Hi there. You're listening to the Hellenistic Age podcast. Episode 27, Hellenistic Women Part 1, Daily Life and Roles If you were to take any random person off the street, whether they knew a great amount or very little about history,

and presented them with either a list of names or images that directly relate

to the Hellenistic Age or ancient history in general. I almost guarantee that while most people

would certainly know about Alexander the Great, thanks to the power of Shakespeare and popular

culture, everyone would immediately recognize the name of Cleopatra the 7th of Ptolemaic Egypt.

One of the great changes in the Hellenistic period is that women, primarily from the upper class,

began to take positions closer under the historical lens of authors of the ancient world.

Queens such as Cleopatra the 7th, Olympias of Epiros, Arsenaway II, Cleopatra Thea, and so on and so forth,

became more actively involved in the political life of the period, rather than taking a backseat, as was the case in classical Greece.

In addition, the more cosmopolitan urbanized Hellenistic world gives rise to a greater

volume of evidence that allows us to better piece together the daily lives of women across

these territories, and the various changes and similarities that occurred throughout the period.

What I wanted to do was to take a two-episode journey, the first to be focusing on what

life was like for your typical woman in a Hell-episode journey, the first to be focusing on what life was like

for your typical woman in a Hellenistic society, and the second part to focus on women of power.

This means I will have to do a number of generalizations, given the scale of what I have to work with.

But I am going to be focusing on the realms of Antigna and Macedon and Greece,

Ptolemaic Egypt and Alexandria, Asia Minor and the Seleucids.

Following this, I will cover the various ways the roles of women expanded throughout the period,

whether in regards to political, social, or economic autonomy, and more.

So, without further ado, let us begin part one.

But before we can start properly, I think it is important that we look at our sources,

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