Women in Antiq. - Final Exam Review

All of the terms will come from this sheet.
I’ll give you twice as many options as I ask for, so you can choose the terms you’re most comfortable writing about.
The definition itself will only be half of this question—you must also be able to discuss in detail why it’s important.

Essays: I will ask you to write two essays having to do with overall themes of the course. You will need to provide an argument supported by three solid examples on a topic related to a major theme of the course.

There will be extra credit. The essays will count for more of the grade on the exam (around 60%).

Approach to Preparing

Make a list of the most important milestone events in the periods we’ve discussed.

Causes: Make sure you can identify the most important factors that helped cause these events—including long-term factors (“the environment”) and short-term factors (“the spark”)
Legacies: Make sure you can identify the legacies of the milestone event. How did it change the culture, society, etc.? What impact did it have on future milestones and events?

Using this review sheet

For each of the questions below, see whether you have a strong idea of how to answer, an okay idea of how to answer, or a weak sense of how to answer. Prioritize the “weak” ones in your review from the books and your notes.
Approach the questions below as a means of gauging topics to spend more time with as you review, and as a guide to how you’ll express and illustrate what’s really important. Keep in mind the larger themes of the course.
Take note of the terms below and review the ones you’re unfamiliar with.
Note that there is seldom one and only one answer to the kind of questions on this review sheet.

WHY almost always means “For what reasons…?”
HOW almost always means “In what ways…?”

Concerning dates: I’m not asking for exact dates, but you should know the period in which an event occurs. Also it helps to know sequences—which events occur before or after which other events. You’re best off if you know centuries.
Additional resources: In addition to the textbook, assigned readings, and your notes, a list of resources is linked on the Exams page. These include quiz notes, slides, lecture videos, weekly responses, textual topic discussions from online semesters, maps & timelines, and more.

Preparation for the essays

Try to come up with possible essay questions and map out in advance examples and interpretations that might pertain.
List the key topics that might relate to important periods of change, such as wars or reforms that changed everything.
Discussion groups can be helpful in comparing others’ interpretations of topics and ideas with your own.
In the essays you should be able to talk about, and use as examples, relevant documents from the assigned readings.

Sample Thematic Questions: Following are the kinds of thematic questions you might want to consider as you prepare for the essay. For each question, consider what three examples you would give and the answer they would support. Note that these are examples only and are not necessarily the actual essay questions.

How much is fear of women a factor in the characterization of women in ancient cultures? Where does it come from?
Some say ancient women could only be powerful through men. True, or not? What examples could you give either way?
How does the physical difference between men and women affect gender ideals and expectations in ancient culture?
How is a goddess different from a literary woman? How are the ideals of goddesses different from those of gods?
How well does the public/private, present/future model fit the ancient cultures we’ve studied? Is it useful or not useful?
How did women in the ancient cultures we’ve studied empower themselves collectively?

Topics

Introduction and Evidence

Why is gender in antiquity so difficult to study?
How do ancient gender roles relate to the ideas of public and private? Past and future? Mortal and divine?

Myth and Literature

Gods and Goddesses

What gender roles characterize the pre-Olympian gods (the Titans), such as Cronos (male) and Gaia and Rhea (female)?
How are male gods characterized differently from female gods? How are their standards of behavior different?
What might be the significance of the first children of Zeus being sets of daughters—the Fates, the Muses, the Graces?
How does Athena seem to stand astride gender roles? What’s the significance of her birth?
How does Hekate occupy a special place in relation to the gods and mortals?
Why do you think humans told stories of the gods misbehaving so often?
How is Pandora made the instrument of humanity’s punishment? How does this story relate to the story of Eve?
How did the Egyptian goddess Isis find a place in the Roman pantheon? What appeal did she hold in the empire?

TERMS: mother goddess – Homer – Hesiod – Rhea – birth of Athena – Amazons – Pandora –Vesta – Bona Dea – Isis

Epic and Drama

How is marriage used in Homer’s works (Agamemnon/Klytaemnestra, Hector/Andromache, Meneleaos/Helen, Odysseos/Penelope) to make arguments about right and wrong?
Why is Klytaemnestra such a polarizing figure? What do you think she represents to different people?
What does the story of Nausicaa—and her parents—tell us about the expectations of women in the Greek world?
What does Penelope’s artifice (her holding off the suitors with her weaving) tell us about her role as the lady of Ithaca? Why does her son, Telemachos, seem comparatively useless?
How does Aeschylos’s play Eumenides show the Furies and Athena as goddesses? How does the fact that Orestes murdered his mother factor in? What does this play tell us about Athens at the time it was written?
What is Euripides’s The Bacchae telling us about relations between genders in Athens? Why is Dionysos angry? Why are the ones experiencing his frenzy women, and why does Pentheos end up dead? What is the playwright trying to tell us?
In Sophocles’s Antigone, what is the conflict between Creon and Antigone about? How is gender relevant to both?
In Euripides’s Medea, why does Jason cast Medea aside? How is her vengeance shown? Why does she get away with it?

TERMS: Klytaemnestra – Penelope – Iphigeneia – Antigone – Medea – Medusa – Nausicaa

Societies and Cultures

Greece

What are some possible explanations for Hesiod’s comments about women in Works and Days?
How is lyric poetry different from epic poetry (like Homer)? How is Sappho’s poetry so representative of this form?
What do the stylized statue forms (kouros male, korē female) tell us about gender expectations of the archaic Greeks?
Sparta and Athens are atypical extremes in many ways, including the status of women. How were things different for women in Sparta? How are gender roles for men reinforced in Sparta?
As with Sparta, Athens was an atypical extreme. What do we know about the treatment of women in classical Athens? What are some of the explanations? How were things different between the upper and lower classes?
What role did Greek women play in the transmission of cultural narrative?
What do the Greek customs surrounding seduction, adultery, and prostitution tell us? How were hetaerae special?

TERMS: agora – korē – lyric poetry – Sappho – Athenian seclusion – hetaera – matrilocal marriage – Thesmophoria festival

Rome

What do Roman names tell us about the expectations placed on both men and women in Roman public and private life?
What role does the guardian play in the life of a Roman woman?
What kinds of marriage were there in Roman society? What were the benefits and consequences of manus marriage?
Why did the vestal priestesses occupy such a special place in Roman culture? What did they represent?
What other ways were Roman women involved in the relations between Rome and her gods?
What can we say about the lives of Roman slave women and freedwomen? Why might a slave woman be said to be better off than a woman who was free but impoverished?
What’s significant about the story of the capture of the Sabine women? How does it reflect the role of the Roman matron?
Why does Roman legend use a rape (the rape of Lucretia) as the catalyst for the rejection of monarchy?
What attributes made Cornelia the ideal matron? What other Roman women were admired, and why?
What does graffiti in Pompeii tell us about the participation of women in Roman politics?
How does the debate over repeal of the Oppian Law relate to changing gender roles and the role of tradition in Rome?

TERMS: maiden and matron – guardianship – marriage with manus – freedwoman – manumission – Vestal virgin – Oppian Law – Lucretia – Cornelia the mother of the Gracchi – Octavia – Livia

Sumer

Why does intercourse with Shamhat transfer Enkidu from the wild to civilization? How does he change?
What is the significance of Shamhat being a harlot?
What do Ishtar’s interactions with Gilgamesh tell us about her as a goddess? What factors spur his rejection of her?
What role does Ninsun, Gilgamesh’s mother, play in his story?

TERMS: Shamhat – Ishtar – city-state – “the work of a woman”

Israel

What factors help to bring about the exclusion of women from religious roles following the return to Judea?
In the book of Esther, how is Esther characterized? How is she contrasted to Vashti, the Persian wife of the king?
What is the story of Esther trying to say about community and gender?
What’s the message of Ruth’s story? How do gender, marriage, and family shape her choices and actions?
Why do you think these tales were thought instructive enough to be included in the sacred writings of the Jews?

TERMS: Babylonian captivity – Esther – Ruth

Egypt

What’s the relationship between Egypt’s gods and its pharaohs? How does this relate to the pharaoh’s gender?
How does Hatshepsut come to be accepted as pharaoh? Is Hatshepsut a queen, or a female king? Is there a difference?
How did Thutmose III treat her memory at the end of his reign? What are some possible explanations for his actions?
Why might an innovation such as a female pharaoh be more likely in the New Kingdom than in previous eras?
What role did Nefertiti play in the political and religious dramas of her time?
How does Cleopatra VII, the last of the pharaohs, represent both Egyptian and Hellenistic traditions?

TERMS: damnatio memoriae – ma’at – God’s Wife of Amun – Hatshepsut – Nefertiti