A Heritage of Her Own?

Abstract

This book presents a renewed consideration of women’s poetry in ancient Greek literature by offering a detailed analysis of the works attributed to female poets from the Hellenistic era. These scarce and fragmented texts are translated and interpreted within the context of ancient Greece’s written traditions, especially within the framework of a potential women’s poetic tradition. This autonomous poetic heritage, presumably initiated by Sappho in the archaic period, is defined as a tradition of literary influence between women writers and their female forebears, all of whom – scholarship has argued – focused collectively, and exclusively, on feminine values, concerns, and experiences. The existence of this segregated tradition is investigated via the literary device of allusion, in its many forms and functions, to determine whether remnants of such a heritage may indeed be found, and whether it can be traced back to the private, sensual world of Sapphic songs or perhaps even further to the mainstream, mythical tales of the Homeric warrior. Glimpses of women’s lived experiences are revealed along the way, from female education and literacy, to maidenhood, motherhood, love, and loss.