Roxana Haste
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Arthur Verhoogt
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Classical Studies / LSA
Program: UROP
Session: Session 6 (3:40pm – 4:30pm)
Authors:
Abstract
When researching the behaviors of people in the past, it can be easy to explain their actions through a modern point of view, but this approach largely ignores the social and legal environment of these historical individuals. By analyzing the social norms and laws of Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, this project attempts to reevaluate letters between women and men and why women were expressing certain emotions and expectations towards the men they were writing to. Repeated themes of violence as well as financial and legal stress quickly arise when analyzing letters written from wives to husbands, mothers to sons, and women to members of their community. The letters suggest that both men and women were expected to be aware of the vulnerability that women faced in the absence of the male head of their family or household, as well as the responsibility held by these men to protect and financially support their families. These factors also reveal a motive behind women’s desire for sons or at least financially stable son-in-laws, as many aspects of their lives were completely reliant on these men. Although the true emotions of these women can never truly be known, this perspective not only moves away from modern explanations of their concerns but also provides a different idea as to why these women wrote what they did and why so much emphasis was placed on ensuring a trustworthy male head of the family.
