This session focuses on the mainly visual evidence—on vase paintings and votive statues—that Greek women and male children wore knotted cords and strings of amulets to protect their bodies in Athens, on Cyprus, and in West Greece, and argues that the absence of similar amulets on naked adult males points to a restriction of use to females and immature males. Since textual evidence suggests that sick adult males also used amulets, this presenter argues that the category of amulet users embraces the weakened male adults and other cultural equivalents, such as women and children. This session shows how the wearing of childhood amulets by boys, especially on Cyprus and in Athens, seems intertwined with assertions of citizenship and other forms of status.
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