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
20 Women at the Arsakid court
Introduction
Titles and ranks of Arsakid royal women and hierarchies at court
Political influence of Arsakid royal women
Mousa: an example of political influence?
Arsakid marriage policy
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
21 Women of the Sassanid dynasty (224–651 CE)
Introduction
The sources
The women of the early days of the dynasty
Women of the fourth and fifth centuries
The women of the Late Sassanian Period
Conclusion: the position and scope of action of women of the Sassanid royal house
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
22 Zenobia of Palmyra
Introduction
The events: a summary
Zenobia in context
Zenobia and the women of Palmyra
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Part IV Greece and Macedonia
23 “Royal” women in the Homeric epics
Homeric epics and Homeric society
Before marriage: Polykaste and Nausikaa
Inverted cases? Eumaios and Eurykleia
Marriage: paternal decisions, marital presents, dowries
Maturity: four literary heroines
Conglomerate identities: Helena
A background for Penelope: Klytaimnestra
Outweighing the “king”: Arete
Managing crisis from the rear: Penelope
Inside the seraglio: Trojan women
Conclusion: no consistent sociology
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
24 Royal women in Greek tragedy
Introduction
Royal women in relation to the ruling authorities
Monarchial heroines with executive power
Monarchial heroines overthrowing executive power
Monarchial heroines defying executive power
Royal heroines challenging and deceiving the ruling authorities
“Good wives” who make their stands against ruling authorities—who are also their husbands: Deianeira, Kreusa, Phaidra, ...
The supreme woman—Helen’s femininity versus ruling authorities
Monarchial women fulfilling women’s traditional roles
Motherhood
Lamenting the dead
Relations with the gods
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
25 Argead women
Introduction
The sources
Missing titles, significant names
Succession advocacy and polygamy
Historical developments
Argead women and war
Argead widows
Conclusions
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
26 Women in Antigonid monarchy
Introduction
The Antigonids before Demetrios Poliorketes’ loss of Macedonia in 288
Reconstituted Antigonid rule, based in Macedonia
The growth of royal monogamy and the narrow presentation of Antigonid monarchy
Basilissa and the ranking of royal wives
Antigonid marriage alliances
Wedding festivals
Cults and royal women
Euergetism and piety
The sources and their significance
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Part V Commonalities
27 Transitional royal women: Kleopatra, sister of Alexander the Great, Adea Eurydike, and Phila
Introduction
Kleopatra
Adea Eurydike
Phila
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
28 Women and dynasty at the Hellenistic imperial courts
Introduction
Royal women and dynastic succession
Dynastic marriage
Royal women as power brokers
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
29 Royal brother–sister marriage, Ptolemaic and otherwise
Royal brother–sister marriage: appendix
Royal Hellenistic marriages closer than first cousin
The Argeads
The Ptolemies
The Seleukids
The Antigonids
Epiros
Pontos
Kommagene
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
30 Jugate images in Ptolemaic and Julio-Claudian monarchy
Introduction
Sibling gods and mother-loving kings
From Mark Antony to the Julio-Claudians
Conclusions
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Part VI Rome
31 Octavia Minor and patronage
Introduction
Biographical sketch
Patronage
Books
Coins
Portraits
Portico
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
32 Livia and the principate of Augustus and Tiberius
Conclusions
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
33 Julio-Claudian imperial women
Introduction
Julia the Elder and Julia the Younger
Agrippina the Elder
Claudia Livia Julia
Valeria Messalina
Agrippina the Younger
Conclusions
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
34 The imperial women from the Flavians to the Severi
Introduction
Lucilla and Lucius Verus: a question of benefits
Succession and a lack of sons
Marriage policy and dynastic order
Imperial women’s honors as part of political communication
Autonomous actions and political networks
Conclusions: imperial women and patriarchal power
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
35 Portraiture of Flavian imperial women
Female portraits for “monarchs”—evidence and methods
Portraits and dynasty: between family resemblance and Julio-Claudian model
Portraits and exemplary womanhood
Portraits and pomp
Portraits and divinity
Conclusion
Illustrations
Abbreviations
36 The Faustinas
Introduction
The family of Faustina Maior
The succession arrangements of Hadrian and the role of the Faustinas
Faustina Maior as empress and her early death
The good marriage and the construction of a dynasty
Faustina Minor: the multiple mother
Mater castrorum
Faustina Minor as mother of Commodus
The rebellion of Avidius Cassius
The death of Faustina Minor
Conclusions
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
37 Women in the Severan dynasty
Introduction
Dawn of the dynasty: Julia Domna and the early reign of Severus
The last years of Severus and the reign of Caracalla
The dynasty strikes back: Elagabalus and the Syrian Augustae
Severus Alexander and the rule of mamma
Conclusions
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
38 Women in the family of Constantine
Dynastic potential (the prelude)
Sisters, a bargaining chip
The two Augustae, Fausta and Helena
Constantina and Helena (the Younger)
Eusebia (the aftermath)
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Part VII Reception from antiquity to present times
39 Semiramis: Perception and presentation of female power in an Oriental garb
Introduction
Semiramis in the classical sources
Aspects of female power
Ruling an empire and building monuments
Leading an army
Preliminary results on aspects of female power in the public space
Female power in the social space
An Assyrian queen and “mundus muliebris”
Semiramis under moral judgment—motherhood, promiscuity and stereotypes
Conclusion
Notes
Abbreviations
Ancient sources
40 Tanaquil and Tullia in Livy as Roman caricatures of Greek mythic and historic Hellenistic queens
Introduction
Livy’s Tanaquil, Sophokles’ Iokaste and Plutarch’s Olympias
Livy’s Tullia, Klytaimnestra and Kleopatra
A more complex Tanaquil: the evidence of other Roman and Greek authors
Vergil’s Dido, Greek mythic and historical queens, and Livy’s Tanaquil
Foreshadowing Julio-Claudian women
Conclusions
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
41 Roman empresses on screen: An epic failure?
Introductory remarks
Livia—founding mother of the dynasty or serial killer?
Poppaea—the wickedest woman in the world?
A change of gender roles in late antiquity?
Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Index