Ranging broadly across the ancient world from Mesopotamia, Egypt and Nubia to Greece and Rome, this course introduces students to outstanding women of the past, from the (in)famous to the relatively unknown. We will explore the sources - both direct and indirect - that help us reconstruct the lives and experiences of women in the ancient Mediterranean world and its environs, using key themes to guide comparative case studies.

10 x 2hour seminar over 10 weeks as scheduled on MyCampus. This is one of the Honours options in Classics and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

CLASSIC5128 Women and power? The extraordinary and ordinary women of the ancient world (PG)

None

The standard assessments for this course are: 

■ Critical analysis (2000 words, 70%) 

■ Portfolio (1000 words, 30%) 

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available: 

■ There are no alternatives to the assessments, but flexible deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustment (Students should follow the usual process for extensions).

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.  

It is the default expectation that all courses will offer opportunities for reassessment or deferred assessment. Where it is not possible to offer this in some assessment components, the grade achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade, and any exceptions for this course are described below.

[No exceptions]

This course aims to:

■ Present key primary sources that might enable the reconstruction of the social and cultural roles of ancient women, paying particular attention to their possible biases

■ Investigate the lives and experiences of ancient women by broad comparative themes, touching on aspects like religion, politics, sexuality, ethnicity

■ Analyse ancient perspectives on ancient women across cultures, balancing predominantly male ancient sources with direct glimpses of women themselves

■ Critique modern scholarly and some popular views on ancient women and contextualise these against the primary evidence

■ Consider the nature of 'power' and how that might have applied to the women studied in the course.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Contextualise primary sources on ancient women culturally and temporally and make cross-cultural comparisons

■ Critically analyse secondary sources and their approach to ancient women

■ Use key themes to compare and contrast our evidence for the experience of ancient women in their respective cultural worlds

■ Explain and present the legacies of key ancient women in light of ancient and modern perceptions of them.