Women's letters from ancient Egypt, 300 BC-AD 800

Bagnall, Roger S.; Cribiore, Raffaella

Roger S. Bagnall, Raffaella Cribiore, with contributions by Evie Ahtaridis

You don't have access to this book. Please try to log in with your institution. Log in

Cover
Title Page
Copyright and Permissions
List of Letters
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1 Introduction This Book and How It Came to Be Written
- [Intro]
- How This Book Came to Exist
- The Organization of the Book
- Other Information
Chapter 2 Why Women's Letters?
- [Intro]
- Whose Voices Are We Hearing?
- Which Women?
- The Distinctive Value of Letters
- Generalizations and Particulars
Chapter 3 About the Corpus of Letters
- [Intro]
- Changes in Letter Writing from Ptolemaic to Byzantine Times
  - Greek and Egyptian in the Ptolemaic Period
  - Formality in Ptolemaic Greek Letters
  - A Colloquial Style in Roman Times
  - Reversion to a Formal Style in the Early Byzantine Period
- Women’s Letters in Coptic
- The Chronological Distribution of the Letters
  - [Intro]
  - Some Possible Explanations
  - Coptic Instead of Greek?
  - Personal Names: Women as Egyptian
  - Looking for Parallels
- Archives, Excavations, and Plundering
- How This Book Is Organized
Chapter 4 Late Medieval Letters as Comparative Evidence
- [Intro]
- Four Wealthy Families
- Handwriting
- Language
Chapter 5 Writing and Sending Letters
- Writing Materials
  - [Intro]
  - Papyrus
  - Other Materials
- Availability of Papyrus—Reuse
- Letter Writing: Dual Letters
- Getting Letters Delivered
  - [Intro]
  - Addresses
Chapter 6 Handwriting
- [Intro]
- Typology
  - Professional Hands: Epistolary, Documentary, and Literary
  - Secretarial Hands
  - Personal Hands
- Physical Appearance of a Letter
- Final Greetings: Second Hand versus Second Style
- A Woman’s Hand
- Women Write: The Archives
  - The Archive of Apollonios
  - The Archive of Asklepiades
  - The Archive of Pompeius
  - The Archive of Kronion: The Dossier of Diogenis
  - Tasoucharion, Klematia, and Demetria
- Women Write: The Isolated Letters
- Dating Handwriting
- Coptic Letters
Chapter 7 Language
- The Greek and Egyptian Languages in Use
- Greek and Egyptian in Literate Society
- Dictated Versus Composed Versus Autograph: Orality of Letter Prose
  - [Intro]
  - A Woman Spins Her Tale
  - Dictated Letters
  - A Woman Writes
- Assessing Levels of Education: The Use of Rare Words
- Reading Our Descriptions of Language
Chapter 8 Economic and Social Situation
- [Intro]
- The Ptolemaic Letters
- Roman Archives
- Property
- Money
- Movable Goods
- Offices
- After the Fourth Century
Chapter 9 Household Management and Travel
- [Intro]
- Childbirth and Childrearing
  - [Intro]
  - Childbirth
  - Pregnancy
  - After the Birth
  - Nursing
  - Concerns
- Weaving and Other Textile-Related Activity
  - [Intro]
  - Textile Production
  - Other Items
- Household Management
  - [Intro]
  - Estate Management
  - Independence in Household Management
  - Directives to Males Regarding the Household
  - Advice/Assistance
  - Food Preparation
- Public Business
- Women’s Travels and Freedom of Movement
  - [Intro]
  - Travel Involving Childbirth
  - Travel Involving Estates
  - Family Visits
Chapter 10 Practical Help in Reading the Letters
- Names
- Kinship Terms
- Greeting Formulas
- The Proskynema Formula
- Money
- Dating
Letters
- A Archives and Dossiers
  - 1 Letters from the Zenon Archive
  - 2 Other Ptolemaic Letters
  - 3 The Isidora to Asklepiades Dossier
  - 4 From the Athenodoros Archive
  - 5 The Women of the Family of Pompeius
  - 6 The Tiberianus Archive
  - 7 Women of the Archive of Apollonios the Strategos
  - 8 Letters from the Eastern Desert
  - 9 The Dossier of Eirene
  - 10 The Dossier of Tasoucharion
  - 11 The Dossier of Diogenis
  - 12 The Dossier of Thermouthas
  - 13 Didyme and the Sisters
  - 14 Letters to Clergy and Holy Men
  - 15 The Archive of Papnouthis and Dorotheos
  - 16 Coptic Letters from Kellis
  - 17 Greek Letters of the Byzantine Period
  - 18 Correspondence of Bishop Pisentius
  - 19 Coptic Letters from Jeme
  - 20 Coptic Letters from the Monastery of Epiphanius
  - 21 Christophoria Writes to Count Menas
- B Themes and Topics
  - 1 Family Matters and Health
  - 2 Business Matters
  - 3 Legal Matters
  - 4 Getting and Sending
  - 5 Work: Agriculture
  - 6 Work: Weaving and Clothes Making
  - 7 Work: Other
  - 8 Journeys
  - 9 Literacy and Education
  - 10 Religion
  - 11 Epistolary Types: Urgent
  - 12 Epistolary Types: Just Greetings and Good Wishes
  - 13 Double Letters on a Sheet
  - 14 Coptic Letters
  - 15 Fragmentary Greek Letters
Notes
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 9
- Chapter 10
Bibliography

Related Titles
HEB Id	Title	Authors	Publication Information
heb02277.0001.001	The Demography of Roman Egypt.	Bagnall, Roger S., and Bruce W. Frier.	Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
heb02276.0001.001	Reading Papyri, Writing Ancient History.	Bagnall, Roger S.	London: Routledge, 1995.
	Le statut de la femme a Byzance, Volume I.	Beaucamp, Joelle.	Paris: De Boccard Edition-Diffusion, 1990.
	Le statut de la femme a Byzance, Volume II.	Beaucamp, Joelle.	Paris: De Boccard Edition-Diffusion, 1992.
heb02272.0001.001	Gymnastics of the Mind: Greek Education in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt.	Cribiore, Raffaella.	Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.
heb02273.0001.001	Writing, Teachers, and Students in Graeco-Roman Egypt.	Cribiore, Raffaella.	Atlanta: Scholarly Resources, Inc., 1996.
	Fiction in the Archives: Pardon Tales and Their Tellers in Sixteenth Century France.	Davis, Natalie Zemon.	Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1987.
heb02270.0001.001	Greek Forms of Address: From Herodotus to Lucian.	Dickey, Eleanor.	Cambridge: Oxford University Press UK, 1996.
heb02269.0001.001	Virgins of God: The Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity.	Elm, Susanna.	Cambridge: Oxford University Press UK, 2000.
heb02268.0001.001	To the Glory of Her Sex: Women's Roles in the Composition of Medieval Texts.	Ferrante, Joan M.	Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997.
	Guardians of Letters.	Haines-Eitzen, Kim.	New York: Oxford University Press USA, 2000.
heb02266.0001.001	Ancient Epistolary Theorists.	Malherbe, Abraham J.	Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1988.
heb02265.0001.001	Women in Hellenistic Egypt: From Alexander to Cleopatra.	Pomeroy, Sarah B.	New York: Schocken Books, 1984.
	Women and Society in Greek and Roman Egypt.	Rowlandson, Jane.	Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
heb02263.0001.001	Greek Papyri: An Introduction.	Turner, E. G.	Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968.
heb02262.0001.001	Letters from Ancient Egypt.	Wente, Edward F.	Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1990.