The papers in this volume were among the contributions presented at an international symposium, Ancient Marriage in Myth and Reality, which was held at the Swedish Institute in Rome in October 2006. The symposium was held under the aegis of ARACHNE—the Nordic network for women’s history and gender studies in Antiquity.

The study of ancient marriage has been largely the province of historians working with texts, and the result of this was an emphasis on elite marriages discussed by the male writers of the upper classes and on laws pertaining to marriage. Neither area has been...