Women in Antiquity

Questions for Feb 7th

• What does Lerner mean by the "stand-in-wife" and "the pawn"?
  
  
• How did marriage function in Mesopotamian society? What is meant by the "exchange of women" or the "traffic in women"?
  
  
• How were adultery and rape defined? What were the penalties for committing these crimes? Who did these laws protect?
  
  
• Are there parallels between Mesopotamian and archaic Greek societies? How might Lerner categorize Penelope?
  
  
• What can we learn about archaic Greek gender constructions from the myths they tell about the origins of women?