Educated by the Nine Muses? Representations of women with writing materials on funerary monuments

Both in funerary reliefs and in the written sources, writing tools and materials are often associated with men. Freedmen in Rome and members of the provincial roman elite are depicted with scrolls and toga on their grave monuments, librarii with writing tablets and styli in the act of writing. Much less common are depictions of women with writing implements or the mention of learned women in ancient sources from the early imperial period. However, the number of portrayals of writing women increases during the imperial period and in late antiquity their number even exceeds the representations of writing men. The choice of the writing utensils depicted, the actions associated with them, the other attributes such as the garments and the type of monu-ment on which the representation is figured provide clues to the interpretation and statements of the depic-tions. Furthermore, grave inscriptions can provide additional information on the represented persons and thus contribute to clarify the role of the depictions. The interpretation of funerary reliefs changes in the course of time. In the beginning, for example, scrolls often seem to be associated with the newly acquired Roman citi-zenship of freedmen and inhabitants of the provinces. Later on, the “learned sphere” comes into focus through its proximity to the muses and philosophers. This ideal of education and wisdom is then adapted for Christian representations as well. My paper traces the development and changes in the iconography of the depictions of women with writing material in the roman world from the imperial period to late antiquity. I will discuss the possible interpretations of the different writing utensils associated with women depicted on funerary reliefs from this period and compare them to representations of their male counterparts. This clarifies the similarities and differences between the iconography, the underlying message and ideals over time.