Summary

Becoming pregnant and giving birth were very important parts of the life of a woman in the ancient world, and this week you’ve considered how women would have learned about their roles. Men, too, had roles to play, not only in fathering babies – and there were different views about how women and men contributed to making a child – but also in assisting with birth.

Figure 16 Carved relief of a seated mother and her child

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Image of a carved relief of a mother holding a child on her lap. The child is standing on her knees and is wrapped up in swaddling clothes. They are depicted in profile, facing each other and looking fondly into each other’s eyes. Another woman on the right of the image supports the child’s head and back to help him or her to stand up.

Figure 16 Carved relief of a seated mother and her child

You have also learned about a ritual called the arkteia – a word which comes from the term for bear, arktos – and the idea that the bear is a ‘good mother’ because she literally ‘shapes’ her cub. Next week you will consider the production of the ideal body in more detail, focusing on the mobility of the body in relation to health.