Perseus Texts

Sample links directly to Perseus texts of special interest

• Passages about the Amazons
  • Strabo, Geography 11.5.1
  • Herodotus, Histories 4.110.1-113.3
  • Plutarch, Theseus 26.1-27.4
  • Diodorus, Historical Library 17.77.1-3
  • Strabo, Geography 12.3.20-22
  • Everything else in Perseus on the Amazons

• Hermotimus, one of Xerxes' eunuchs, takes a mighty vengeance on Panionius, who had castrated him (Herodotus 8.104.1-107.4)

• Periander son of Cypselus sent to Alyattes at Sardis three hundred boys, sons of notable men in Corcyra, to be made eunuchs (Herodotus 3.48.1-50.1)

• Periander murders his wife (Herodotus 3.50.1-52.4) and then even "puts his loaves into a cold oven" (5.92g.1-4); read also about Egyptian necrophilia at Herodotus 2.89.1-2

• "All for the sheer indecency of it" -- another unruly tyrant (Strabo 6.1.8-8)

• The love affair of Harmodius and Aristogeiton (Thucydides 6.54.1-59.1)

• Further examples of political strife arising from love affairs and other private matters (Aristotle, Politics 1303b-1304a)

• Strife at Thuriae arising over the unequal treatment of citizens' wives (Diodorus 12.11.1-5)

• The nomothete (lawgiver) Charondas at Thuriae decreed political disenfranchisement for men who introduced stepmothers into their households (Diodorus 12.12.1-1), and this was celebrated in poetry (Diodorus 12.14.1-2)

• Charondas also revised laws concerning divorce and heiresses (Diodorus 12.18.1-4)

• Compare the parallel legislation attributed to Solon at Athens (Plutarch, Solon 20.2-5)

• Solon also legislated concerning women's public appearances, including at funerals (Plutarch, Solon 21.4-5)

• Elpinice and the other loves of Cimon (Plutarch, Cimon 4.5-9)

• Athenian benevolence towards the daughters of famous men (Plutarch, Aristeides 27.1-4)

• The hero shrine of Hyrnetho (Pausanias 2.28.3-7)

• "So stern were our ancestors toward all shameful conduct, and so precious did they hold the purity of their children, that when one of the citizens found that his daughter had been seduced, and that she had failed to guard well her chastity till the time of marriage, he walled her up in an empty house with a horse..." (Aeschines, Against Timarchus 180-185)

• Rituals of initiation at the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia in Sparta (Pausanias 3.16.7-17.2); cf. the festival of Dionysos at Alea in Arcadia

• On the sacrifice of a lock of hair before marriage
  • at Megara (Pausanias 1.43.1-4)
  • at Troezen (Pausanias 2.32.1)
  • on Delos (Herodotus 4.33.1-35.4)
  • cf. Pausanias 2.34.10-12 on sacrifices to Aphrodite

• Antisthenes of Acragas throws a party (Diodorus 13.84.1-3)

• Dionysus and Ariadne provide entertainment at a symposium (Xenophon Symposium 9.3-7)

• Did women attend the theater in Classical Athens?
  • Aristophanes: Thesmophoriazusae; Birds; Peace
  • Plato: Laws; Gorgias

• Suitors for
  • Agariste (Herodotus 6.126.1-132.2)
  • The daughter of Themistocles (Plutarch, Themistocles 18.4-5)
  • Hippodameia (Pausanias 6.21.9-22.1; cf. 6.20.17-19, 5.14.6, 8.14.9-12, and Pindar, Olympian 1.65-90)
  • Penelope and the daughters of Danaus (Pausanias 3.12.1-6)
  • Helen and Penelope (Pausanias 3.20.8-11)
  • Helen (Isocrates, Helen 38-41)
  • The daughter of Neleus (Pausanias 4.36.1-3)
  • Atalanta (Xenophon, On Hunting 1.7)
  • The daughter of Aidoneus (Plutarch, Theseus 31.1-4 )
  • The daughter of Antaeus (Pindar, Pythian 9.102-125)

• At the festival in honor of Demeter, "...the men and women laugh and jeer at each other..." (Pausanias 7.27.9-10)

• "...approach women in the summer not at all, and in the winter only sparingly" (Pythagoras, as quoted by Diodorus 10.9.3-4)

• The encounter of Socrates and Theodote (Xenophon, Memorabilia 3.11.1-18)

• Xanthippe, wife of Socrates, in Plato's Phaedo and Xenophon's Symposium

• "...the odors appropriate to men and to women are diverse..." (Xenophon, Symposium 2.1-4 )

• "There was a certain Episthenes of Olynthus who was a lover of boys ..." (Xenophon, Anabasis 7.4.7-11)

• Lycurgus and Spartan pederasty (Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaimonians 2.12-14)

• Ephorus on Cretan pederasty (Strabo 10.4.20-21)

• "...Cleomachus the pugilist, having fallen in love with a certain cinaedus and with a young female slave who was kept as a prostitute by the cinaedus, imitated the style of dialects and mannerisms that was in vogue among the cinaedi." (Strabo, Geography 14.1.41)

• Male Prostitution:
  • Aeschines, Against Timarchus (key passage is 19-22)
  • Demosthenes, Against Androtion 29-32 and also 73
  • Demosthenes, Against Stephanus 1 77-79
  • Diodorus 12.21.1

• Dracon and the punishment of adultery at Athens (Pausanias 9.36.6-8)

• Lysias, On the Murder of Eratosthenes (1-7, 8-14, 15-21, 22-28, 29-35, 36-42, 43-50)

• Transvestites
  • Herodotus 5.18.1-21.2 (click here for Part II)
  • Pausanias 4.4.2-3
  • Spartan wives rescue their spouses from jail by dressing them as women (Herodotus 4.146.1-4)
  • Mandatory crossdressing as a punishment for cowardice (Diodorus 12.16.1-2)

• The story of Daphne, Leucippus, and Apollo (Pausanias 8.20.1-21.1)

• The story of Narcissus (Pausanias 9.31.8)

• The story of Coresus and Callirhoe (Pausanias 7.21.1-5)

• Medea and her accursed children (Pausanias 2.3.5-11)

• Plato on the wandering womb (Plato, Timaeus 90e-91d )

• The duties of the 10 Astynomoi at Athens (Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians 50.1-2) There are many other references in Perseus texts to flute-girls, harp-girls, and lyre-girls.

• The duties of the Eponymous Archon at Athens (Aristotle, Ath. Pol. 56.2-7)

• Comparison of some themes in Plato's Republic Book 5 and Aristophanes' Ecclesiazusae
  • Plato (457c) - Community of women - Aristophanes (614)
  • Plato (463c) - Difficulty of recognizing one's own children - Aristophanes (635)
  • Plato (462a) - Unity of the city considered the highest good - Aristophanes (673)
  • Plato (464d) - No more legal actions - Aristophanes (657-672)
  • Plato (465a) - No more violence against the elderly - Aristophanes (641-43)

• "Lycurgus gave every father authority over other men's children as well as over his own." (Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaimonians 6.1-3)

• Ariston, king of Sparta, falls in love with his best friend's wife (Herodotus 6.61.1-63.3)

• Demaretus, king of Sparta, tries to determine who his father was (Herodotus 6.63.1-70.5)

• Ephorus on the founding of Tarentum by the Partheniae (Strabo 6.3.3-3)

• Phronime, daughter of Etearchus and mother of Battus (Herodotus 4.154.1-156.1)

• The death of Alexander, ruler of Thessaly, at the hands of his wife (Xenophon, Hellenica 6.4.35-37)

• Images of Athena on the Acropolis at Athens (Pausanias 1.24.1-7)

• The Birth of Pandora
  • Hesiod, Works and Days 40-105
  • Hesiod, Theogony 507-610
  • Pausanias 1.24.5-7 (base of the Athena Parthenos by Pheidias)

• The temple of Hera at Argos (Pausanias 2.17.1-7)

• The Sixteen Women who serve Hera at Olympia (Pausanias 5.16.1-17.1) -- next passage

• Black Athena (Herodotus 4.189.1-4)

• The cave of Black Demeter near Phigalia (Pausanias 8.42.1-7)

• A biannual festival of Isis at Tithorea in Phocis (Pausanias 10.32.13-18)

• Telesilla, the lyric poetess of Argos (Pausanias 2.20.8-10)

• Callipateira's illicit entry into the Olympic Games (Pausanias 5.6.7-8)

• The magnanimity of Philip after the capture of Olynthus (Diodorus 16.55.1-4)

• The fabulous Satyrides islands (Pausanias 1.23.5-6)

• The daughter of King Amasis (Herodotus 3.1.1-2.2) The sequel

• Cyrus and some Persians discuss suitable wives (Xenophon Cyropaedia 8.4.13-27)

• A cross-cultural study of circumcision (Herodotus 2.104.1-4; cf. 2.36.1-37.3)

• Herodotus on barbarian polyandry, polygamy, polyamory, and general promiscuity
  • Lydians (cf. Strabo, Geography 13.4.7)
  • Massagetae (Cf. Hdt. 203.2)
  • Babylonians and Cypriots
  • Egyptians
  • Indians
  • Libyans
  • Gindanes
  • Auseans
  • Agathyrsi
  • Thracians
  • Other passages manifesting the persistent Herodotean interest in sexual practices
  • Cf. the tattooed Mossynoecians mentioned in Xenophon's Anabasis, and the description by Diodorus of these same people; cf. also comments on the Spartans in Xenophon's Constitution of the Lacedaimonians

• Gyges and the wife of Candaules (Herotodus 1.8.1-12.2)

• Cyrus encounters Tomyris, queen of the Massagetae (Herotodus 1.204.1-214.5)

• Atossa advises Darius to invade Greece (Herodotus 3.134.1-136.1)

• Artemisia advises Xerxes to go home after his defeat at Salamis (Herodotus 8.101.1-103.1)

• Scheming in the court of Xerxes (Herodotus 9.108.1-113.2)

• The satrap Mania (Xenophon, Hellenica 3.1.9-15)

• Pythodoris, ruler of Lesser Armenia (Strabo 11.2.18, 12.3.29-31, 12.3.37, 14.1.42)

• The fate of the Persian women after the battle at the Issus (Diodorus 17.35.1-7; cf. Herodotus, 9.81.1-2, Xenophon, Cyropaedia 4.3.1-2, Plutarch, Pericles 24.7-7, Herodotus 9.76.1-3, and Plutarch, Themistocles 26.1-4)

• The fate of the wife and the mother of Darius after the battle at the Issus (Diodorus 17.37.3-38.4)

• Alexander and the fighting women of Bactria (Diodorus, Historical Library 17.84.1-6)

• Genetic engineering by Alexander and Thallestris (Diodorus 17.77.1-7)

• "... a swelling on the breast of Atossa ..." (Herodotus 3.133.1-137.5)

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