The Last Priestesses
When the executioners came for her on that otherwise bright and sunny day, Cornelia (50-91 CE) was many things, but penitent was not one […]
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Demeter’s Daughters: Women of the Thesmophoria
In the indigo light of the early morning, wearing white robes and carrying torches, the pious women ascended the hill to the Thesmophorion (sanctuary to
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Saint Theodora
When we consider the pious lives of saints, images of self-sacrificing martyrs come to mind, devout adherents passionately immolating themselves for a higher cause. So
The Brutality of Citizen Wives
Thesmophoria, the feminine fertility festival, dedicated to the Goddess Demeter, was literally for women only. Citizen males of ancient Greece were unconditionally restricted from attending
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Unraveling the Eleusinian Mysteries
The Eleusinian Mysteries conjures up mystical images of a dark and dangerous festival, befitting its name. Indeed, it was surrounded by such an aura of
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The Rape of a Goddess
Who were Demeter and Persephone and why did their myth resonate so strongly with women of ancient Greece? The story of Demeter, goddess of the
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The Triumphant Women of Sparta
It must have come as no surprise to the Greeks that the face, which launched a thousand ships, was of Spartan origin. After all, Spartan
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The Return of the Amazons
On the vast steppes of Eurasia, in an area the Greeks referred to as Scythia, lay the remains of a young woman approximately twenty to
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In Search of Cleopatra: The Early Years
Before apocryphally rolling out of the carpet and into legend, Cleopatra (69 BCE-30 BCE) already had a storied past. The twenty-one-year old and her thirteen-year
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Theodora The Great: From Mistress to Monarch
One of the most influential and powerful empresses of late antiquity, Theodora’s (c 497-548) life reads like a melodrama where she plays many roles: actress,
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