CLS 239 ROMAN WOMEN: PUELLA, MATRONA, MERETRIX, AMICA

PUELLA A brief stage in female life treasured by the Roman male (especially her father), between childhood and her passive journey into marriage Positive Images: Daughter, Bride, Heroine, Virgin Negative Images: Independent agent, strong, sexual, outspoken Associate Vocabulary: casta, pudica, innocens, virgo, ingenua, libera Transitional stages: Marriage, Death, Vestal Virgin

Testimonials:
Funerary and dedicatory inscriptions

Daughter:
Minicia Fundana (friend’s daughter): Pliny Yr. Epistulae 5.16
Perilla (stepdaughter): Ovid, Tristia 3.7
Erotion (slave): Martial, Epigrammata 5.34
Tullia (daughter): Cicero, Epistulae Ad Familiares 14.9, 4.5, 4.6

Victim (through rape, kidnapping, murder):
Sabine Women: Livy, AUC 1. 8-13; Ovid, Fasti 3.203-228, Ars Amatoria I.101-134
Verginia: Livy, AUC 3.44-59
Palaestra: Plautus, Rudens
Adelphasium: Plautus, Poenulus
Sister of Horatius: Livy, AUC 1.26-28

Nupta:
Lavinia: Vergil, Aeneid 11.478-83; 12.70-72; Livy, AUC 1.1-2
Catullus, Carmina 61; 62.57-65
Claudia Rufina: Martial, Epigrammata 11.53

Warrior:
Cloelia: Livy, AUC 2.13; Pliny Elder, Naturales Historiae 34.25; Seneca, Ad Marciam De Consolatione 16.2-3
Camilla: Vergil, Aeneid 11.248-720

Vestal Virgin:
Rhea Silvia: Livy, AUC 1.3; Ovid, Amores 3.6.45-82, Fasti 3.11-52
Postumia: Livy, AUC 4.44

Sibyl:
Virgil, Aeneid 6.35 ff.

Comedic Stereotypes:
Selenium: Plautus, Cistellaria
Planesium: Plautus, Curculio
Palaestra: Plautus, Rudens
Puella: Plautus, Persa
Adelphasium, Anterastilis: Plautus, Poenulus
Telestis: Plautus, Epidicus

Transgressive:
Tarpeia: Livy, AUC 1.11; Ovid, Fasti 3.201-228; Propertius, Elegiae 4.4
Sulpicia, Opera Omnia
Scylla: Ovid, Metamorphoses 8. 1-152
Iphis: Ovid, Metamorphoses 9. 669-797

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Ann R. Raia
Associate Professor of Classics
The College of New Rochelle
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