Powerful Women in the Ancient World

The present volume focuses on powerful women in the ancient world and not only taking an exceptionally broad temporal and geographical scope, but also combining contributions on the portrayal of powerful ancient women in cuneiform texts and classical sources. In doing so, it aims at bringing together both a “western” and “eastern” perspective on the remembrance of these exceptional women and likewise at making the Self-presentation of these women as well as their discursive/narrative treatment by (later, male) outsiders the centre of attention. Power is understood in its broadest sense – not only real political and formal power, but also more informal concepts of power, such as relations of dependence and superiority in private, in the religious or economic spheres, taking into account that the latter forms of power can nevertheless influence the exercise of formal power. Thus, both actual female rulers and women who pulled strings from behind the scenes – at least according to their presentation in the sources – are gathered here. The key questions the contributors to this volume ask are: What information does a close and critical reading of the available sources provide about their actual radius of action and their social and economic status? Were these women considered role models (and if so when and by whom)? What do these details tell us about different gender roles in the Classical and Mesopotamian worlds? How (and possibly why) where the attitudes towards women different?

In particular, the contributions focus on Innana, Enheduana, and Shamhat from the Ancient Near East, Hatshepsut and Amanishakheto from Egypt, Bathsheba, female prophets, and women at the heart of the tribal system from the Biblical World, and Ada, Antigone, Cleopatra, Cornelia, Elpinice, Iulia maior, Julia Domna, Livia, Messalina, Olympias, Shirin, Valeria Melania, and Zenobia of Palmyra in classical and modern sources.

Kerstin Droß-Krüpe / Sebastian Fink: Preface and Acknowledgements

Powerful Women in the Ancient World in the Light of the Sources

Annette Zgoll: Innana conquers Ur: A Hitherto Unknown Myth Created by En-ḫedu-ana for Mutual Empowerment

Gina Konstantopoulos: The Many Lives of Enheduana: Identity, Authorship, and the “World’s First Poet”

Nicole Brisch: Šamḫat: Deconstructing Temple Prostitution One Woman at a Time

David A. Warburton: Hatshepsut: The Feminine Horus and Daughter of Amun on the Throne of Atum

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones: Bathsheba and Beyond: Harem Politics in the Ancient Near East

Martti Nissinen: The Agency of Female Prophets in the Bible: Independent or Instrumental? Prophetic or Political?

Stéphanie Anthonioz: Women at the Heart of the Tribal System in the Book of Genesis

Paola Corò: Between a Queen and an Ordinary Woman: On Laodice and the Representation of Women in Cuneiform Sources in the Hellenistic Period

Claudia Horst: Antigone: Political Power and Resonance

Florian Krüpe: Mighty, but quiet? Elpinice between Conflicting Priorities in Interpretations and Sources

Sabine Müller: On a Dynastic Mission: Olympias and Kleopatra, Agents of their House

Timothy Howe: (Re)Taking Halikarnassos: Ada, Alexander the Great and Karian Queenship

Josefine Kuckertz: Amanishakheto: A Meroitic Ruling Queen of the Late 1st Cent. BC / Early 1st Cent. AD

Kordula Schnegg: Cornelia: A Powerful Woman

Francesca Rohr Vio: Domum servavit, lanam fecit: Livia and the Rewriting of the Female Model in the Augustan Age

Christiane Kunst: Iulia maior on the Move: exemplum licentiae and euergetis

Helmuth Schneider: Der Tod Messalinas. Folge sexueller Libertinage oder Machtkalkül?

Brigitte Truschnegg: Feminine, influential and different? The Presentation of Julia Domna

Udo Hartmann: Zenobia of Palmyra: A Female Roman Ruler in Times of Crisis

Ireneusz Milewski: “Earthly yoke”? The Estate of Valeria Melania

Ewan Short / Eve MacDonald: Shirin in Context: Female Agency and the Wives of the Sasanian King Khosrow Parviz

Powerful Women in the Ancient World in Modern Thought  

François de Callataÿ: Cleopatra as a Strong Woman in Modern Times: A less Negative Episode in a Disfigured Tradition?

Martin Lindner: Rome Herself: Female Characters in Günther Birkenfeld’s Augustus Novels (1934–1984)

Anja Wieber: Depicting the Palmyrene Queen Zenobia: From Baroque “femmes fortes” to Modern Comic Books