Society of Classical Studies 156th Annual Meeting
JANUARY 2-5, 2025
PHILADELPHIA
Call for Papers for Panel Sponsored by the Lambda Classical Caucus
Queer Families in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Organized by Kristina Milnor, Barnard College
The idea of “chosen families” has long been part of queer identity in the modern world. Often estranged from their natal kin, queer people have turned to creating communities framed around familial principles: inter-generational nurturing relationships; shared households and responsibilities; lifelong bonds of affection and support. The purpose of this panel is to use that lens to examine the ancient world, to see where non-normative households and kinship groups arose and/or were represented in ancient textual and material culture.
In this panel, therefore, we aim to broaden the definition of what constituted a “family” in antiquity. We already know that, for instance, the origin of the English word is the Latin familia, which refers not just to members of a household who are biologically related, but the enslaved residents as well. Similarly, the oikos in ancient Greece could signify the house, the household members, and the property associated with it. Nevertheless, there persists the idea that the ancient family was framed around a heterosexual marriage and its biological offspring. In this panel we will consider questions such as: beyond the heteronormative model, what actually defined family? Under what non-normative circumstances were kinship terms used and/or redefined? Where do we see relationships being created which imitate or build on “traditional” definitions of familial ones?
Some possible topics include:
- Households built around same-sex relationships, such as that of Laelius and Scipio Africanus (Cicero, de Amicitia 103: “una domus erat”) or Pausanias and Agathon in Plato’s Symposium
- Divine parenting, such as seen in representations of Dionysus and baby Hermes or nymphs as communal caregivers
- Relationships within same-sex religious communities
- Non-traditional “households” such as brothels or military encampments
- Polyamorous relationships framed within the language of marriage (such as Allia Potestas and her lovers)
- Alternate interpretations of material evidence which suggest non-traditional household relations
- Brother-sister marriage in Ptolemaic Egypt
- Use of kinship terms to describe non-biological relationships (e.g. “frater” in Petronius’ Satyricon)
Please send abstracts that follow the guidelines for individual abstracts (see the SCS Guidelines for Authors of Abstracts) by email to Bryan Burns, Wellesley College, at bburns@wellesley.edu by March 1. Ensure that the abstracts are anonymous. The organizer and one other scholar will review all submissions anonymously, and their decision will be communicated to the authors of abstracts by March 15, with enough time that those whose abstracts are not chosen can participate in the individual abstract submission process for the upcoming SCS meeting.