Product Description

What did women do in Ancient Greece and Rome? Did Socrates' wife Xanthippe ever hear his dialogues on beauty and truth? How many women read the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides? When pagan goddesses were as powerful as gods, why was the status of women so low? Why, in traditional histories, is half the population effectively invisible? This book spans a period of 1500 years - from the fall of Troy to the death of Constantine. It examines the evidence - literary and archaeological - and reconstructs the lives of women from all classes of society. Sarah B. Pomeroy is the author of "Women in Hellenistic Egypt from Alexander to Cleopatra", "Women's Realities, Women's Choices: An Introduction to Women's Studies", "Women's History and Ancient History" and "Women in the Classical World: Image and Text".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64308 in Books
• Published on: 1994-05-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Customer Reviews

Somewhat out of date now but still an excellent place to start
Pomeroy's book was one of the first to tackle the real lives of Greek and Roman women, and though it has been superceded by a huge literature on the subject, it's still an excellent and worthwhile place to start.

Starting with the Greek and Roman pantheon of goddesses, she works through a historical survey of women's lives taken from both material and literary evidence, starting with the Bronze age, working through classical Athens, the Hellenistic period, the Roman republic and through to the late empire and christianity.

Because of the vast time period covered, this is a book which surveys the reality of women's lives rather than going into specific details, but there are some excellent points made, and ample bibliography for scholars wanting more specific details. Altogether an easily-readable volume that packs a huge amount of relevant information into a very little space.

very readable, you dont feel like your learning.
This is a very good book, well written so that it is very easy to read. Its almost like reading a novel as you feel drawn in further to see what happend in the next century down the line. The book is structured chronologically starting with the bronze age and ending with the romans(1,500 years). It is as the title suggests about all women in antiquity, and apart from the pure fact includes and discusses many tales and writing, that bring the book even more to life. Also it does not presume you know latin. But includes all the refrence points you may want to look up if your studying this subject rather than just curious. What can I say but this is definately worth a read.