Celestial Motherhood: A Gender Study of the Archaeoastronomy of Female Constellations in the ancient Greek world

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This project, beginning in January 2022, explores the perception of gender and motherhood in the ancient Greek world through the lens of constellations and stars commemorating mythological persons and events, using the methods of phenomenology and archaeoastronomy to address evidence from written sources, archaeology, and art. In antiquity, it was known that the deities placed the stars as memorials. Constellations served as reminders of idealized heroism, courage, and devotion. Because idealized identities were divinely recorded in the grandest memorials, they helped shape identities on Earth, including those of gender. My starting observation is that the asterism literature of primary sources record dozens of constellations but only seven are definitively female. Each female is a mother, five are in a mother-child pairing, and all are in some degree of distress. The pattern suggests significance in the social construction of 'motherhood'. Research Question: How did Greek asterism mythology reflect and inform the social construction of gender, particularly motherhood?Supplementary questions: (1) What were the social meanings of female asterisms as experienced in the night sky, and how do they compare with representations in other media? (2) What links existed between the stars, the timing of so-called 'fertility festivals', and female mobility? (3) Did the authority implicit in constellations compel/constrain gendered behaviours or provide alternative models? (4) What was the social purpose of memorializing female/maternal suffering?This research is situated in three separate contexts: Classics, Archaeoastronomy, and Gender Studies. The cultural context is bounded by the Greek-speaking Mediterranean region during the Archaic through Hellenistic periods (c. 700 to 30 BCE). The Archaeoastronomy component will follow theoretically grounded and culturally contextualized methodologies established by Aveni (2008), Ruggles (2007), and Boutsikas (2010, 2021). Recent advances in gender studies (Foxhall 2013) have expanded our understanding of gender construction in antiquity. However, the relationship between cultural astronomy and gender is uncharted territory. My research fills in blank places on the map by focusing on 'celestial mothers': women considered worthy of celestial memorialization. I will adopt an interdisciplinary approach to the Classical evidence, incorporating mythology, phenomenology, and gender studies. The method will rely partially upon scientific archaeoastronomical research, and conclusions will be rooted within the cultural context, confirmed through ancient cosmology, mythology, iconography, and literature. Gender will be approached predominantly through intersectional theory.Our understanding of archaeoastronomy and gender in antiquity is still incomplete, but this research will add to those disciplines by bringing them together. The means and methods of identifying relationships between the night sky and gender will be applicable to studies of historical or contemporary anthropology, ethnography, and gender ideologies. In particular, the memorialization of gender norms and its interaction with gender expression will have broad application beyond classical archaeology.