Women in Greek and Roman Athletics

Abstract

This thesis addresses scholarly debate about whether women participated in athletics in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. Some people still argue today that women could not participate in ancient athletics, using restrictive definitions of what is considered as athletic and sometimes omitting important evidence. The assumption that women did not participate in ancient athletics was also the basis of Victorian era arguments against women’s inclusion in sports. Pierre de Coubertin, for example, vehemently opposed women’s inclusion in the modern Olympics, citing “ancient ideals” as a reason not to allow women in sports. This work provides a great deal of evidence that women did participate in ancient athletics, assessing both literary and material evidence from the ancient world. There is a particular emphasis on material evidence to provide a sense of what female athletics were like in the ancient world without the biases of ancient authors. Ancient literature especially demonstrates how women’s participation in athletics was received at the time. This work also draws connections to the modern era, outlining how participation in women’s sports has increased since the Victorian era and arguing against the misuse of ancient evidence in the modern world to bolster claims that women should not participate in sports.