Each student will be required to develop a project for the course. This may take the form of a web page (like this one), a PowerPoint Presentation, or a written research paper.  Here are links to tutorials on the Wesleyan University Library site for creating web pages with Microsoft FrontPage, or PowerPoint Presentations with PowerPoint 2000.  (See also Research Sources by Subject [Classical Studies] on the Olin site.)

Start reviewing the topics on this page after the first class meeting; report on your choice of topic in class on 29 January. As you review the topics, check out these links to the Home Pages of Perseus and Diotima and begin to familiarize yourself with these sites.

You should begin researching your topic as soon as it is chosen (by January 29), and before starting work on your Web Site. Each of the topics is broad, and you will need to do considerable research before narrowing down the issues you want to discuss and the images you want to use.

I have also posted a sampling of some Web Sites you might want to consult or use for your papers. Visit these at cciv243.urls.

The suggestions for secondary reading represent only a small sampling of the materials you might wish to consult: you will find many more references to many more sources once you begin constructing a bibliography. As soon as you have a preliminary bibliography together, you should send me a copy of it through email so that I can comment on it and, especially, suggest which items are likely to be useful and which look more like dead ends.

Your first step in researching your topic should be to read the relevant sections in Blundell, Women in Ancient Greece, Fantham et al., ed., Women in the Classical World, and Reeder, Pandora. These texts will help to orient you in your topic and give you an overview of it. All texts are on 4 hour reserve in Olin; and all include relatively recent bibliographies of material in English.

Your second step in researching your topic should be to check out the primary and secondary sources listed below under each topic. All of these materials are on reserve in Olin.

Your next step in researching your topic should be to do searches on Perseus and Diotima, to turn up bibliography and other resources. Many of the references you find will be to articles and/or books which are already on reserve for the course in Olin. These are mostly on 24-hour reserve, so that you can take the materials out and do whatever copying or scanning you need.

On Perseus, start by using the search function:

Enter a term such as "athena" and press the "search" button:

This will yield 1386 results in five categories (far more than you want!).  This is what the top of the page will look like--the five categories are listed in the box on the right titled "Results Summary (items)".

For your purposes, you will find it most useful to link to or scroll down to the section called "Reference Articles."  You can expland the listing by clicking on the "more arrow":

which will then expand and become a "less" arrow:

The items that will be most useful for preliminary exploration are contained in either the Perseus Encylopedia or in Harry Thurston Peck, Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities.  In the above list, for example, you would want to click on items 4 "Athene" (the reference article on Athena in the Perseus Encylopedia) and 6 "Athene" (the reference article in Peck).

You can use the site for image research by going to the "Art Objects" or "Images" categories, and explore these either by clicking the "More" arrow or by browing the images themselves by clicking on the "Thumnails" button.

On Diotima, start by using the Bibliography, and follow the links to topics for Greece; alternatively, you can go directly to Diotima's search program. For example, searching Hesiod will give you many bibliographic references to both the Theogony and Works and Days. You can proceed from there to investigate the items that look promising to you.

On the Internet Resources for Classics site, you'll find a great variety of links (some of them, unfortunately, dead) to various resources of various kinds.

For images not on the WWW, and for reviewing illustrations generally, consult: Reeder, Pandora (Princeton, 1995); Lissarague, "Figures of Women," in Schmitt Pantel, ed., History of Women v.1 (Harvard, 1992); Keuls, Reign of the Phallus (Harper, 1987); Berard, City of Images. For images and for a useful introduction on how to interpret them, consult D. Williams, "Women on Athenian Vases: Problems of Interpretation," in Cameron and Kuhrt, edd., Images of Women in Antiquity (Wayne State, 1983). All of these are on reserve in Olin. 

Each of the topics is also defined around a particular text: this is to give you an "anchor" for developing your thoughts.

Beware, however, of constructing your Web page as a literary analysis: your guiding principle should be the course theme of "Women and the Polis." Thus, in working on your project, you should focus on those aspects of the topic and the text that have to do with socio-cultural practices in the ancient polis. Using what you will learn in the course about the form and history of the Greek polis, think about how your topic material was incorporated into the social, economic, legal, political or religious life of the polis.

MYTHS OF ATHENIAN ORIGINS
Description: Athenians traced their origins as Ionians back to Ion, the son of Creusa, daughter of the legendary Attic king, Erechtheus. Euripides' Ion dramatizes Creusa's and Ion's discovery of their kinship, and many vase paintings represent the Kekropidai, daughters of the legendary first king of Athens (Kekrops or Cecrops) and nurses of Erechtheus. For this topic, you should investigate the myths of Kekrops, the Kekropidai, and Erechtheus and his lineage. Include also discussion of the rituals associated with these various figures.

Primary Source: Euripides, Ion

Secondary Sources: H. A. Shapiro, "The Cult of Heroines: Kekrops' Daughters," in Reeder, Pandora (Princeton, 1995); Lefkowitz, "Women in the Festivals," in J. Neils, ed., Worshipping Athena: Panathenaia & Parthenon (Wisconsin, 1996); Zaidman, "Pandora's Daughters and Rituals in Grecian Cities," in Schmitt Pantel, ed., History of Women v.1 (Harvard, 1992); N. Loraux, "Autochthonous Creusa," in Children of Athena (Princeton, 1993); Zeitlin, "Mysteries of Identity and Designs of the Self in Euripides' Ion," in Playing the Other (Chicago, 1996)

Image: Berlin F 2537

HEROINES AND GREEK CULT
Description: Recent research has demonstrated that heroine cults were widespread throughout Greece from the archaic through the classical periods. For this topic, investigate the heroine cults of Attica, and then concentrate on the cult of Iphigenia, including her cult at Brauron in Attica. Euripides' play centers on Iphigenia's sacrifice by her father Agamemnon at Aulis, performed in obedience to a demand by the goddess Artemis.

Primary Source: Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis

Secondary Sources: J. Larson, Greek Heroine Cults (Wisconsin, 1995); D. Lyons, Gender and Immortality: Heroines in Ancient Greek Myth and Cult (Princeton, 1997); Zaidman, "Pandora's Daughters and Rituals in Grecian Cities," in Schmitt Pantel, ed., History of Women v.1 (Harvard, 1992); Vernant, Chapters 11 and 12 in Zeitlin, ed., Vernant, Mortals and Immortals (Princeton, 1991)

Image: London F 159

THE SYMPOSIUM AND HETAERAE
Description: Women of the upper classes did not normally participate in the symposium, an after-dinner gathering at which men drank wine, sang, and engaged in flirtation and sexuality with women and boys. For this topic, investigate the structure and practices of the symposium, and discuss the women who were associated with it: hetaerae or "courtesans"; include a treatment of Aspasia, the most famous of the ancient courtesans. Xenophon's treatise recreates a symposium in Athens in which Socrates and other prominent Athenians discuss the subject of love; Athenaeus' "Learned Banquet" (Deipnosophistae) was composed in 15 books around 200 CE, but includes discussion of many classical subjects, including women (in Book 13).

Primary Sources: Xenophon, Symposium; Athenaeus,

Deipnosophistae Book 13 ("Concerning Women")

Secondary Sources: Lissarague, The Aesthetics of the Greek Banquet (Princeton, 1990); M. Henry, Prisoner of History: Aspasia of Miletus and Her Biographical Tradition (Oxford, 1995)

Image: Louvre G 135

FUNERARY RITUAL
Description: Women played an important public role as mourners, and were also commonly entrusted with preparing the body for burial. For this topic, investigate ancient Greek funerary practices generally, paying particular attention to the role of women as caretakers of the dead. Euripides' play deals with the appeal of the mothers of the seven warriors who died at Thebes to Theseus, king of Athens, whose intervention they request to secure burial for their sons.

Primary Source: Euripides, Suppliant Women

Secondary Sources: Garland, The Greek Way of Death (Cornell, 1985); Kurz and Boardman, Greek Burial Customs (London, 1981); Zaidman, "Pandora's Daughters and Rituals in Grecian Cities," in Schmitt Pantel, ed., History of Women v.1 (Harvard, 1992); S. B. Pomeroy, "Death and the Family," in Families in Classical and Hellenistic Greece (Oxford, 1997)

Image: Harvard 1952.75

DEMETER, THE THESMOPHORIA AND THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES
Description: Many of ancient Greek women's religious activities were connected with the goddess Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, queen of the Underworld. Their myth is the subject of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. For this topic, investigate the principal rites of Demeter, including the Thesmophoria and the Eleusinian mysteries. Be selective in your treatment of the latter: concentrate on those aspects of the celebration which are relevant to the study of women and their social role. 

Primary Source: Homeric Hymn to Demeter

Secondary Sources: "Persephone and Demeter," in Reeder, Pandora (Princeton, 1995); Foxhall, "Women's Ritual and Men's Work in Ancient Athens," in Women in Antiquity: New Assessments , edd.Hawley and Levick (Routledge, 1995); Foley, The Homeric Hymn to Demeter (Princeton, 1993); Zaidman, "Pandora's Daughters and Rituals in Grecian Cities," in Schmitt Pantel, ed., History of Women v.1 (Harvard, 1992); Detienne, Gardens of Adonis (Princeton, 1994).

Image: RISD 25.083

MAENADS AND GREEK DRAMA
Description: Maenads, devotees of the god Dionysus, appear frequently in myth and on vases. For this topic, investigate the mythology of maenads, but concentrate on the evidence for historical maenadism, focusing in particular on the rituals with which they were associated (the Lenaia and Anthesteria). Consider also, but more briefly, the relationship among maenads, Dionysus, and the origins of the principal Greek dramatic festival, the City Dionysia. Euripides' play recreates the mythical advent of the god Dionysus into Greece, the opposition to his introduction by Pentheus,the king of Thebes, the maenadic transport of the women of Thebes, and Pentheus' eventual dismemberment at their hands.

Primary Source: Euripides, Bacchae

Secondary Sources: "Maenads," in Reeder, Pandora (Princeton, 1995); Winkler and Zeitlin, edd. Nothing to do with Dionysus (Princeton, 1990); S. McNally, "The Maenad in Early Greek Art," in Peradotto and Sullivan, edd., Women in the Ancient World (SUNY, 1984); R. Schlesier, "Mixtures of Masks: Maenads as Tragic Models, in Carpenter and Faraone, Masks of Dionysus (Cornell, 1993); Zaidman, "Pandora's Daughters and Rituals in Grecian Cities," in Schmitt Pantel, ed., History of Women v.1 (Harvard, 1992); Zeitlin, "Playing the Other," in Playing the Other (Chicago, 1996).

Image: Harvard 1925.30.42

ATHENA AND THE PANATHENAIA
Description: The Panathenaic Festival in Athens celebrated the birthday of the goddess Athena, and Athenian girls and women participated in many aspects of the festival. For this topic, investigate the overall structure of the Panathenaic festival, paying particular attention to the roles played by girls and women. Include also some discussion of the recent disputes over the interpretation of the Parthenon friezes. Hesiod's Theogony narrates the birth of the cosmos and of all of the Greek gods and goddesses; its narrative culminates in the story of Athena's birth from the head of her father Zeus.

Primary Source: Hesiod, Theogony

Secondary Sources: J. Neils, ed., Worshipping Athena: Panathenaia & Parthenon (Wisconsin, 1996); J. Neils, ed., Goddess and Polis: The Panathenaic Festival in Ancient Athens (Princeton, 1992); Zaidman, "Pandora's Daughters and Rituals in Grecian Cities," in Schmitt Pantel, ed., History of Women v.1 (Harvard, 1992).

Image: Boston 00.330

AMAZONS
Description: These legendary women warriors had a special place in Athenian political myth and ideology, since among the exploits of Theseus was his defeat of an Amazon invasion of Attica. For this topic, investigate the iconography of Amazons generally, and then focus on the stories relating to the encounter between Theseus and the Amazons in Athens, paying particular attention to the relationship between the popularity of this motif in art and literature and the Persian Wars. Plutarch's Life of Theseus describes the Amazon assault; Herodotus and the Hippocratic treatise offer two different accounts of Amazon customs.

Primary Sources: Plutarch, Life of Theseus; Herodotus, Histories IV.110-17; "Airs, Waters and Places," in Hippocratic Writings 

Secondary Sources: "Amazons," in Reeder, Pandora (Princeton, 1995); P. du Bois, Centaurs and Amazons (Michigan, 1982); W. B. Tyrrell, Amazons: A Study in Athenian Mythmaking (Johns Hopkins, 1984); D. von Bothmer, Amazons in Greek Art (Oxford, 1957); Castriota, Myth, Ethos, and Actuality: Official Art in Fifth-Century B.C. Athens (Wisconsin, 1992). 

Image: London B 323

MARRIAGE RITUAL AND THE HOUSEHOLD
Description: Marriages in ancient Greece tranferred a woman from her father's to her husband's home, and involved a betrothal, the wedding proper, and the variety of celebrations around it; the end result was the creation of a new household or oikos. For this topic, investigate the rituals having to do with marriage and then define and discuss the concept of the household in ancient Athens. Aeschylus' play deals with the daughters of the legendary hero Danaus, and their opposition to marriage with men whom they claim are their cousins.

Primary Source: Aeschylus, Suppliants

Secondary Sources: J. Oakley and R. Sinos, The Wedding in Ancient Athens (Wisconsin, 1993); D. MacDowell, "The Oikos in Athenian Law," Classical Quarterly 39 (1989) 10-21; L. Foxhall, "Household, gender and property in classical Athens," Classical Quarterly 39 (1989) 22-44; C. B. Patterson, "Marriage in Athenian Law," in Pomeroy, ed., Women's History and Ancient History (North Carolina, 1991); C. A. Cox, "What was an Oikos," in Household Interests (Princeton, 1998); S. B. Pomeroy, "Defining the Family," in Families in Classical and Hellenistic Greece (Oxford, 1997); Zeitlin, "The Politics of Eros in the Danaid Trilogy of Aeschylus," in Playing the Other (Chicago, 1996); Leduc, "Marriage in Ancient Greece," in Schmitt Pantel, ed., History of Women v.1 (Harvard, 1992).

Image: London 1920.12-21

THE BODY IN QUESTION
Description: Both Aristotle and the ancient writers of the Hippocratic Corpus developed theories about menstruation, conception, pregnancy, and childbirth that reveal much about the ideology of the female body in ancient Greece. For this topic, select two or three aspects of this literature to discuss in detail. For images to illustrate your web page, you may want to make use of the illustrations in T. Laquer, Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud (Harvard, 1989), or in similar texts. Consult also Halperin, Winkler, and Zeitlin, edd., Before Sexuality (Princeton, 1990).

Primary Sources: Hippocratic Medicine; Aristotle, Selections from On the Generation of Animals; see also this selection from the Hippocratic Corpus on the wandering womb

Secondary Sources: L. Dean-Jones, Women's Bodies in Classical Greek Science (Oxford, 1993); L. Dean-Jones, "The Cultural Construct of the Female Body in Classical Greek Science," in Pomeroy, ed., Women's History and Ancient History (North Carolina, 1991); P. duBois, Sowing the Body: Psychoanalysis and Ancient Representations of Women (Chicago, 1988); A. Hanson, "The Medical Writers' Woman," in Halperin, Winkler, Zeitlin, edd., Before Sexuality (Princeton, 1990); Sissa, "The Sexual Philosophies of Plato and Aristotle," in Schmitt Pantel, ed., History of Women v.1 (Harvard, 1992); Joan Reilly, "Naked and Limbless: Learning about the Feminine Body in Ancient Athens," in A. O. Koloski-Ostrow and C. L. Lyons, edd., Naked Truths: Women, Sexuality and Gender in Classical Art and Archaeology (Routledge, 1997); Andrew Stewart, "Womanufacture," in Art, Desire and the Body in Ancient Greece (Cambridge, 1997); N. Demand, Birth, Death and Motherhood (Johns Hopkins, 1994)
Image: Childbirth Relief (5th century); from E. D. Phillips, Aspects of Greek Medicine (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1973), illustration 3.

Last revised 22 January 2004