Antiquity Studies

Female Advisors Between East and West

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Abstract

This article discusses the role of female advisors in Mesopotamian and Greek texts. Case studies are devoted to the advisors of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, and the female advisors in Herodotus, namely the daughters of Polycrates and Periander and Gorgo. While female advisors played an important role in Greece and Mesopotamia, the comparison revealed that, while in Mesopotamian texts the female advisors are mainly mother figures – whether human or divine –, daughters play an important role in Herodotus.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Nov. 24, 2023 | Accepted: April 3, 2024 | Published July 9, 2024 | Language: en

Keywords Herodotus • Female advisors • Ashurbanipal • Gorgo • Periander • Polycrates

Copyright © 2024 Jakub Kuciak, Sebastian Fink. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-776-0/006


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