Is there a Latin word for shepherdess, perhaps from a medieval or renaissance source? I’m in pastoral mode and want to talk about a shepherd who loves a shepherdess. I’m guessing that women didn’t act as shepherds in classical times because the only words I can find are the masculine pastor and upilio. However, by the renaissance, surely they came up with a solution (pastora? upilia?). I suppose I could refer to her as pastor muliebris, but that’s awful clunky, and might, I suspect, be construed as an “effeminate shepherd.”
The word “pastrix” is evidently attested in medieval sources as a female counterpart to “pastor” in ecclesiastic circumstances: http://ducange.enc.sorbonne.fr/PASTRIX1
Classically you have “Amaryllis” (proper noun used conventionally) for a shepherdess (in Vergil’s Eclogues and in Ovid)
Et classicè “Amaryllis -idis” (nomen proprium feminae quae oves custodit in eclogis Vergili et apud Ovidium)
Thanks, Alatius and Adrianus. I did wonder about Amaryllis as a sort of generic shepherdess. However, the second definition for pastrix, pastricis in the Glossarium seems to refer to an actual shepherdess –puella gregis custos, with the French definition of bergère. Works for me!
I just wanted to say thank you for this very useful website. I knew about Ducagne, but I didn’t know there was such a handy hypertext version available.