Women’s Religions in the Greco-Roman World: A Sourcebook ROSS SHEPARD KRAEMER, Editor OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Women’s Religions in the Greco-Roman World This page intentionally left blank Women’s Religions in the Greco-Roman World ASourcebook Edited by ross shepard kraemer 1 2004 1 Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Sa˜o Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Copyright ᭧ 2004 by Ross Shepard Kraemer Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available. ISBN 0-19-517065-2 (cloth); 0-19-514278-0 (pbk.) 135798642 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For Michael This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments Many people contributed to the production of this new edition, which was orig- inally published by Fortress Press in 1988 as Maenads, Martyrs, Matrons, Monastics: A Sourcebook on Women’s Religions in the Greco-Roman World. Carolyn Osiek and Janet Timbie gave me permission again to include their respective translations of selections from Epiphanius and Shenoute’s Letter to Tachom. Leigh Gibson, Lynn LiDonnici, and others suggested formatting changes based on their classroom ex- periences with the original edition. Deb Bucher provided invaluable bibliographic assistance. Mary Rose D’Angelo and Susan Ashbrook Harvey critiqued the revised introductions. Jesse Goodman, Luke Meier, and Heidi Wendt checked references, read proofs, and prepared the index of female names. Kathleen Pappas and Gail Tetreault provided crucial support with correspondence and other time-consuming clerical tasks. Cynthia Read and Theo Calderera at Oxford provided encourage- ment, advice, and assistance from the inception of this project on. The introductions to the sections and selections throughout this book are stud- ded with insights and ideas gained through my work with the graduate students at Penn, especially Deb Bucher, Lynn Cohick, Maxine Grossman, Shira Lander, Susan Marks, Jacqueline Pastis, Beth Pollard, and Sarah Schwarz. They are my “spiritual children,” and I trust they know it. One more time, I want to thank my colleagues in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania for their extraordinary support and col- legiality over twenty-five years. Equally, I want to thank my colleagues and students at Brown University, for affording me an opportunity at this stage of my career beyond anything I might have imagined or wished for. Finally, as always, I want to thank my family: my husband, Michael, my daugh- ter, Jordan, and my wonderful parents-in-law, Honey and Jerry Kraemer, for their unfailing love and support. The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright ᭧ 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved. Selections from Tal Ilan, “Matrona and Rabbi Jose,” JSJ 25 (1994) 18–51, are reprinted with permission of Brill Academic Publishers. Selection from David Noy, ed., Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, Vol. 2: The City of Rome (copyright ᭧ 1995), is reprinted by permission of Cambridge Uni- versity Press. Selections from Paul Harkin, John Chrysostom, “Against Judaizing Christians,” (FC 68, copyright ᭧ 1977), and Ronald Heine, Montanist Oracles and Testimonia (NAPS Vol. #14, copyright ᭧ 1989, The North American Patristics Society), are reprinted by permission of the Catholic University Press of America. Selections from A. Veilleux, Pachomian Koinonia, vol. 2, Pachomian Chronicles and Rules (copyright ᭧ 1981), and R. M. Price, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, “A History of the Monks of Syria” (copyright ᭧ 1985), are used by permission of Cistercian Publications. Selections from James Robinson, The Nag Hammadi Library in English (copy- right ᭧ 1978, 1988, E. J. Brill), are used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Selections from Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum, eds. Victor A. Tcherikover, Al- exander Fuks and Menahem Stern (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, Copyright ᭧ 1957, 1960, 1964, by the Magnes Press, the Hebrew University), are reprinted by permission of the publishers. Selections from the Loeb Classical Library are reprinted by permission of Har- vard University Press and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library. The Loeb Classical Library is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Selections from Naphtali Lewis, The Documents from the Bar Kochba Period in the Cave of the Letters: Greek Papyri (copyright ᭧ 1989), are used by permission of the Israel Exploration Society. Selections from Mary R. Lefkowitz and Maureen B. Fant, eds., Women’s Life in Greece and Rome (copyright ᭧ 1992), are used by permission of the Johns Hopkins University Press. The selection from Ute Eisen, Women Officeholders in Early Christianity (copy- right ᭧ 2000), is used by permission of the Liturgical Press. Selections from New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity are used permis- sion of MacQuarie University. “The Life of Olympias,” from Elizabeth A. Clark, Jerome, Chrysostom and Friends (copyright ᭧ 1979), is used by permission of Edwin Mellen Press. Selections from Scott Bradbury, Severus of Minorca, “Letter on the Conversion of the Jews” (copyright ᭧ 1996); Hannah M. Cotton and Ada Yardeni, Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek Documentary Texts from Nahal Hever and Other Sites (Discov- eries in the Judean Desert 27, copyright ᭧ 1997); J. K. Elliott, Apocryphal New Testament (copyright ᭧ 1993); John Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from Acknowledgments viii the Ancient World (copyright ᭧ 1992); Ross S. Kraemer and Mary Rose D’Angelo, Women and Christian Origins (copyright ᭧ 1999); Herbert Musurillo, Acts of the Christian Martyrs (copyright ᭧ 1971); Niall Rudd, Juvenal, “The Satires,” (OWC, copyright ᭧ 1991); Joan Taylor, Jewish Women Philosophers of First-Century Alex- andria (copyright ᭧ 2003); and P. G. Walsh, Apuleius, “Metamorphoses” (OWC, copyright ᭧ 1994), are used by permission of Oxford University Press. Selections from George E. Gingras, Egeria: Diary of a Pilgrimage (ACW 38, copyright ᭧ 1970), and Leslie William Barnard, Justin Martyr, “The First and Second Apologies” (ACW 56, copyright ᭧ 1997), are used with permission of Paulist Press. Selections from Ovid, “Fasti,” trans. Anthony J. Boyle and Roger D. Woodward (copyright ᭧ 2000), are used by permission of Penguin Books. Selections from James Charlesworth, The Odes of Solomon (copyright ᭧ 1973); David G. Rice and John E. Stambaugh, Sources for the Study of Greek Religion (copyright ᭧ 1979); and Robert A. Kraft and Janet Timbie, The Testament of Job (copyright ᭧ 1974), are used by permission of the Society of Biblical Literature. Selections from B. P. Reardon, ed., Collected Ancient Greek Novels (copyright ᭧ 1989, The Regents of the University of California), and Sebastian P. Brock and Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Holy Women of the Syrian Orient (copyright ᭧ 1987, The Regents of the University of California), are used by permission of the University of California Press. Selections from Hans Dieter Betz, ed., The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (2nd ed., copyright ᭧ 1992), and Euripides, “Bacchae,” trans. William Arrowsmith (copyright ᭧ 1959), are used by permission of University of Chicago Press. Selections from Jacob Neusner, The Mishnah, A New Translation (copyright ᭧ Yale University Press, 1988), are used by permission. Acknowledgments ix This page intentionally left blank Contents Abbreviations xxv Introduction 3 one Observances, Rituals, and Festivals 1. Why Women Are Compelled to Worship Dionysos 12 euripides Bacchae 23–42 2. The Rites of the First Bacchic Worshipers 13 euripides Bacchae 677–768 3. Women Worshipers of a Dionysian Deity, Sabos 16 demosthenes On the Crown 259–60 4. Rituals for Brides and Pregnant Women in the Worship of 17 Artemis LSCG Suppl. 115 5. Objects Dedicated to Artemis Brauronia IG II2 1514 18 6. Women Participants at a Festival of Adonis 18 theocritus Idyll 15, 95–149 7. Ritual Regulations in a Dionysiac Thiasos LSAM 48 20 8. Epitaph of Alcmeonis, a Priestess of Dionysos 21 Henrichs HSCP 82 (1978): 148 9. The Establishment of Dionysiac Rites in Magnesia 21 I. Magn. 215a.24–40 10. Ritual Equipment for a Women’s Festival in Hellenistic Egypt 22 P. Hib.54 11. Three Excerpts from Ovid on the Rites of Roman Women 22 11a. Roman Matrons Who Celebrate the Matralia (A Festival to 23 the Goddess, Mother Matuta) ovid Fasti 6.473–568 11b. Roman Matrons Who Wash the Statue of Venus on April 1 25 ovid Fasti 4.133–62 11c. The Ritual Practices of an Old Woman 25 ovid Fasti 2.571–82 12. Women’s Rites of Dionysos in Greek Cities 27 diodorus of sicily Library 4.3.2–5 13. Women Members of a Monastic Jewish Community Outside 28 Alexandria philo On the Contemplative Life 2, 32–33, 65–69, 83–85, 87–89 14. (Jewish?) Women in Alexandrian Public Life 32 philo The Special Laws 3.169–75 15. The Women’s Court of the Jerusalem Temple 33 josephus The Jewish War 5.198–200, Against Apion 2.102–4 16. Excerpts from Plutarch on Greek and Roman Women’s Religions 35 16a. Devotees of Dionysos Protected by Women from the Town 35 of Amphissa On the Bravery of Women 13 (Moralia 249) 16b. The Dionysiac Proclivities of Olympias, Mother of 36 Alexander the Great Life of Alexander 2.1–5 16c. How Women’s Bacchic Frenzy Explains an Epithet of the 36 God (Bacchus) Roman Questions 104 (Moralia 288–89) 16d. Why Roman Matrons Founded a Temple to the Goddess 37 Carmenta Roman Questions 56 (Moralia 278) 16e. Why Women Use Milk but Not Wine in Offerings to 37 Rumina Roman Questions 57 (Moralia 278) 16f.