Books by Karolina Frank
Female Agency in the Ancient Mediterranean World, 2024
Female agency in the ancient world has long been implicitly, and on a few occasions explicitly, e... more Female agency in the ancient world has long been implicitly, and on a few occasions explicitly, examined in classical scholarship, but few of these studies begin with a unified theoretical framework or set of approaches (with some notable exceptions). Female Agency in the Ancient Mediterranean World departs from these important studies by beginning with a definition of the aforementioned concept of ‘female agency’ that acknowledges that all social agents, female and otherwise, were and are relational and multidimensional beings, and that agency was and is relational. This volume’s conceptual points of departure allow contributors to consider women as social agents in ancient cultures and as relationally embedded and integrated in various cultural systems, even under conditions of oppression, by providing contextualised examples of women acting on their varying degrees of agency.
Contributions are organised broadly chronologically in order to trace the breadth and shifting patterns of female agency throughout the ancient Mediterranean world from the 7th century BCE to the 6th century CE. Case studies include Katherine McDonald on the dynamics of female agency in pre-Roman through a close examination of the epigraphic record; Karolina Frank on women’s oracular inquiries at Dodona and Brenda Longfellow on how Pompeian women, through their funerary inscriptions, can show, from different angles, the needs, desires, and agency of women from a range of social circumstances.
Papers by Karolina Frank
Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 2026
This article examines the roles and positions of women in ancient northwestern Greece through a c... more This article examines the roles and positions of women in ancient northwestern Greece through a comparative analysis of two categories of inscriptions: formal (manumission contracts from Dodona and Bouthrotos) and personal (oracular tablets from Dodona). Manumission inscriptions reveal women's involvement in property ownership and family decision-making, while also illuminating the complex ties between enslaved and free household members and the potential for social mobility after manumission. Oracular tablets complement this by presenting women as active petitioners in matters of inheritance, marriage, and finance; where enslaved women can be identified, they frequently appear in contexts that expose sexual, reproductive, and quasi-familial ties to those consulting the oracle, underscoring both their vulnerability and their significance within household dynamics. Juxtaposing these corpora reveals broader patterns of female agency, legal capacity, and economic participation, highlighting circumstances in which women conformed to or exceeded traditional constraints of the Greek world between the fourth and second centuries BCE.
Part of BICS's special issue "Understanding Ancient Women" (2027).
Published in Open Access.
ΣΧΟΛΗ 11. Cupido dominandi. Żądza władzy – władza nad żądzą. Lust for Power – Power over Lust, 2015
Marrying a Goddess. An Insight into the Role of Goddesses in the Power-struggle Motif of Old Come... more Marrying a Goddess. An Insight into the Role of Goddesses in the Power-struggle Motif of Old Comedy, [in:] Dominika Lewandowska et al. (eds.) "ΣΧΟΛΗ 11. Cupido dominandi. Żądza władzy – władza nad żądzą. Lust for Power – Power over Lust". Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Sub Lupa, 2015.
ISBN 978-83-64003-50-9
Book Chapters by Karolina Frank
Female Agency in the Ancient Mediterranean World, 2024
This paper examines, through a series of case studies, the problems faced by women visiting the a... more This paper examines, through a series of case studies, the problems faced by women visiting the ancient oracle of Dodona and their strategies for navigating these difficult situations.
Editors: Greg Gilles, Karolina Frank, Christine Plastow, and Lewis Webb.
Publisher: Liverpool University Press.
ISBN: 9781802071856.
https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9781802071856
Female Agency in the Ancient Mediterranean World, 2024
Female agency in the ancient world has long been implicitly, and on a few occasions explicitly, e... more Female agency in the ancient world has long been implicitly, and on a few occasions explicitly, examined in classical scholarship, but few of these studies begin with a unified theoretical framework or set of approaches (with some notable exceptions). Female Agency in the Ancient Mediterranean World departs from these important studies by beginning with a definition of the aforementioned concept of ‘female agency’ that acknowledges that all social agents, female and otherwise, were and are relational and multidimensional beings, and that agency was and is relational. This volume’s conceptual points of departure allow contributors to consider women as social agents in ancient cultures and as relationally embedded and integrated in various cultural systems, even under conditions of oppression, by providing contextualised examples of women acting on their varying degrees of agency.
Thesis Chapters by Karolina Frank
Ph.D. Thesis (submitted at University College London)
This thesis examines the daily life and re... more Ph.D. Thesis (submitted at University College London)
This thesis examines the daily life and religiosity of ancient Greeks through their consultations at the oracle of Zeus Naios and Dione in Dodona, Epirus, during the Classical and Hellenistic period, as well as explores the role that the oracle played in shaping its supplicants’ day-to-day reality. Past scholarship has predominantly centered on literary and archaeological sources in order to investigate the functioning of the sanctuary, its divinatory practices, and its staff. Of late, the focus of studies has shifted to the inquiries made by those visiting the oracle. However, it has been the very recent publication of the corpus of over 4000 oracular inscriptions from the Epirote sanctuary (Dakaris et al. 2013, 2 vols.), which has significantly expanded the source material for the study of Dodona and its supplicants. These previously unpublished tablets, dated to the 6th-2nd c. BC, contain a wide range of queries made by private individuals, poleis, and koina at the oracle, as well as answers given by the gods. By placing these texts in a broader socio-economic and historical context, this thesis analyzes the portrayal of the lives of the individuals and communities consulting at Dodona through the prism of their questions, requests, and concerns. It examines the identity of the supplicants, arguing that most seem to have been of local Epirote and Northwestern Greek origin. Each chapter addresses a different topic of inquiry concerning religious, social, and economic issues, demonstrating the extent and range of the oracle’s influence over worship, local economies, and socio-cultural norms. The thesis also explores the different ways in which the supplicants used oracular divination to solve their problems. It contributes to the understanding of the role of oracles in personal religiosity and communicating with the divine in order to alleviate one’s concerns and shape one’s decision-making process.
Conference Presentations by Karolina Frank
Paper given as part of the MAGOS project conference - Mobility in Ancient Greece: Opening Spaces.... more Paper given as part of the MAGOS project conference - Mobility in Ancient Greece: Opening Spaces.
University of Seville, 15-16 April 2026.
Paper given at the Classical Association Conference 2026 – Manchester, 10-12 April 2026.
Panel 7... more Paper given at the Classical Association Conference 2026 – Manchester, 10-12 April 2026.
Panel 73: Women and Girls’ Experience in Greek Religion 1.
Organisers and Chairs: Ellie Mackin Roberts (Leeds) and Ben Cassell (London).
Abstract of paper presented at the Innovative Contributions in Classics Conference (IConiC), orga... more Abstract of paper presented at the Innovative Contributions in Classics Conference (IConiC), organised by the University of Ioannina on Oct. 10-12, 2025.
Paper given at the Classical Association Conference held at St Andrews, 11-13 July 2025.
Abstract for paper presented at the "Resistance and Adaptation: navigating Elites’ Power in the E... more Abstract for paper presented at the "Resistance and Adaptation: navigating Elites’ Power in the Early Hellenistic Mediterranean and Near East" Conference, hosted by the University of Liverpool on 3-4 April 2025.
Abstract of paper given at the "Anxiety and Fear in the Ancient World Conference" organized by Ju... more Abstract of paper given at the "Anxiety and Fear in the Ancient World Conference" organized by Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen and held June 3-6, 2024.
Abstract of paper presented at the Classical Association Conference in Cambridge, 21-23 April 2023.
Abstract of paper presented at conference "Family, Religion, And The Polis: Interaction, Amalgama... more Abstract of paper presented at conference "Family, Religion, And The Polis: Interaction, Amalgamation, And Transformation, King’s College London, 28-30 June 2022".
Abstract of paper presented at the conference „Świat starożytny – centrum i peryferie” hosted by ... more Abstract of paper presented at the conference „Świat starożytny – centrum i peryferie” hosted by the Komisja Historii Starożytnej PTH in Wrocław (Sept. 14-16, 2021).
Book Reviews by Karolina Frank
Review for Bryn Mawr Classical Review of Emily Mackil, Nikolaos Papazarkadas (eds.), "Greek epigr... more Review for Bryn Mawr Classical Review of Emily Mackil, Nikolaos Papazarkadas (eds.), "Greek epigraphy and religion: papers in memory of Sara B. Aleshire from the Second North American Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy". Brill's studies in Greek and Roman epigraphy, volume 16. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2020. Pp. xiv, 360. ISBN 9789004442535
BMCR, 2020
BMCR Book Review of Adolfo J. Domínguez (ed.), Politics, Territory and Identity in ancient Epirus... more BMCR Book Review of Adolfo J. Domínguez (ed.), Politics, Territory and Identity in ancient Epirus. Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 2018. Pp. XIV, 338. ISBN: 9788846754158. €38,00.
View web version at https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2020/2020.03.49
Drafts by Karolina Frank
NCN Project 2022/44/C/HS3/00153
This project aims to examine the socioeconomic and religious rol... more NCN Project 2022/44/C/HS3/00153
This project aims to examine the socioeconomic and religious role and status of women living in Epirus, Greek Illyrian colonies, and Thessaly between the fourth and first century BC. Through an analysis of epigraphic and archaeological sources, this project will result in a comprehensive study of the life and position of non-royal women in northwestern and northeastern Greek society, exploring the extent and limits of their personal agency as well as the different social roles they played within their families and communities.
Posters by Karolina Frank
Everyday writing in the Ancient Greek World, 2019
This poster was displayed in the workshop 'Everyday writing in the Ancient Greek World’ in ‘It’s ... more This poster was displayed in the workshop 'Everyday writing in the Ancient Greek World’ in ‘It’s all academic festival 2019’, a Public Engagement Event organised by UCL.
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Books by Karolina Frank
Contributions are organised broadly chronologically in order to trace the breadth and shifting patterns of female agency throughout the ancient Mediterranean world from the 7th century BCE to the 6th century CE. Case studies include Katherine McDonald on the dynamics of female agency in pre-Roman through a close examination of the epigraphic record; Karolina Frank on women’s oracular inquiries at Dodona and Brenda Longfellow on how Pompeian women, through their funerary inscriptions, can show, from different angles, the needs, desires, and agency of women from a range of social circumstances.
Papers by Karolina Frank
Part of BICS's special issue "Understanding Ancient Women" (2027).
Published in Open Access.
ISBN 978-83-64003-50-9
Book Chapters by Karolina Frank
Editors: Greg Gilles, Karolina Frank, Christine Plastow, and Lewis Webb.
Publisher: Liverpool University Press.
ISBN: 9781802071856.
https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9781802071856
Thesis Chapters by Karolina Frank
This thesis examines the daily life and religiosity of ancient Greeks through their consultations at the oracle of Zeus Naios and Dione in Dodona, Epirus, during the Classical and Hellenistic period, as well as explores the role that the oracle played in shaping its supplicants’ day-to-day reality. Past scholarship has predominantly centered on literary and archaeological sources in order to investigate the functioning of the sanctuary, its divinatory practices, and its staff. Of late, the focus of studies has shifted to the inquiries made by those visiting the oracle. However, it has been the very recent publication of the corpus of over 4000 oracular inscriptions from the Epirote sanctuary (Dakaris et al. 2013, 2 vols.), which has significantly expanded the source material for the study of Dodona and its supplicants. These previously unpublished tablets, dated to the 6th-2nd c. BC, contain a wide range of queries made by private individuals, poleis, and koina at the oracle, as well as answers given by the gods. By placing these texts in a broader socio-economic and historical context, this thesis analyzes the portrayal of the lives of the individuals and communities consulting at Dodona through the prism of their questions, requests, and concerns. It examines the identity of the supplicants, arguing that most seem to have been of local Epirote and Northwestern Greek origin. Each chapter addresses a different topic of inquiry concerning religious, social, and economic issues, demonstrating the extent and range of the oracle’s influence over worship, local economies, and socio-cultural norms. The thesis also explores the different ways in which the supplicants used oracular divination to solve their problems. It contributes to the understanding of the role of oracles in personal religiosity and communicating with the divine in order to alleviate one’s concerns and shape one’s decision-making process.
Conference Presentations by Karolina Frank
University of Seville, 15-16 April 2026.
Panel 73: Women and Girls’ Experience in Greek Religion 1.
Organisers and Chairs: Ellie Mackin Roberts (Leeds) and Ben Cassell (London).
Book Reviews by Karolina Frank
View web version at https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2020/2020.03.49
Drafts by Karolina Frank
This project aims to examine the socioeconomic and religious role and status of women living in Epirus, Greek Illyrian colonies, and Thessaly between the fourth and first century BC. Through an analysis of epigraphic and archaeological sources, this project will result in a comprehensive study of the life and position of non-royal women in northwestern and northeastern Greek society, exploring the extent and limits of their personal agency as well as the different social roles they played within their families and communities.
Posters by Karolina Frank