Money, Power And Gender:Evidence For Influential Women Represented And Sculpture On Kos

159 Pages·2007·1.11 MB·English

by  Naomi Kaloudis

MONEY, POWER, AND GENDER:
EVIDENCE FOR INFLUENTIAL WOMEN REPRESENTED ON INSCRIBED BASES
AND SCULPTURE ON KOS

A Thesis presented to
the Faculty of the Graduate School
at the University of Missouri-Columbia

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts

by
NAOMI RUTH KALOUDIS

Dr. Susan Langdon, Thesis Supervisor

May 2007
© Copyright by Naomi Kaloudis 2007
All Rights Reserved
The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the thesis
entitled
MONEY, POWER, AND GENDER:
EVIDENCE FOR INFLUENTIAL WOMEN REPRESENTED ON INSCRIBED BASES
AND SCULPTURE ON KOS
presented by Naomi Kaloudis,
a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts,
and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance.

Professor Susan Langdon

Professor Kathleen Slane

Professor James McGlew
I would like to thank my mother, father, and brother for their support and willingness to
listen to every word I had to say no matter how trivial for then, now, and the journey still
to come....

In my couple years in graduate school I learned to appreciate Socrates’ statement the: ßn
o‰da ˜ti oÈd°n o‰da.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank the professors in my thesis committee for all their help
throughout this process. I would like to thank Professor Langdon for advising me over
the past months. I would like to also thank Professor Slane for her knowledge and input
on the Hellenistic period when I was stuck in my research. Finally, I want to thank
Professor McGlew for his understanding while I was writing my thesis.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...................................................................................................ii

LIST OF FIGURES.............................................................................................................v

Chapter

1. HISTORY OF KOS AND THE DODEKANESOS............................................1

Koan Women Benefactors: Assessing the Evidence.................................13

2. SURVEY OF INSCRIPTIONS AND SCULPTURE.......................................19

Kos and the Dodekanesos..........................................................................19

Koan Inscriptions...........................................................................19

Koan Sculpture...............................................................................26

Inscriptions of the Dodekanesos....................................................37

Sculpture of the Dodekanesos........................................................39

Comparanda...............................................................................................41

Delian Inscriptions.........................................................................41

Delian Sculpture.............................................................................43

Samothracian Inscriptions..............................................................45

Samothracian Sculpture.................................................................46

3. ROLES OF WOMEN IN THE HELLENISTIC EAST.....................................48

Economic and Cultural Conditions of Private Women..............................48

Women in the Priesthood...........................................................................55

The Role of Royal Benefactor...................................................................60

4. SCULPTURE AND INSCRIPTIONS: WHAT DO THEY MEAN?................66

Women in the Public Sphere on Kos as Priestesses of Demeter...............66

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Was there an Influence Coming from Egypt Concerning Women’s
Status?............................................................................................71

Kos and Comparanda.................................................................................76

Portrait Sculpture in Bronze.......................................................................83

How is Kos Different?...............................................................................89

CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................94

APPENDIX

1. CATALOGUE OF KOAN MATERIAL..........................................................98

2. INSCRIPTIONAL COMPARANDA..............................................................136

Dodekanesos............................................................................................136

Delos........................................................................................................140

Samothrace...............................................................................................142

3. SCULPTURAL DEDICATIONS ARRANGED BY DATE..........................144

BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................146

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Chapter 1: History of Kos and the Dodekanesos

In the Hellenistic period females from different social classes, including women
from the private sphere, priestesses, and queens, gained increased economic and social
authority. These women had the luxury of making donations to the demos and to hold
more religious authority. Through these networks, women were the objects and agents of
honors and dedications. These awards were represented in sculpture and inscribed on
sculpture bases. Kos, however, appears to be an anomaly in the Hellenistic world
because of the extreme amount of power women appeared to wield, whether as wealthy
women of the upper class, as priestesses to the large cults of the island, or as visiting
queens from nearby Egypt or Caria. Circumstances happening during the transition into
the Hellenistic world appeared to have opened up whole new avenues for female
participation in the public sphere in the Greek East as a whole; however, in comparison to
its regional brethren Kos stands out in the Dodekanesos for its claim to strong,
independent female benefactors.
The island of Kos naturally is more hospitable than the other islands of the
Dodekanesos. It is greener and more fertile with its natural springs than the surrounding
islands that are browner and rockier. Kos has one natural harbor and also one artificial
harbor that were built before its synoecism in 366 B.C. for the new capital. The natural
harbor lies on the island’s south coast at the city of Halasarna which sheltered ships from
the northern winds during the sailing season by the island’s mountain. There is also a
landing point by Astypalaia at the bay of Kamares. Otherwise, the south coast is lined by
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cliffs and not suitable for port.1 The Koans chose Kos for their new capital as a location
that provided the best trading point between Halikarnassos and the island, which was the
main trading route of the time, and quickly built a harbor. The new agora was also built
at this time and close to the harbor in order to facilitate commerce and trade.2
Additionally, the ancients quarried two types of marble on Kos. One type was a dark
grey stone that came from a quarry near Kephalos. The other marble was white and was
quarried from a spot on Prophitis Ilias near Kardamina. The white marble on Kos is
much stronger than that which is found on Rhodes. By the Hellenistic period both Koan
marbles were fully being exploited.3
Kos appears in history as an important bridge between Asia and Europe. It is one
of the largest islands of the Dodekanesos at 286 square miles, only smaller in size than
the two neighboring islands of Rhodes and Karpathos. However Kos was not alone; the
whole of the Dodekanesos shared in this strategic positioning. These islands’ good
fortunes depended on their strategic, political, and economic relations between Asia and
Europe. Its geographical location between Halikarnassos and Knidos at the entrance of
the Ceramian gulf and its possession of a good harbor naturally provided Kos with close
relations to both Rhodes and Egypt in political and economic aspects.4 Also, the Koans’
intellectual vitality attracted favorable attention from great monarchs of the time,
including Alexander the Great whose own court painter Apelles was born somewhere on
the island.5

1 Sherwin-White 1978, 52.
2 Sherwin-White 1978, 68.
3 Sherwin-White 1978, 19-20.
4 Rostovtzeff 1967, 240.
5 Paton and Hicks 1990, xxxiii.
2
The economic conditions of Kos are better known than any other island of the
Aegean.6 Literary works such as the Mimes of Theokritos and of Herondas describe
many different features of Koan life. The island continued to be mainly an agricultural
community. Its soil was fertile and the Koans were able to grow enough wheat and
barley for its people. Kos also produced excellent wine, abundant timber and made
considerable revenue from fishing and its silk manufacturing.7 The wine trade prospered
and the harbor dues it established supplied the island with ready cash. The number of
Koan stamped handles has been small in comparison to Rhodian and Knidian stamped
handles from jars, although they appear in many different parts of the Eastern
Mediterranean along the western and northern coasts of the Black Sea bear testimony to a
wide area of export for Kos. Höghammar believes that the multitude and distribution of
the stamped and unstamped Koan handles provides evidence indicating a continued
prosperity on Kos, at least for those Koans “involved in the growing of grapes and the
selling and export of wine.”8
Of all the islands of the Dodekanesos, Rhodes remained politically and
economically the most prominent. Since the remaining islands were always under the
supremacy of either Rhodes or Kos, they did not make a name for themselves as places of
much wealth or economic authority. The goal of Rhodes was to prevent any one power
from superseding another. The islanders did this for economic purposes. If there was no
dominating state then Rhodes could remain one of the premier trading nations in the
Hellenistic world without rivalry and the island could continue carrying products as far as

6 Rostovtzeff 1967, 236-7.
7 Rostovtzeff 1967, 240-1.
8 Höghammar 1993, 35-6.
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