The feminist movement in North America and Europe has historically excluded Black women, and this has been reflected in Classics. While the study women in the Greco-Roman world has expanded greatly in the last century, Black women are rarely included in this discussion. My DPhil project therefore aims to analyse portrayals of Black women in Hellenistic art to broaden understanding of what it was to be a woman in the ancient world. I will look at how these women are represented in bronzes, terracottas, jewellery etc. through the lens of an inclusive modern feminist theory to judge how they were characterised by the leading class of male citizens and why, and to begin to recognise what life may have been like for them.
