Women in the Classical World: Image and Text

by H. Alan Shapiro, Natalie Boymel Kampen, Helene Peet Foley, et al.

Book Overview

Information about women is scattered throughout the fragmented mosaic of ancient history: the vivid poetry of Sappho survived antiquity on remnants of damaged papyrus; the inscription on a beautiful fourth century B.C.E. grave praises the virtues of Mnesarete, an Athenian woman who died young; a great number of Roman wives were found guilty of poisoning their husbands, but was it accidental food poisoning, or disease, or something more sinister. Apart...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195098625
• ISBN13: 9780195098624
• Release Date: March 1995
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.93 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.0" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

This is a superb introduction to the study of women in classical times

Elaine Fantham (perhaps best known in the non-academic community as the Classical commentator on NPR) authored, with other contributors, this superb introductory study to women's studies in ancient Greece and Rome in 1994. Since then, the whole field of studies in the lives of classical-age women has taken off like a rocket, but Dr. Fantham's book - with her co-writers, Helen Peet Foley, Natalie Boymel Kampen, Sarah B. Pomeroy, and H. Alan Shapiro - still manages to provide the best introduction I know to this subject. As stated in the preface, "The purpose of this book is to gather the most important primary sources, both written and visual, for the lives of ancient women, and to present them within their historical and cultural context." Therefore this is a tremendous sourcebook not only for original sources on women's lives, but with equal emphasis to art as well as the written word. If you're beginning to learn about this fascinating field (which is still 'relatively' new in classical studies), this book is a must.

Reference material in an easily read/understood form

This book is a wealth of information on women in the ancient world (mostly Greece and Rome). It is written in such a way that the reader should have no problem understanding any of the concepts. I was afraid that the writings would be bias, but that was not the case. I bought this book as a required textbook for a college class and was suprised to find it here cheaper than at the college bookstore. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the kind of lives that the women of antiquity lived.