The Art of Queenship in the Hellenistic World

Patricia Eunji Kim

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009502146
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: History of Ancient Art

In The Art of Queenship in the Hellenistic World, Patricia Eunji Kim examines the visual and material cultures of Hellenistic queens, the royal and dynastic women who served as subjects and patrons of art. Exploring evidence in the interconnected eastern Mediterranean and western Asia from the fourth to second centuries BCE, Kim argues that the arts of queenship were central to expressions of dynastic (and sometimes even imperial) consolidation, continuity, and legitimacy. From gems, coins, and vessels to monuments and sculpture, the visual and material cultures of queenship appeared in a range of sacred settings, public spaces, royal courts, and domestic domains. Encompassing several dynasties, including the Hecatomnids, Argeads, Ptolemies, Seleucids, and Attalids, Kim inaugurates new methods for comparing and interpreting visual articulations of queenship and ideal femininity from distinct yet culturally entangled contexts, thus illuminating the ways that women had an impact art and politics in the ancient world.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Imprints page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Maps
• Acknowledgments
• Note on the Text
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction: Bodies of Power
• Chapter One Engendering Dynasty: Monumental Women and Public Sculpture
• Chapter Two Wives from Western Asia and the Making of Hellenistic Queenship
• Chapter Three (Be)holding the Beautiful Bodies of Ptolemaic Queens
• Chapter Four The Performance of Sisterhood and Portrayals of Seleucid Queenship
• Chapter Five Royal Mothers and Attalid Dynastic Monuments
• Chapter Six Conclusion: Looking for Queens
• Bibliography
• Index