eBook

Women at the Beginning

Geary, Patrick J

2009,2006

Overview

In these four artfully crafted essays, Patrick Geary explores the way ancient and medieval authors wrote about women. Geary describes the often marginal role women played in origin legends from antiquity until the twelfth century. Not confining himself to one religious tradition or region, he probes the tensions between women in biblical, classical, and medieval myths (such as Eve, Mary, Amazons, princesses, and countesses), and actual women in ancient and medieval societies. Using these legends as a lens through which to study patriarchal societies, Geary chooses moments and texts that illustrate how ancient authors (all of whom were male) confronted the place of women in their society. Unlike other books on the subject, Women at the Beginning attempts to understand not only the place of women in these legends, but also the ideologies of the men who wrote about them. The book concludes that the authors of these stories were themselves struggling with ambivalence about women in their own worlds and that this struggle manifested itself in their writings.

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Subject: Amazons / Annas / Anthony Grafton / Beginning / Beginning -- Mythology / Brothers of Jesus / Caiaphas / Carolingian dynasty / Charles the Bald / Christian / Christian scripture / Classics / Clopas / Cosmas of Prague / Count of Flanders / Czechs / Davidic line / Dowry / Early Middle Ages / Ebionites / Elopement (marriage) / Fallen woman / Folklore & Mythology / Fornication / Gender / Gender history / Gender role / Genealogy of Jesus / Georges Duby / Gesta Danorum / Grendel's mother / Heli (biblical figure) / Hemma / Herodotus / High Middle Ages / Historiography / HISTORY / HISTORY / World / Ideology / Idolatry / Jews / Jordanes / Judith of Flanders / Julius Africanus / Late Antiquity / Lecture / Literature / Lotharingia / Louis the Pious / Louis the Stammerer / Marc Bloch / Mary / Mary, mother of Jesus / Mathilda (novella) / Matriarchy / Melusine / Midrash / mother of Jesus / Mythology / Narrative / Oral history / Oral tradition / Origin myth / Origin story / Orosius / Paganism / Prehistory / Protevangelium / Queen of Heaven / Saxo Grammaticus / Scythians / Sex roles / Social group / SOCIAL SCIENCE / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Folklore & Mythology / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General / Sociology / Story telling / Symbolism / The Goths / The Rape of the Sabine Women / Theodelinda / Theology / Thierry / Tree of Jesse / Vassal / Widukind of Corvey / Women / Women -- Mythology / World / World history
• ISBN: 9781400827084, 1400827086, 0691124094, 9780691171463, 0691171467, 9780691124094