Goddesses, Whores, Wives And Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity - Tapa blanda

"The classic, groundbreaking account of women’s lives in Greece and Rome... the first general treatment of women in the ancient world to reflect the critical insights of modern feminism" (Mary Beard)

"Deeply fascinating ... from Pandora to the Lemnian women who slaughtered their husbands for saying they stank, from Solon's state-controlled brothels to the scabrous writing of Juvenal and the transvestite peculariaties of Spartan marriages ... attitudes and anomalies are explored which remain valid paradigms to this day" (Observer)

"From Pandora to the Lemnian women who slaughtered their husbands for saying they stank, from Solon's state-controlled brothels, the scabrous writing of Juvenal, the transvestite peculiarities of Spartan marriage...attitudes and anomalies are explored which remain valid paradigms to this day... A scholarly and deeply fascinating study" (Christopher Wordsworth Observer)

"Professor Pomeroy's standpoint is clearly that of a reasoned and enlightened sympathy with women's aspirations. Scholars will find the book indispensable and readers will find it both instructive and enjoyable" (Hugh Lloyd-Jones)

What did women do in ancient Greece and Rome? Did Socrates' wife Xanthippe ever hear his dialogues on beauty and truth? How many many women actually read the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides? When pagan goddesses were as powerful as gods, why was the status of women generally so low? Why, in traditional histories, is half the population effectively invisible?

This unique and important book spans a period of 1500 years - from the fall of Troy to the death of Constantine. It examines all the available evidence - literary and archaeological - and reconstructs the lives of women from all classes of society.