Greek Networks vs Regional Hybridity? Greek Women and Greek Colonies

Did Greek women participate in the founding of Greek colonies? Facing the lack of sufficient evidence, I develop the argument that Greek women had to be present as implied by religion, about half female in terms of public cult – and mostly female in terms of household and life-cycle cults. The nomima of a colony were established at foundation and imply plenty of available women capable of conducting public rites. For example, fixing the sacred calendar that included female rites; oikos cults did not depend on a fixed calendar and familiarity with them had to be common across society and applicable at a moment’s notice (for example, birth, death). Analytically, ‘mixed marriages’ have been discussed in terms of ‘hybridity’. Yet if applicable, the concept works against the idea: hybridity relies on the local and the regional for peculiar characteristics to emerge (‘Roman’ Gaul, for example). Yet the Small Greek World of Greek poleis, extending from the Black Sea to the western Mediterranean, shared far too many commonalities to allow for such a proposition.