pomegranateandivy:

Reading Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece, By Joan Breton Connelly and it’s pretty neat. Here are some interesting points so far.

“….. Instead, religion was embedded in every aspect of life and was intensely local, highly dependent on regional tradition.”

“The Greeks did not even have a separate word for religion, since there was no area of life that lacked a religious aspect.”

“Cleaning, weaving, washing, dressing, decorating, grinding, cooking, and feeding can all be seen as the work of women in both house and sanctuary across the ages. It is this powerful analogy between house and temple that provides a critical foundation for female agency in Greek religion”

“For priestesses, failure to observe cult requirements represented not just a lapse in duty but a serious crime. It could arouse the wrath of the divinity and cause disorder in the harmonious functioning of the community.”

“As practitioners of household worship and the host of rituals occasioned by domestic life, Greek women assumed the role of ‘priestess’ within their own families.” This is interesting to me, because I’ve seen the same idea discussed about men as the head of the household assuming a role of ‘priest’ within the home, but this is the first time I’ve seen the idea posed for women.