Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece

(Princeton University Press) In the first comprehensive cultural history of priestesses in the ancient Greek world, Connelly argues that these women played far more significant roles in their society than previously assumed. With archeological, literary, and epigraphic evidence, Connelly explores how women ascended to these sacred roles and explains the rituals they performed, the political power they wielded, the authority and compensation they enjoyed, and the ways they were honored in life and death. Ultimately, she claims that women in religious office – from the Delphic Oracle and the priestess of Athena Polias to basket bearers and other female cult agents – could, unlike other women at the time, exercise privileges and authority akin to that of men. Joan Breton Connelly is professor of classics and art history at New York University. She is the author of Votive Sculpture of Hellenistic Cyprus .