UCLA Women and Power in The Ancient World Questions
Formatting Guidelines: 1. Your name, ID number, and section number needs to be in the top left corner of the first
page of your assignment.
2. Please use Times New Roman or Arial 12-point font, double-spaced, 1-inch margins.
3. Please note the word count limit and be aware that your TA will not grade more than 6
pages of your assignment. In other words, if your assignment exam exceeds 6 pages, your TA will not
grade past page 6.
4. Please indicate which question(s) you are responding to for each of your 4 essays. You
only need to note the question number from this document (e.g., Question 4); you do not
need to copy & paste the text of every question. If you choose to answer more than 4
questions, your TA will only grade the first 4 on your document.
5. You may either use Chicago or MLA format to cite sources, but you must be consistent.
Essay Questions: 100 points total (25 points per essay)
Please select 4 of the following 6 questions. You must respond in essay format to each question. Essay
responses should be supported with readings and lecture citations, as well as your own interpretation of
the data. Each essay should be between approx. 250-300 words (1-1.5 pages double-spaced). You are
welcome to reference your notes and discussion group chats, but these essays must be composed during this week week. All essays must be your own individual work. 1. Pick a case study (either a specific place, time, or person) covered in the lecture and
readings from Week 10 (India) to discuss one or more of the themes that have carried
through the course. These themes include, but are not limited to:
• impact of geography on women's access to power
• effectiveness of Mann's IEMP model for women in the ancient world
• how subsistence strategy affects societal organization with regard to gender
• how patterns are maintained and what causes them to be broken
• the degree of political centralization and how it affects women's access and ability to hold
on to power
• how power is defined
2. As we have learned in this class, you can tell a lot about women’s access to power in a society
based on burial practices. How does Lady Fu Hao’s tomb compare to Queen Pu’abi’s
(Mesopotamia)? What can we tell about the status of these female rulers based on how they were
buried?
3. Using the IEMP(F)(S) model, compare and contrast Cleopatra and Hatshepsut’s methods of
gaining power. How does their historical and social context impact their ability to gain power?
4. Combine the information presented to you in the readings and lectures with a close reading of the
below excerpts to compare and contrast female power in Greece vs. Egypt. Use IEMP(S) as a guide for
your answer. Think about how you can use these texts to reconstruct female rights in each society,
but also try to identify the limitations of each text. What other lines of evidence would you like to
engage to provide a more robust investigation? See below for excerpts.
5. In Week 7, Dr. Cooney discussed women who gained power in Rome as well as women who
acted against Rome. Select one of these women and how IEMP(S) applied to the power she was able
to attain, if any. How does her story compare with women’s access to power in the other societies
we have studied (Egypt, the Levant, Greece, etc.)? What about the modern world?
6. “To be an effective source of power, money [resources] must be exchanged in ways that require
returns and create obligation, in other words it must be invested” (Ernestine Friedl)
Select one of Mann’s four sources of power (IEMP) and discuss how the above quote by Ernestine
Friedl factors into his model. What role do resources play in the origins of power? Use an example
from lecture or reading to illustrate your point. TEXTS FOR QUESTION 4
GREECE Plutarch, Solon
But in general Solon's laws concerning women seem very absurd. For instance, he permitted an adulterer
caught in the act to be killed; but if a man committed rape upon a free woman, he was merely to be fined
a hundred drachmas; and if he gained his end by persuasion, twenty drachmas, unless it were with one of
those who sell themselves openly, meaning of course the courtesans. For these go openly to those who
offer them their price. Still further, no man is allowed to sell a daughter or a sister, unless he find that she
is no longer a virgin.
Note: Plutarch lived during the first century CE. He was a Roman citizen, but a Greek at birth. Solon was
a Greek statesman and law maker during the seventh century BCE
The past activities of a courtesan. Athens, 4th cent. B.C. Apollodorus, Against Neaera
When they arrived, Lysias did not admit them to his house, out of respect for his own wife, who was the
daughter of Brachyllus and his own niece, and for his mother, who was somewhat advanced in years and
lived in the same house. Instead, he lodged them-that is, Metaneira and Nicarete-with Philostratus of
Celonus, who was still a bachelor and also a friend of his. The women were accompanied by the
defendant Neaera, who was already working as a prostitute, though she was not yet of the proper age.
The defendant Neaera drank and dined with them in the presence of a large company, as a courtesan
would do.
The daughter of the defendant Neaera, whom she had brought as a little girl to Stephanus' house, was in
those days called Strybele, but now has the name Phano. Stephanus gave this girl in marriage, as being his
own daughter, to an Athenian citizen, Phrastor, together with a dowry of 30 minas. When she went to live
with Phrastor, who was a hardworking man and who had got together his means by careful living, she
was unable to accommodate herself to his ways, but hankered after her mother's habits and the dissolute
ways of that household, being, I suppose, brought up to a similar licence. Phrastor observed that she was
not well-behaved nor willing to be guided by him, and at the same time he found out for certain that she
was not the daughter of Stephanus, but only of Neaera, so that he had been deceived on the first occasion
when he was betrothed to her. He had understood that she was the daughter of Stephanus and not Neaera,
the child of Stephanus' marriage with a freeborn Athenian lady before he began to live with Neaera.
Phrastor was most indignant at all this, and considering himself to have been outrageously treated and
swindled, he turned the young woman out of his house after having lived with her for a year and when she
was pregnant; and he refused to return the dowry.
A husband's defense. Athens, ca. 400 B.C. Lysias,
On the Murder of Eratosthenes
Members of the jury: when I decided to marry and had brought a wife home, at first my attitude towards
her was this: I did not wish to annoy her, but neither was she to have too much of her own way. I watched
her as well as I could, and kept an eye on her as was proper. But later, after my child had been born, I
came to trust her, and I handed all my possessions over to her, believing that this was the greatest possible
proof of affection. Well, members of the jury, in the beginning she was the best of women. She was a
clever housewife, economical and exact in her management of everything.
Now first of all, gentlemen, I must explain that I have a small house which is divided into two-the men's
quarters and the women's-each having the same space, the women upstairs and the men downstairs. After
the birth of my child, his mother nursed him; but I did not want her to run the risk of going downstairs
every time she had to give him a bath, so I myself took over the upper storey, and let the women have the
ground floor. EGYPT The Instructions of Ptahhotep
“When you prosper and found your
House and love your wife with ardor,
Fill her belly, clothe her back; ointment
Soothes her body. Gladden her heart as
Long as you live; she is a fertile field
for her lord. Do not contend with her in
Court. Keep her from power, restrain
Her – her eye is her storm when she
Gazes. Thus will you make her stay in your house”
Will of Naunakht, 1147 BCE
As for me, I am a free woman of the land of Pharaoh. I brought up these eight children of yours and gave
them a household – everything as is customarily done for those of their standing. But, look, I am grown
old and, look, they do not care for me in turn. Whichever of them has given me a hand, to him will I give
of my property; whichever has not, to him will I not give my property. I am grown old, and see, they are
not looking after me in my turn. They shall not participate in the division of my one-third, but in the twothirds of their father they shall participate.
