Women's Religions in the Greco-Roman World: A Sourcebook (review)

Ross Shepherd Kraemer's, Women's Religions in the Greco-Roman World:A Sourcebook, is not simply a revision of her book originally published as Maenads, Marytrs, Matrons, Monastics: A Sourcebook on Women's Religions in the Greco-Roman World (Fortress Press, 1988). Rather in this entirely updated version Kraemer has provided a virtual cornucopia of primary texts that explore women's religious experiences from the fourth century B.C.E. to the fifth century C.E. and ranges from Greco-Roman experiences to the Jewish and Christian traditions. This new edition contains forty new entries ranging from such diverse sources as Plutarch, Justin Martyr, Acts of Thomas, Josephus, and the diaries of Egeria. Included is a wide range of sources from inscriptions to literary texts as well as religious texts. Each entry is marked with a brief introduction, sources for English translations of the text, and extensive bibliographies. This volume provides a treasure throve for both students and scholars alike in exploring women's religions in antiquity.

The work is divided into six sections. The first section, "Observances, Rituals, and Festivals," contains selections (mostly from male authors) on a wide range of records that testify to women's participation in ancient religious festivals. Here we find selections mostly from the Greco-Roman traditions as well as some accounts from the Jewish Mishnah and Talmud but only a few from the Christian tradition.

The second section, "Researching Real Women, Documents, to, from, and by Women," represents the much more problematic issue of determining historical documents written by actual women. Kraemer argues that we have no literary religious texts written by women that predate the fourth century C.E. (117). Important evidence of women's religious practices comes instead from such sources as burial epitaphs, private letters, and tax registers. Included in this section of the book are numerous examples culled from this wide variety of non-literary sources. Also included here are four letters of Jerome to women.

"Religious Offices," the third section of this work, explores religious roles that women played in antiquity. Included are descriptions of various priestesses, e.g., the Vestal Virgins and epitaphs that testify to leadership in Jewish and Christian communities as well as Christian writings which oppose women's leadership and seek to regulate leadership positions such as those of deaconesses.

Section four, "New Religious Affiliation and Conversion," is a brief section that provides examples of women embracing new religious practices and beliefs. With the exception of women's attraction to Bacchic rites and a selection from the Christian Acts of Thecla, the majority of the selections here are devoted to women who were attracted to Judaism.

"Holy, Pious, and Exemplary Women," constitutes the fifth division of the book. This part contains lengthy accounts of mostly pious Christian women. Included here are the famous martyrologies of Saints Perpetua and Felicitas and Blandina and three male companions. We also find famous accounts of prostitutes who take up Christian ascetical life in the stories of Saint Pelagia the Harlot and Saint Mary the Harlot. Interspersed are also brief examples extolling virtuous Jewish women and traditional Roman women from the fourth century C.E.

The final section, entitled "The Feminine Divine," includes lengthy selections on the imagery of the divine as feminine. Included here is a substantial section from Apuleius' Metamorphoses and its description of Lucius' initiation into the cult of Isis, one of the most important of feminine cults. Also included in this section are selections from Gnostic texts and hymns to Demeter.

While Women's Religions in the Greco-Roman World covers a sweeping array of literary and non-literary sources that relate to women's experiences of religion, Kraemer repeatedly raises serious methodological questions about the interpretation of these texts. In the general introduction to this revised edition and running throughout her introductions to each of the sections of the book, she repeatedly draws attention to the problem...