When Queens Transgress Social Norms, Does It Create Order or Disorder?

Abstract

The article questions the relationship between disorder and transgression using examples from Seleucid and Ptolemaic queens who committed what may be considered acts of transgression. The author begins with the idea that Hellenistic societies considered women speaking in public in formal settings (outside of the religious sphere) as well as the exercise of royal power by a single woman, or associated minor child, as deviations from accepted norms. The cases under review show that a state of political-social disorder was, at times, the origin of acts of transgression. Such acts frequently generated situations of short term order that were ultimately superseded by long-term disorder. In conclusion, the ancient sources transmit moral considerations regarding these transgressions while maintaining little interest in either their underlying motivations or their impact in the political sphere.