Copeland-English-Etruscan Dictionary Volume 1 (Update 07.29.2024), 512pp. This refines the (draft) translations of "Introduction to the Etruscan Language," by Mel Copeland. (2024)

The fabled liberty of Etruscan women, and Greek and Roman stereotypes. The matrilineal claim in light of matronymics, patronymics, and shifts to Roman patterns. Women in Etruscan religion, as reflected in tomb art and regalia. The Hatrencu: a line of priesteses? Vegoia and Tanaquil as seeresses and cultural founders.

S. James and S. Dillon (eds.), A Companion to Women in the Ancient World, pp. 38-53, 2012

Both the definition and identification of the ‘Cypriot Goddess’ before the Hellenistic period are problematic. There is no secure evidence for the equation of a ‘Cypriot Goddess’ with Aphrodite before the late Cypro-Classical period. The presence of a single distinctive deity, who is specifically Cypriot, and her interaction with other Mediterranean female goddesses (especially before the Hellenistic period) are also complex issues. The function and meaning of any female image before Late Cypriot IIIB remains an open question. During that period, however, and for the first time in the history of the island, we find a terracotta female figure in a clearly (religious) ritual context. Based on the evidence from Enkomi, I argue that this figure relates to an indigenous goddess; and it is this goddess that in the Iron Age becomes directly linked to royal ideology at least in some kingdom-polities of the island. Eventually, shortly before the abolition of the kingdoms by Ptolemy I, she begins to be addressed as Aphrodite.

Pallas, 2016

This paper aims at giving an overview of the quantitative and qualitative dimension of the female element in the field of Etruscan votive inscriptions. It offers a systematic discussion of dedications set by Etruscan women and attested by inscriptions from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period. The study does not focus primarily on religious aspects, but by taking into account the underlying social context it tries to cast some additional light on the role of women in Etruscan society.

KE-RA-ME-JA: Studies Presented to Cynthia W. Shelmerdine, 2014

This paper argues that the "Mycenaean" evidence suggests that Minoan religion was polytheistic.

This is the title page and Table of Contents of the 2016 publication edited by me and Jean MacIntosh Turfa. Just to introduce the book to the academia.edu crowd...

The Classical World, 1977

In the mid-fifth century B.C.E., the cult of the goddess Artemis spread to Cyprus from Greece and by the Hellenistic period had grown in popularity and spread across the island. Artemis, a potnia theron (Mistress of Animals), is closely associated with fauna in terms of hunting as well as animal fertility; in Cypriot votive art, she is often depicted carrying a quiver and accompanied by a fawn or dog to illustrate this fact. Artemis is also thought to have assimilated qualities of an ancient Cypriot mother goddess or “Great Goddess” and therefore has ties to human fertility and procreation.Despite these characteristically feminine qualities, however, Artemis imagery is almost always found sharing space in Cypriot sanctuaries with male deities, such as the Cypriot incarnations of Apollo, Herakles, Zeus, and Pan. This paper explores the iconography of Artemis and of the gods alongside whom she is often discovered, drawing comparanda from contemporary sites around the island (e.g., Idalion, Pyla, Salamis, Vouni) but focusing specifically on imagery from the inland rural sanctuary at Athienou-Malloura. Malloura’s open-air sanctuary, in use from the Geometric through Roman periods, has yielded several thousand fragments of votive sculpture over the past quarter-century of excavation, the vast majority of which depict males, both gods and generic human gures. Most of the comparatively few female votives are thought to depict Artemis and are significant not in spite of, but because of, their rarity. Through a careful examination of these pieces and the iconography of the male deities represented at Malloura, this paper reveals the parallels between the goddess of the hunt and the gods with whom she shares worship space, with the ultimate goal of elucidating their relationship and explaining the proximity of their dedications. Specifically, I suggest that Artemis’s affinity for animals and her faunal attributes compare favorably with all four major male deities known to have been worshiped at Malloura, although the goddess’s gender alters how this affinity was perceived, as the combination of feminine identity and young animals emphasizes her role as a fertility goddess. I argue that her perpetual virginal state enables her to ful ll disparate roles as goddess of the hunt, a specifically male activity, and of fertility, a classically female trait, by separating sexuality from gender and establishing her as a figure of individual power unbridled by the males alongside whom she was venerated.Presented at the 117th Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in San Francisco, CA (2016).

ABSTRACTMention Minoans, and most people will call to mind vivid artistic images of Minoan females, from theformidable serpent-wielding figures known as the Snake Goddesses to elegantly clad ladies on frescos andgold rings. Imagery of this kind led Sir Arthur Evans to identify a Great or Mother Goddess at the heartof Minoan religion. The idea that each and every female figurine represents a ‘mother goddess’ concernedwith fertility has been thoroughly critiqued by numerous scholars. Why then was the model of a mothergoddess so attractive to early archaeologists such as Evans? Why were her powers deemed to be centred onfertility and motherhood, despite the evidence from many cultures that goddesses can and do also fulfil ahost of other functions? It may be argued that this narrow view was strongly informed by the complex socialand intellectual ideas of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including social evolutionary theory,Freudian psychology, and the construction of the female body in medicine. I suggest that another importantfactor was the contemporary idealisation of, and preoccupation with, motherhood as a conscious socialstrategy, in which motherhood was held to be crucial to the well-being of the imperial nation. This paperexplores this ideology of motherhood and its role in shaping Evans’s concept of a Minoan mother goddess.

in: Cyprus: an island culture. Society and Social Relations from the Bronze Age to the Venetian Period. edited by Artemis Georgiou, 2012

‘Goddesses with Upraised Arms’ (GUAs) is a type of figures and figurines, which emerged in Bronze Age Crete, known in Cyprus from Late Cypriot III down to the Classical period. The GUAs are said to represent a female, based on the typical presence of breasts, but also on the elaborate headdress, skirt, or rich jewelry. They are mostly interpreted as Goddesses or priestesses. This paper is an attempt to go beyond the traditional methodology, which classifies figurines primarily by sex and assume their social role and meaning according to their masculine/feminine category. Instead, it focuses on gender as a cultural process, which leaves open the possibility of there being more than two categories, such as gender ambiguity. As a case study I review some of the Cypriot GUAs with an articulated, painted chin, which might be identified as a beard. They bear a strong resemblance to the so-called warrior figurines, which besides a similarly shaped chin also have a pillar-like decorated skirt, although most of them hold shield and spear.