“Girls, be good to these spirits of music and poetry that breast your threshold with their scented gifts. Lift the lyre, clear and sweet, they leave with you. ” - Sappho

In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists at LACMA

Fresco of a woman with a writing
tablet from Pompeii, 1st century CE
Janson, H.W. and Anthony F. Janson. History of Art. Sixth edition.
University of North Carolina, Wilmington: Prentice Hall, Inc., 2001.

2640 BCE

Chinese Empress Leizu discovers the silk strand and  invents the silk loom

c. 1370 - 1330 BCE

Nefertiti rules Egypt with Akhenaten

Queen Nefertiti
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Nefertiti_30-01-2006.jpg

 

12th century BCE

c. 600 BCE

Sappho writes poetry and teaches young women poetry and music

Artemis petting swan. c. 490 BCE
http://www.finebooksmagazine.com/issue/
200902/graphics/greek-1.jpg

Recently discovered sculpture of Cleopatra?
http://lesbianpiratequeen.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/cleopatra.jpg

Stele of Dedia with Horus, Osiris and Isis. 
1290 - 1279 BCE. Diorite.
http://worldreligion.nielsonpi.com/media/osiris_isis_horus.jpg

Did women in Ancient Egypt have equal rights to men?

Goddesses are just as prominent in
Ancient Egyptian mythology as gods

Isis appears to be the oldest Egyptian deity

Several goddesses, such as Isis, were well revered

Unlike most Egyptian gods, Isis
was worshipped almost universally

Suggests that women were generally
respected and revered in Ancient Egypt

Isis Nursing Horus 664 - 332 BCE
http://www.louvre.fr/llv/oeuvres/detail_notice.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_
id=10134198673225565&CURRENT_LLV_NOTICE%3C%3Ecnt_
id=10134198673225565&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=9852723696500776&bmLocale=en

Isis Nursing Horus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Egypte_louvre_029.jpg

Sometime between the end of the Bronze Age and the emergence of Classic Greek civilization,
women's roles, and their cultural value, changed dramatically

Ancient Greece
http://www.in2greece.com/english/maps/map_of_Ancient_Greece.jpg

"Man is the measure of all things." - Protagoras

Only native men of high social rank could be citizens

With the exception of slaves,
women were rarely able to leave the home

Women of all classes were considered far inferior to males

Female infanticide was fairly common

Men around age 30 after they'd had a few intimate relationships

Riace Warrior. c. 450 - 440 BCE.
http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/Images/109images/greek
_archaic_classical/sculpture/riace_warrior.jpg

patriarchy = a form of social organization in which the father is the supreme authority in the family, clan, or tribe and descent is reckoned in the male line, with the children belonging to the father's clan or tribe.

“AD” Painter.  Women at the Fountain House.
Greek Hydria.  520 – 510 BCE.

"To date, matriarchy has not been found in any culture, at any time.  By contrast, matriliny, which refers to descent reckoned through the female rather than the male line, is thought to characterize numerous cultures, notably in prehistory.  Matrilocality, wherein the husband moves into the wife's clan, has also been found.  But matriliny and martilocality are not matriarchy.  In both cases, the woman's brother, not her husband, wields power - and he is a man." from The Myths of Motherhood by Shari L. Thurer

To the Greeks, matriarchy represented chaos and disorder.  It was in opposition to civilization and what was "normal." - Shari L. Thurer

"Every woman is trouble, she has only two good times: one is the wedding, the other is her death." - Palladas