Daughters of Hecate: Women and Magic in the Ancient World

by Kimberly B. Stratton (Editor), Dayna S. Kalleres (Editor)

Overview

Daughters of Hecate unites for the first time research on the problem of gender and magic in three ancient Mediterranean societies: early Judaism, Christianity, and Graeco-Roman culture. The book illuminates the gendering of ancient magic by approaching the topic from three distinct disciplinary perspectives: literary stereotyping, the social application of magic discourse, and material culture. The authors probe the foundations of, processes, and motivations behind gendered stereotypes, beginning with Western culture's earliest associations of women and magic in the Bible and Homer's Odyssey. Daughters of Hecate provides a nuanced exploration of the topic while avoiding reductive approaches. In fact, the essays in this volume uncover complexities and counter-discourses that challenge, rather than reaffirm, many gendered stereotypes taken for granted and reified by most modern scholarship. By combining critical theoretical methods with research into literary and material evidence, Daughters of Hecate interrogates a false association that has persisted from antiquity, to early modern witch hunts, to the present day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190202149
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/01/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	512
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Kimberly B. Stratton is an associate professor in the College of Humanities at Carleton University. Dayna S. Kalleres is an associate professor in the Program for the Study of Religion and the Department of Literature at the University of California, San Diego.

Table of Contents

Preface 1. Interrogating the Magic-Gender Connection - Kimberly B. Stratton Part I. Fiction and Fantasy: Gendering Magic in Literature 2. From Goddess to Hag: The Greek and the Roman Witch in Classical Literature - Barbette Stanley Spaeth 3. "The Most Worthy of Women is a Mistress of Magic": Women as Witches and Ritual Practitioners in 1 Enoch and Rabbinic Sources - Rebecca Lesses 4. Gendering Heavenly Secrets? Women, Angels, and the Problem of Misogyny and "Magic" - Annette Yoshiko Reed 5. Magic, Abjection, and Gender in Roman Literature - Kimberly B. Stratton Part II. Gender and Magic Discourse in Practice 6. Magic Accusations Against Women in Tacitus's Annals - Elizabeth Ann Pollard 7. Drunken Hags with Amulets and Prostitutes with Erotic Spells: The Re-Feminization of Magic in Late Antique Christian Homilies - Dayna S. Kalleres 8. The Bishop, the Pope, and the Prophetess: Rival Ritual Experts in Third-Century Cappadocia - Ayse Tuzlak 9. Living Images of the Divine: Female Theurgists in Late Antiquity - Nicola Denzey Lewis 10. Sorceresses and Sorcerers in Early Christian Tours of Hell - Kirsti Barrett Copeland Part III. Gender, Magic, and the Material Record 11. The Social Context of Women's Erotic Magic in Antiquity - David Frankfurter 12. Cheating Women: Curse Tablets and Roman Wives - Pauline Ripat 13. Saffron, Spices, and Sorceresses: Magic Bowls and the Bavli - Yaakov Elman 14. Victimology or: How to Deal With Untimely Death - Fritz Graf 15. A Gospel Amulet for Joannia (P.Oxy. VIII 1151) - AnneMarie Luijendijk

Editorial Reviews

This collection is overall of very high quality and has a cohesion that few such collected volumes achieved.... [Stratton and Kalleres] offer a comprehensive look at the relationship between witchcraft, gender, and social hierarchies in the ancient, particularly the Roman, world."—The Classical Journal

"...[A] wide-ranging volume that will be a valuable resource for scholars." —Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"Those engaged in the study of ancient magic will need to consult this volume. It offers many useful insights and directions for future research."— Society of Biblical Literature

From the Publisher