Świadectwa epigraficzne a badanie historii kobiet w starożytnej Grecji

A brief overview of the history of research on women in ancient Greece is followed by some considerations concerning the still insuffi cient use of inscriptions in this fi eld. Two case studies confront the male-dominated public discourse, fragments of which have been preserved in literary texts, with the social reality refl ected in epigraphic material. The fi rst case shows that publicly postulated anonymity of “decent” women (especially those of citizen status) was not respected in some categories of more private inscriptions (mortgage stones, dedications, gravestones, etc.). The second case study confronts philosophical and medical ideas on infertility (Aristotle, Corpus Hippocraticum) with inquiries about childlessness preserved in the corpus of oracular lead tablets from the sanctuary of Zeus in Dodona. While in the ideologically conditioned philosophical and medical literature, it is always the woman who is held responsible for the lack of off spring, the oracular tablets off er a much more complicated picture, with both men and women considering that, in a given situation, infertility could be a male problem.