Processing women and maidens in Greece: appearances and appurtenances

The public processions parading through the Greek poleis allowed for the different categories of citizens to be showcased in a strict hierarchical order. This paper concerns the involvement of women in the various age categories, investigating the reasons and ways of their inclusion in the processions. Particular attention will be paid to the occasion of the processions: are they processions with exclusive female participation or are women integrated into parades with wider citizen participation? Also, what positions do they occupy, what garments do they wear? The paper is therefore divided into two subsections. First, I will deal with the women’s ages (parthenoi and gynaikai especially) and roles (mainly priestesses or assistents in worship), then I will move on to a more detailed analysis of the ways in which they were included, the values displayed by their clothing and their specific position in the parade. The conclusions will offer a larger picture, including the relation to contemporary images of women in other contexts, such as in honorary monuments or in funerary statues.