Women Who Went Before

Rebekah Haigh & Emily Chesley

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Women Who Went Before

Women Who Went Before is on a gynocentric quest into the ancient world. Join hosts Rebekah Haigh and Emily Chesley as they interview the world’s top scholars and unearth the lives of women from the past. It’s a history podcast and detective journey in one, sifting through texts and tropes to find the women who lived beneath. | Season 2 episodes every other Thursday!

19/12/2024

The Pee Test: Pregnancy and Childbirth in Ancient Egypt

Dr. Ada Nifosì tells us about the gymnastics of ancient Egyptian birth, why Egyptian women ate donkey balls and their cats ate penis cakes, and why the god Seth should be avoided at all costs. Childbirth was a scary time for women, and that desire for safety and comfort is reflected in their stories about their gods. The most important goddess, Isis, was enshrined in Egyptian mythology as giving birth in dangerous circumstances. Women turned to amulets, charms, midwives and wise w...

56 min
05/12/2024

Blemished Brides: Women’s Bodies and Disability in Ancient Judaism

Dr. Julia Watts Belser talks about ancient prenups, dancing at weddings, and what the rabbis had to say about beauty. We meet an Etruscan woman named Seianti Hanunia, an Egyptian Jewish woman Tapamet, and hear the (sometimes damaging) ideas of sages Shammai and Hillel. Paying attention to disability matters because it’s noticing a person’s full human experience. Access transcript and episode show notes: www.womenwhowentbefore.com/episodes/blemished-brides Women Who Went Before is written, ...

58 min
14/11/2024

Veiled But Not Hidden in Ancient Greece

Dr. Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones tells us about the veil in ancient Greek culture. Many women in the distant past (as today) wore veils during their life. Veiling meant many things to many people. It could be a means of patriarchal control, a sensual turn on, or a practical choice in a hot climate. From weddings to acts of piety and expressions of grief, veils "spoke." When she chose to reveal or not hide her hair, a Greek woman expressed something to the world. Access transcript and episode...

58 min
31/10/2024

Virginity and the Hype About Hymens

Dr. Julia Kelto Lillis asks, "To whom does a woman’s virginity belong?" Join her and your hosts as we dive into the world of early Christian purity culture, what wine has to do with the V-Card, and why the gods like to make babies with virgins. Like today, the concept of virginity was culturally significant in the ancient world. But unlike today, virginity as an act of devotion to God could propel a woman to the top of the social ladder. This episode we explore shifting ideas about wh...

59 min
17/10/2024

Wandering Wombs: Greco-Roman Gynecology and Women’s Health

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Rebecca Flemming and talk about ancient gynecology, wandering wombs, and what agency, if any, women had over the healing of their bodies. How did medical writers in Greece and Rome describe a woman’s anatomy and its inner workings? And how did those beliefs influence the treatments they prescribed? Read transcript and episode show notes: https://www.womenwhowentbefore.com/episodes/wandering-wombs Women Who Went Before is written, produced, and edited...

59 min
SEASON 2 TRAILER

Bodily Matters: The Lifecycle of an Ancient Woman

In a time when society is thinking passionately about bodily rights and who gets to make decisions about women’s bodies, Season 2 turns to history. Women in the ancient world mattered, and so did their bodies—maybe learning about them can give us new questions as we face our own world. In our season intro episode, meet an ancient high-priestess of Ur and the first known author in human history: Enheduanna. Climb Mount Sinai with the Christian pilgrim Egeria. These two women and the reco...

16 min
24/01/2023

Out of Pandora’s Box, Recovering Hope

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 matter that Pandora didn't actually have a box in the earliest versions of the myth? How were objects and the practice of gift-giving gendered in Classical Greece? What rituals did ancient Greek women participate in, and what did they produce? As we stud...

59 min
11/01/2023

In Her Own Words: Ancient Women Authors

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 themselves. The famous Greek poet Sappho, who wrote of love and loss. Faltonia Betitia Proba, the elite Roman woman who adapted Virgil to tell Christian history. The pilgrim Egeria who described her tour of the Holy Lands to her circle of female frien...

1 hr

TRAILER

Bodily Matters: The Lifecycle of an Ancient Woman

In a time when society is thinking passionately about bodily rights and who gets to make decisions about women’s bodies, Season 2 turns to history. Women in the ancient world mattered, and so did their bodies—maybe learning about them can give us new questions as we face our own world. In our season intro episode, meet an ancient high-priestess of Ur and the first known author in human history: Enheduanna. Climb Mount Sinai with the Christian pilgrim Egeria. These two women and the reco...

S2

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16 min

Women Who Went Before is on a gynocentric quest into the ancient world. Join hosts Rebekah Haigh and Emily Chesley as they interview the world’s top scholars and unearth the lives of women from the past. It’s a history podcast and detective journey in one, sifting through texts and tropes to find the women who lived beneath. | Season 2 episodes every other Thursday!

Creator

Rebekah Haigh & Emily Chesley
Years Active

2022 - 2024
Episodes

17
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© 2025 Rebekah Haigh & Emily Chesley
Show Website

Women Who Went Before