RELIGION AND SOCIETY

People in the Greek and Roman worlds were surrounded by the supernatural, thus religion was regularly intermingled with other aspects of life. On the other hand, cult activity often had special, designated times and places, and sometimes the structures and institutions of cult practice created alternative social realities and relationships different from the ‘everyday’ routines of social, political and economic life. In most ancient societies, the state played a major role in the organization and performance of religious rituals and festivals, but this is not to say that all religious life was controlled by the state. Many religious acts and celebrations were performed by individuals, households or other kinds of groups and associations with little or no reference to the state. Supernatural experts practised their arts at all levels. And belief in supernatural power was often enacted at a very personal level through the use of curses and magic.

Ancient religion is a vast subject, and it is possible to select only a few of its many gendered aspects here. In some cases participation in and engagement with cult and ritual weres gender-specific – only women or only men could take part (M. Dillon 2002: 237–9) – though other factors such as age and status could also be equally critical. Sometimes religious activities offered a niche for people to do things that were ‘out of the ordinary’ in terms of the usual expectations for gendered behaviours. And at other times religious rites and institutions reinforced established gendered ideals. These two trajectories need not be contradictory: sometimes the flouting of conventions in a religious context may simultaneously underpin their hegemony in ‘normal’, everyday life.