On the Season 1 finale we talk with Dr. Deborah Lyons about ancient Greek myths, breaking cultural boxes, and why we should all strive to be killjoys. Pandora's box, Penelope's gifts, Helen's beauty in Sappho's poetry, and more. Why does it mat

In Her Own Words: Ancient Women Authors

Jan 11th, 2023 59m 58s

In the penultimate episode of season 1, “In Her Own Words: Ancient Women Authors,” we talk with historian and classicist Dr. Kate Cooper about gatekeeping, the privilege of individualism, and those rare surviving moments when women wrote for th

Suffering Witches to Live: Jewish Women and the Legacies of Religious Law

Dec 6th, 2022 59m 19s

In Episode 8 our hosts talk with Dr. Elizabeth Shanks Alexander about whether women can keep track of their own periods, religious law as a boys’ club, and why ancient rabbis cared about witchery. Episode show notes: https://womenwhowentbefore

Women Get a Head: Gender and Other Weapons

Nov 22nd, 2022 47m 2s

Dr. Caryn Tamber-Rosenau explains how two lethal women perform gender in the Hebrew Bible. Judith and Jael were talented Jewish heroines who skillfully played their hands (and bodies) to save their people from invading armies.How might the stor

Scepter and Sword: African Warrior Queens

Nov 8th, 2022 56m 24s

Dr. Solange Ashby teaches us about Nubian warrior queens, Hollywood stereotypes about Egyptian women, and why you shouldn’t trust Wikipedia.Meet the powerful, voluptuous queens of Meroe—Amanirenas, Amanitore, Amanishakheto. While Roman noblewom

Was the Oldest Profession a Profession?

Oct 25th, 2022 53m 4s

We interview Dr. Thomas A. J. McGinn about Roman prostitution, marriage laws, and a strange Cinderella story. What was a paterfamilias and how did they determine a woman’s life? Were prostitutes merely doing their civic duty? Why did early Chr

“The Two Breasts of the Father”: Does Your God Look Like You?

Oct 11th, 2022 49m 18s

We talk to Dr. Susan Ashbrook Harvey about how gender shaped ancient thinking about God, women's church choirs, and the complex web of metaphors for the divine within Syriac Christianity.Women Who Went Before is written, produced, and edited by

Fall Girl: Theology, Gender, and How Eve Ruined Us All

Sep 27th, 2022 50m 19s

MacArthur Fellow and NYT bestselling author Dr. Elaine Pagels joins us to talk about manic pixie dream girls, lost Gnostic texts, and why being a heretic might not be so bad. Stereotypes about women aren't solely a modern phenomenon. Two pervas

Ghostwriting the Daughters of Men

Sep 13th, 2022 50m 15s

We explore ancient Jewish fan fiction, why makeup made the angels fall, and the ever-present problem of ghostwriting with Dr. Annette Yoshiko Reed in Season 1 Episode 2, "Ghostwriting the Daughters of Men: Whose Writing Is it Anyway?" You've he

Invisible Women and How they Make History

Aug 30th, 2022 57m 44s

We talk to Dr. Sarit Kattan Gribetz about history’s nameless faces, the news negativity bias, and how to raid ancient texts to find women. How were women named and anonymized in Jewish and Christian texts? When did bene Yisra’el mean "sons of I

Missing, Presumed…Absent? Where Were All the Ancient Women?

Aug 16th, 2022 20m 53s

In our season intro we ask: Why aren't women in our ancient history textbooks? What is antiquity? How were women imagined in ancient Mediterranean societies? And why does women's history matter? Meet the North African woman Perpetua, whose pris

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