Women's Work: Female Transmission of Mythical Narrative

Abstract

The role of women storytellers and singers in promulgating classical myth in antiquity is, admittedly, difficult to determine, and some scholars dismiss entirely the notion that female popular narrative included traditional tales. When looked at in its entirety, however, the evidence strongly suggests that women told the same kinds of mythological tales—both to themselves and children—as those found in "higher" genres. This finding complicates the already difficult challenge of determining the lineage of mythological tales found in epic and tragedy, a complexity that Ovid may playfully acknowledge in his own collection of myth.