Obsequium
When women owe their ultimate obedience to men, who will avenge their broken hearts? In this episode, women in ancient Rome take matters into their own hands when their husbands’ attentions wander a little too far.
Researched, written, and produced by Corinne Wieben, featuring the voice talents of Kiernan Angley and Jack Krause, with original music by Purple Planet.
Music
Beethoven - Piano Sonata no. 8 in C minor 'Pathetique', Op. 13 - III. Rondo - Allegro, performed by Paul Pitman
Purple Planet - Red Mist
Purple Planet - Constricted
Purple Planet - Deadlock
Purple Planet - Sense of Loss
Purple Planet - Shadowlands
Sources
Primary
Livy (Titus Livius). Ab urbe condita, Book XXXIV, edited by W. Weissenborn and H. J. Müller. Perseus Digital Library.
Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus). Menaechmi, edited by F. Leo. Perseus Digital Library.
Virgil (Publius Virgilius Maro). Aeneid, edited by Theodore C. Williams. Perseus Digital Library.
Secondary
Dickie, Matthew W. Magic and Magicians in the Greco-Roman World (1st ed.). Routledge, 2001.
Dickie, Matthew W. “Who Practised Love-Magic in Classical Antiquity and in the Late Roman World?” The Classical Quarterly 50, no. 2 (2000): 563-83.
Eidinow, Esther. “Ancient Greco-Roman Magic and the Agency of Victimhood.” Numen 64, no. 4 (2017): 394-417.
Natalías, Celia Sánchez. “The Medium Matters: Materiality and Metaphor in Some Latin Curse Tablets.” In Material Approaches to Roman Magic: Occult Objects and Supernatural Substances, edited by Parker Adam and Mckie Stuart, 9-16. Oxford; Philadelphia: Oxbow Books, 2018.
Ripat, Paula. “Cheating Women: Curse Tablets and Roman Wives.” In Daughters of Hecate: Women and Magic in the Ancient World, edited by Kimberly B. Stratton and Dayna S. Kalleres. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014.
Stratton, Kimberly B. “Mascula Libido: Women, Sex, and Magic in Roman Rhetoric and Ideology.” In Naming the Witch: Magic, Ideology, and Stereotype in the Ancient World, 71-106. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
Tomlin, Roger S. O. “The Curse Tablets.” In The Temple of Sulis Minerva at Bath, Vol. 2: The Finds from the Sacred Spring, edited by Barry Cunliffe, 59–277. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
