This explicitly gendered approach to divination was long overdue. While women have certainly received attention in the context of ancient divination (and for Rome especially the Sibyl), the concept of gender has not been systematically used as an angle of exploration.
In this slightly revised version of the Ph.D. thesis, M. defines divination as an essentially human process: the human actor and their identity are at the core of divination. This emphasis on the human actor, as opposed to the sign or method of interpretation, makes sense because gender identities that play a part in the construction and performance of divinatory traditions are the central topic of the book. Gender is seen as dynamic and performative, on the basis of J. Butler's work: gender is an action, a state of doing. As such, ancient authors continuously comment on the ways in which individuals conformed to, or defied, gendered expectations (p. 25). As religious ritual is also performative by nature, this means that both the ritual of divination and gender expression are performative as well as subject to interpretation by others.
The book consists of seven chapters (almost 160 pages of main text in total), the first of which is an introduction and the last a short conclusion. Chapters 2–6 form the main body of the argument. Chapter 2 focuses on a gendered analysis of Cicero's De divinatione, a long overdue reading of the text. It concludes that both Quintus and Marcus see women as diviners in particular performative roles (such as inspired prophecy). M. takes this important work as the starting point of our understanding of gender and divination in the Late Republic, but aims to go beyond this ‘very specific world view’ (p. 105) and to explore the more varied impression we gain from other evidence. The approach is to take four main divinatory traditions (Sibylline Books, prodigies, extispicy and prophetic dreaming) and to devote a chapter to each, where the two latter chapters focus on the role of the individual experts and dreamers.
The gender of their author was as central to the construction of the Sibylline Books (about the contents of which we know very little) as to the process of interpretation they allowed. Chapter 3 argues the femininity of the author ensured a level of independence from other divinatory traditions. Chapter 4 is focused on a particular divinatory method, the prodigies, and focuses on the prodigy of the birth of an intersex child. This category of prodigies is different from the others in the sense that gender is part of the sign here, and not of its interpreter. Intersex children did not fit conventional gender roles, something that could not be tolerated. By turning them into prodigies, conventions were restored. The divinatory expert Martha is, in Chapter 5, the main case study of ‘how gender plays a role in the construction of individual diviners’ (p. 32). M. analyses that ‘her gender, her ethnicity, her backstory and her sacrificial skill … must have formed a standard model of divination and women's participation thereof’ (p. 140); and in the sixth and last full chapter Calpurnia and her dream are the central topic, illustrating gender in prophetic dreaming more broadly. Women could dream prophetically, but acting upon these dreams in the public sphere was something else.
The main conclusion is that gender played a central role in the performative relationship with traditions thought to allow communication with the supernatural. In other words, gender was central to the practice of religion. It did not ‘hinder people from establishing, sustaining, and asserting that relationship’ (p. 33). In fact, M. convincingly argues that Roman religion was more inclusive in terms of gender than has often been argued. Not in the sense that all performance of gender was deemed acceptable (one need only think of the prodigies of the birth of intersex children), but in the sense that, when participating in the performance that is religion, most gender performances could have a function at particular times and places – furthering perceived communication with the supernatural.
In the conclusion M. states that the arguments made and theoretical framework related to divination and gender performance could be applied to other ancient and modern societies. How this should be done is not shown or exemplified, but this would make for a most interesting follow-up methodological publication. What has certainly become clear is that the nature of gender was dynamic and that binary thinking about gender, as well as about divination, is not useful. As a consequence, changes and varieties in gender performance must in turn have facilitated changes and dynamic practices in the field of divination (and vice versa). The interplay between these transformations would also be an interesting issue to consider in further research, for example exploring and contrasting divinatory practices from the Late Republic to the high Empire and Late Antiquity.
The argument is well annotated; and a bibliography, a subject index and an index locorum complete the volume. Any student of divination should add this book to their shelves. It is, however, also of much interest to those interested in ancient religions in a wider sense. M. has shown that a gendered approach to divination provides new insights into the functioning of Roman religion – such a gendered reading can be taken up for the study of other religious phenomena.
