List of figures; List of tables; List of contributors; Acknowledgements; Note on abbreviations; Introduction: 1. Fatherless antiquity? Perspectives on 'fatherlessness' in the ancient Mediterranean Sabine R. Hübner and David M. Ratzan; Part I. Coping with Demographic Realities: 2. The demographic background Walter Scheidel; 3. Oedipal complexities Mark Golden; 4. Callirhoe's dilemma: remarriage and stepfathers in the Graeco-Roman east Sabine R. Hübner; 5. 'Without father, without mother, without genealogy': fatherlessness in the Old and New Testaments Marcus Sigismund; Part II. Virtual Fatherlessness: 6. Bastardy and fatherlessness in ancient Greece Daniel Ogden; 7. Fatherlessness and formal identification in Roman Egypt Myrto Malouta; Part III. Roles without Models: 8. Diomedes, the fatherless hero of the Iliad Louise Pratt; 9. Sons (and daughters) without fathers: fatherlessness in the Homeric epics Georg Wöhrle; 10. Absent Roman fathers in the writings of their daughters: Cornelia and Sulpicia Judith P. Hallett; Part IV. Rhetoric of Loss: 11. The disadvantages and advantages of being fatherless: the case of Sulla Sabine Müller; 12. An imperial family man: Augustus as surrogate father to Marcus Antonius' children Ann-Cathrin Harders; 13. Cui parens non erat maximus quisque et uetustissimus pro parente: parental surrogates in imperial Roman literature Neil W.Bernstein; 14. The education of orphans: a reassessment of the evidence of Libanius Raffaella Cribiore; 15. 'Woe to those making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless': Christian ideals and the obligations of stepfathers in late antiquity Geoffrey Nathan; Bibliography; Index.