Religions of Greece and Rome: Women’s Religion
- Can we—should we—try to write a special history of women’s religion? Is it true to say that there were more rituals of transition (rites de passage) for women than for men? How might religion have framed sexual politics in the Roman Empire?
- What sorts of deities did women worship, how, and why? Distinguish between the public and private spheres. What aspects of religion or cult life were largely or exclusively female?
- What was the attraction of the cult of Isis (and other initiatory cults) for women?
- What rôles did women play in Christianity, and in Christianization? Was their Christian rôle to do with more than renunciation of the pleasures of the flesh?
[Due Tuesday 24.iv.2007 Complete!]





