Scrinium Classical Antiquity

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  • Schön zu sein und gut zu sein. Mädchenbildung und Frauensozialisation im antiken Griechenland. Wiener Frauenverlag, Wien, 1989. 192p. Paperback. Small personal library mark and name on free endpaper. Series: Reihe Frauenforschung, Band 9. 'S.'s purpose is to argue that there was in most archaic and classical Greek cities a recognized pattern of training and socialization for girls and women, analogous to that which produced the 'kalos kagathos'. (…) The 'kale kagathe' was initiated into the rituals of her people and the secrets of her own fertility and sexuality; in addition to the classic female skill of making fabric, she learnt music, dancing and athletics. Since the male bias, and male ignorance, of most Greek literature obscures these patterns, S. uses comparative anthropology (especially Melanesia) to provide a framework for the fragments of evidence which survive: the most important are the poems of Sappho, Alcman's Partheneion and other gossip about Spartan athletics, and the Athenian women’s cults, especially the Arrephoria, Arkteia, Thesmophoria and Haloa. It is useful to have this material collected and surveyed in a clear and concise argument, but all of it is of course controversial, precisely because the evidence is fragmentary.' (G. CLARK in The Classical Review (New Series), 1990, p.508). From the library of the late Sir Kenneth James Dover. € 18.50 (Antiquarian) ISBN: 9783900399306

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