Michigan (2015) p/b 423pp £42.95 (ISBN 9780472036226)
This is the welcome appearance in paperback of the hard cover edition published in 2006. It contains readable translations of over 300 letters written by women in Greek and Egyptian on papyrus and pottery ostraca from the time of Alexander the Great until the Arab conquest. It includes 32 black and white photographs of selected letters and is linked to an e-book, containing further illustrations, fuller commentaries, a longer version of the introductory chapters and links to digitised texts.
There are ten introductory chapters on such topics as the authors’ methodology, the subjects of the letters, the mechanics of their writing, delivery and reading, analyses of the handwriting and language, information about the economic and social location of the women, their occupations and lives, and finally practical help in interpreting the forms of address, dating methods and current monetary values.
The main bulk of the volume is occupied by a self-contained presentation of each letter in English translation, together with useful contextual material. The letters are arranged in two broad groups: the first in archives and dossiers according to individuals, families or find groups, and the second thematically, in topics that include family and health-related matters, business and legal affairs, journeys, education and religious practices.
The subject matter of this book is important because it allows us direct access to these women’s concerns, occupations and everyday language, albeit filtered in many cases through the penmanship of secretaries and scribes. It provides vivid glimpses into the experience, not indeed of the illiterate poor, but at least of a broader social range of women than that offered by literary texts. Who could fail to sympathise with the anxiety of a mother whose son, Hegelochos, has a splinter in his foot, or of Leuchis, a widow, begging Apa John to use his influence to get billeted Gothic soldiers out of her house, or of Didymarion, whose daughter is threatening to throw herself into the sea if Paniskos’ mother stays with her another month?
This volume has already proved invaluable to professional scholars of papyrology and ancient history with its detailed documentation of the provenance, location and bibliography of each letter as well as discussion of the handwriting and possible historical context. But it is also a seminal text for students of women’s history, as well as being easily accessible to the intelligent general reader. These letters may be a disappointment to those eager to discover stylish literary rhetoric or philosophical disquisitions on the lot of women in the ancient world, but they do reveal in lively detail that even then women expended a considerable amount of energy on nagging reluctant husbands and absent children to send news home, despatching wedding gifts or condolences to relations, being harassed for non-payment of taxes and specifying shopping lists of fashion items for menfolk to buy in town.
Claire Gruzelier