teaching women's life in greece and ...

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QUAE SUPERSUNT
TRANSLATIONS AND ADAPTATIONS:
TOOLS FOR TEACHING THE CLASSICAL WORLD
VIA PRIMARY SOURCES
USING ANCIENT TEXTS IN TRANSLATION
TO TEACH WOMEN'S LIFE IN GREECE AND ROME
A
lmost all professors of Classics in the United States spend a
large portion of their time teaehing eourses for students who do
not know the aneient languages. All of us who do so know how
exeiting it ean be to talk about the Homerie epies, Athenian drama, and
Virgil. But it ean be in some ways even more rewarding to introduce our
students to primary souree materials sueh as papyri, inseriptions, and
medieal and legal texts, beeause these documents can bring students
direetly into contact with the past. Another real advantage to reading
prose texts and writing by ordinary aneient people is that these doeu-
ments lose less in translation than does great poetry.
When in the sixties I began to teach courses about women in antiq-
uity there was no source book available about women's life in Greeee
and Rome, and few of us had any idea just how much material was actu-
ally available. Ann Sheffield, who was then teaching at Barnard, had
begun the task by assembling copies of translated texts from literary
sources and from the papyrus doeuments that had been translated in
the Loeb Classical Library. When Maureen Fant and I began to put our
sourcebook together, Ann Sheffield generously gave us permission to
make use some ofthe materials in her collection.' Neither of us realized
at the time that we were beginning a projeet that would occupy us on
and off for the whole of our seholarly careers.
In
Women in Greece and Rome
we wanted to inelude more doc-
umentary material, and with the advice of colleagues, made our own
translations of papyri, medieal texts, and inscriptions, such as some of
the epigrams in Kaibel's
Epigrammata Graeca
and the
Texts on the So-
cial History ofthe Greek World coWtcteA
by Harry Pleket.^ Our aim was
to produce something like Lewis and Reinhold's
Roman Civilization:
Selected Readings,
which both Maureen and I had used when we were
students.^ But our publisher had wanted us to keep the book as short as
' Lcfkowitz and Fant 1977.
' Kaibcl 1878; Picket 1969.
> Lewis and Rhcinhold 1955.
The Classical Bulletin
81.2 (2005) 165-175
166
MARY LEFKOWITZ
possible, so we provided brief introduetions that called attention to the
nature ofthe source materials we were using, e.g., epitaphs tend to praise
rather than blame, and a reported speeeh is not a historieal transeript,
and so on. We appended notes to explain technical terms
(like potestas
or
manus),
and historical and bibliographic references. But beeause the
source materials were so varied, and it was impossible to arrange them
in any eoherent ehronologieal sequenee, we arranged the texts topically,
under the general rubrics of Greece and Rome.
But that first version of the eollection left a lot to be desired.
Among other things, eross-referencing was difficult, beeause the se-
lections were not numbered. There was no
index locorum.
The trans-
lations varied in style and quality. In general, there was simply not
enough explanatory material. No wonder, then, that the colleetion was
received with something less than enthusiasm by some of the other
seholars who had been teaehing eourses on women in antiquity. Vir-
ginia Hunter in a searching review pointed out many plaees where we
should have updated old translations or provided new translations of
our own." In particular she felt that more texts about the soeial history
of the fifth and fourth eenturies BC should have been ineluded, such as
exeerpts from Plato's
Republic.
There was not enough explieit diseus-
sion of social class, or information about the jobs done by slaves and
freedwomen. Because we did not offer any specific statement about the
theoretical premises underlying the eollection, she suspected that we
believed "that male malice was responsible for the restrictions imposed
on women in ancient Greece."' The rather silly dust jaeket that (despite
our objeetions) the publisher imposed on the book helped to eonvey
that impression: it showed a woman's hands washing what looked like
an ancient Greek dinner plate.
Fortunately for us, as it turned out, our publisher, Samuel-Stevens,
went out of business a few years later, and other publishers were inter-
ested in doing a new version ofthe book. We took all of Hunter's con-
structive criticism to heart. The revised book.
Women's Life in Greece
and Rome [WLGR],
justifiably met with a much kinder reeeption.'
We included more eitations from the orators, more information about
Athenian law, many new translations, and eorrections of mistakes in
some of the earlier translations we had done. For literary seleetions,
we included both the date of the author and the date (when different)
ofthe events that he/she was writing about. Reviewers ofthe new book
recognized that it could be read and understood as a kind of general
introduction to social history.'
'
Hunter, V. 1979-1980.
Helios
7.1:82-95.
'Hunter 1979-80:94
' Lefkowitz and Fant 1982.
' E.g., Parsons 1983:16; Mingay 1983:xiii; Salzman 1983:374-375.
USING ANCIENT TEXTS IN TRANSLATION
167
Nonetheless, Sarah Pomeroy had doubts about our topical arrange-
ment, on the grounds that it was literary, rather than historical. For that
reason, she insisted, the book was "... not written for use as a textbook."
Its notes and indices, she thought, were inadequate for students.* We
took these criticisms seriously, and tried to meet at least some of them
by reorganizing the materials in the seeond edition of
WLGR,
whieh
was published in 1992. We tried to adhere to a elear ehronologieal ar-
rangement within topies, even where this involved ineluding Greek and
Roman texts within the same ehapter. We added indices, illustrations,
and many new texts, especially about soeial life (inscriptions and pa-
pyri). We included new translations, sueh as seleetions from Greek
drama. Thanks to the generosity of colleagues, we were able to include
a greatly expanded section on Roman law and some additional papyri.
We noted the translator's name in the heading of each selection. But the
1992 seeond edition still does not provide an overall narrative frame-
work, a chronological table, or the whole of many of the longer texts,
or texts that require extensive eommentary. And there were some texts
that we forgot or simply did not know about. Unfortunately the nature
of our evidenee makes it impossible to eonstruct a narrative framework
without adding extensive annotation and eonneeting texts. We always
assumed that the book would be used as a supplement to a history text,
and that instructors would want to inelude literary texts (such as Greek
dramas or Ovid's
Heroides)
in their course syllabi.
There is also the question of providing for the ancient sourees a nar-
rative framework and suffieient annotation. Extensive background ma-
terial of this sort is supplied in
Women in the Classical World hy
Elaine
Fantham, Helene Foley, Natalie Kampen, Sarah Pomeroy, and Alan Sha-
piro.' But since there simply was not room in the book to include exten-
sive quotation from primary sourees
and
a detailed narrative and notes,
the editors of
Women in the Classical World
needed to narrow their se-
lection of sourees, and to omit altogether treatment of early Christian
women and later antiquity. Of eourse (mueh as publishers would wish
it to be otherwise) the problem is that the subject of women in all of
classical antiquity is really too large to be treated adequately in a single
volume. It is possible to offer enough explanatory text and still inelude
a wide sampling of ancient sources only when one attempts to eover a
segment ofthe topic. For example, Jane Rowlandson's 1998 soureebook
Women and Society in Greek and Roman Egypt
seems to me to strike
a perfect balance with a substantial introduetion and more eommen-
tary on individual passages than we have spaee to provide in the more
« Pomeroy, S.B. 1983-1984.
CO
61:68.
' Fantham et al. 1994.
168
MARY LEFKOWITZ
comprehensive
WLGR.'"
I. M. Plant's new anthology
Women Writers of
Ancient Greece and Rome
includes translations of all known writings by
women authors with biographical information and bibliography."
If (like most of us) one has to try to eover both Greeee and Rome
in a semester course,
WLGR^
ean work and has worked as a textbook,
provided that one supplies a narrative strueture from supplementary
readings and leetures. There is a eonsiderable advantage in working pri-
marily with the original sourees. Even in translation these materials ean
bring the student into direet contact with the past, and allow students
to be aetive partners in making conneetions with the lives of women in
other cultures. Athenian drama, lyric and elegiae poetry, and aneient
novels ean also serve as exeiting souree materials for aneient life, so long
as they are translated literally, and are discussed in the same contexts as
the documentary texts. The aneient texts themselves prompt students to
ask questions that encourage them to find the answers in the seeondary
sourees. A souree book like
WLGR
may provide students in classical
civilization courses with their first and perhaps only opportunity to read
texts and doeuments outside ofthe traditional literary eanon.
When I teaeh my eourse on Women's Life in Greece and Rome at
Wellesley I provide a larger context for the materials in
WLGR^
by assign-
ing readings from secondary sources, like Pomeroy's
Goddesses, Whores,
Wives, and Slaves, Women in the Classical World,
Sehmitt-Pantel's
His-
tory of Women,
Cantarella's
Pandora's Daughters.'^^
I also add primary
souree materials with longer narratives than we eould include in
WLGR\
the Homerie Hymn to Demeter, Athenian dramas, e.g.,
Antigone, Al-
cestis, Medea, Heraclidae, Hippolytus, Bacchae;
novels: Xenophon,
An
Ephesian Tale,
Apuleius,
The Golden Ass,
and the
Life of Aesop.
Like everyone else who works on the lives of ancient women, Mau-
reen Fant and I are eonstantly learning just how mueh information is out
there that we did not know about. Maureen is eonstantly ferreting out
interesting inscriptions (both Greek and Latin) in museums in Italy. We
took advantage ofthe new teehnology and the existence ofthe
Diotima
available on the Internet. We also arranged with our publishers to make
existing selections from
WLGR^
available as well. The new materials
include the
Erechtheus
fragment (which I forgot to put in the 1992 edi-
tion), a passage from Aetius about female eircumcision, and seleeted
'"Rowlandson 1998.
" Plant 2004; see A. Keith's review in
BMCR
2004.07.32.
'^Pomeroy 1975; Fantham et al. 1994; Sehmitt-Pantel 1992; Cantarella 1987.
USING ANCIENT TEXTS IN TRANSLATION
169
epigrams from the new Milan Posidippus papyrus." We are planning to
add these and other new materials to yet another revision of our souree-
book,
WLGR\
We are particularly eager to inelude materials that have
not been translated or that cannot easily be found elsewhere.
Among the other new materials that we wish to inelude is be a
substantial selection from the will of Epikteta, which is preserved on
four marble tablets from Thera now in the Museo Lapidario Maffeiano
at Verona
(IG
XII, 3:330).'" Epikteta was a widow when she made the
will. Like propertied women in Athens, she acted with the eonsent of a
kyrios.
But unlike them, Epikteta was able to make a will, with elabo-
rate provisions for both the male and female members of her extended
family. The will indicates not only that she owned property that she had
inherited; she indicates that she had acquired additional land on her own
(tois hyparchousi moi autoktetois choriois,
32).'^ This land she allows to
be used as surety for a mortgage, which in turn provides a benefaetion
of three thousand draehmas for an association of her male relatives. The
assoeiation will meet each month in a Mouseion, or sanctuary of the
Muses, that she has established eontaining statues of their aneestors,
ineluding herself. This inseription is the earliest reeord we have of a
woman making sueh a publie declaration of a benefaetion. As Raphael
Sealey observes in his diseussion of this inseription, Epikteta's will may
indicate that ancients restrietions on women's property rights were now
breaking down, or indeed that the island of Thera never had sueh severe
limitations in the first place.'*
One incentive I have had for finding new material is to provide
my students with interesting writing assignments. Instead of asking for
conventional papers, I give students translated texts that do not appear
in
WLGR^
or on the
Diotima
website. I ask them to write introductions
and commentaries like the ones we provide in the book, and to make
explieit cross-references to the texts that they have studied. In that way
they ean show what they have learned, and occasionally they manage
to traek down new information. The students' diseussions of the new
material have helped me decide if we should post the new texts on or
Diotima
and/or include them in
WLGR\
Here are some examples:
" Euripides,
Erechtheus,
fr. 50 Austin= fr 360 N, from Lyeurgus,
Against Leocrates
100, Aetius 16.115 on cliterodeetomy, and seleetions from the new Posidippus from Bas-
tinanini et al 2001; for English translations see now also Austin and Bastianini 2002.
harvard.edu/elassicsat/issue_l/biblio.html.
'* For text, translation, discussion, bibliography, and background information, see
Wittenburg 1990.
'= Sealey 1990:91-95.
" Sealey 1990:93.
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