Elite Women in Hellenistic History, Historiography, and Reception

The Hellenistic world, with its many new cultural trends and traditions, has often proved a challenging period for scholars. In the wake of changing political, religious, cultural, economic, and social conceptions and practices, gender roles and notions also underwent significant change, leading to the emergence of strong female figures. Up to now, however, no major encompassing research work on elite Hellenistic women has been published. This volume aims to fill this historiographical gap by gathering together contributions covering a wide range of geographical, chronological, and cultural backgrounds. While mostly focused on royal women, the chapters included here also seek to provide readers with an accurate and diverse description of the female experience in the Hellenistic period. The contributors to this book, both renowned scholars and new voices in the discipline, together advocate for a fresh approach that goes beyond the often problematic approaches of earlier historiography and provides a new understanding of elite women in the period.