DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS

Abbe Walker received her Ph.D. in Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies from Bryn Mawr College. Her research and teaching interests focus on ancient religions, transitional and marginal women in antiquity, and particularly the role of women in early Christian asceticism. Her book, Bride of Hades to Bride of Christ (Routledge 2020), takes an original approach to illuminating gender and female agency in antiquity by juxtaposing the metaphor of the ‘bride of Hades’—elaborated in various ways in Greek archaic poetry, tragedy, medical treatises, and epitaphs—with that of the ‘bride of Christ,’ the label applied to the life-long Christian virgin, particularly in the works of Latin church fathers like Jerome, Ambrose, and Augustine. Her classes emphasize some of the less familiar aspects of Greco-Roman and early Christian culture, including ancient ideas about gender and sexuality, magic, and the lives of the non-elite.

Research Interests: Ancient religions, women in antiquity, subaltern studies

Selected Publications

Willetrudis. Verses about Susanna, edited by Abbe Walker, Merlin Guess, Lauren Kelly, Emmeline Murphy, Natalie Peterson, Sophie Pong, Grace Richards, Isabel Tolman-Bronski, and Charles Drew White. Pixelia Publishing, 2026. 

Walker, A. 2023. "Bride of Hades to Bride of Christ: The Virgin and the Otherworldly Bridegroom in Ancient Greece and Early Christian Rome." Routledge.