Women and Children First: The Earliest Greek Amulets

This lecture will explore vase-paintings and votive statues that show how Greek women and male children wore knotted cords and strings of amulets to protect their bodies. The absence of similar amulets on naked adult males points to a restriction of use to females and immature males. This talk will also show how the wearing of childhood amulets by boys (especially on Cyprus and in Athens) seems intertwined with assertions of citizenship and other forms of status.