‘Working women’: female professionals on Classical Attic gravestones

Abstract

Figured gravestones commemorating female professionals constitute a distinct group among Attic memorials of the Classical period. Gravestones of this group honour the dead women by emphasizing their occupations and professional accomplishments, concentrating on the professional rather than the familial or social persona of the dead in order to preserve their memory in posterity. Despite their relative infrequence, such memorials shed light on the place of women in Athenian society and may serve as an additional source of evidence for the perception of the female role at the time. Deviating from the set modes of female funerary commemoration and the typical emphasis on domestic scenes, which sustains the contemporary ideal of secluded Athenian women, the memorials under consideration register a ‘public persona’ for the women they honour, making us aware of the complexities of the role of women in ancient Greek society.