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A review by rita42
Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity by Sarah B. Pomeroy
4.0
In this book, Pomeroy examines classical art and literature in order bring Greek and Roman women out of obscurity and fill the gaps left by historians who have been largely silent on women and have almost exclusively reported on activities that were dominated by men throughout antiquity.
I found the subject fascinating but the book was not really uniformly engaging to me: the chapters on goddesses, on heroines and on Spartan women were especially exciting and I wished they were much longer, while I had to force myself to finish the chapters that dealt with the legal statuses of wives and slave girls because they were so dull.
Another difficulty for me was the fact that the art and archeology of the classical world were not as thoroughly discussed as the literary references. I am not familiar with classical literature beyond the most well know mythological texts and epics and could not easily keep up with all the ancient authors, poets and character names scattered across chapters. I could've benefitted comprehensive list of all the ancient literary references used.
Overall this book was informative and at times very engaging, any problems I had with it are down to the limitations of my knowledge and my personal tastes and not with it's content. I am also very glad Pomeroy limited her book to objectively describing the lives of women in the classical world and didn't try to include her own theories on why history has overlooked them.
I found the subject fascinating but the book was not really uniformly engaging to me: the chapters on goddesses, on heroines and on Spartan women were especially exciting and I wished they were much longer, while I had to force myself to finish the chapters that dealt with the legal statuses of wives and slave girls because they were so dull.
Another difficulty for me was the fact that the art and archeology of the classical world were not as thoroughly discussed as the literary references. I am not familiar with classical literature beyond the most well know mythological texts and epics and could not easily keep up with all the ancient authors, poets and character names scattered across chapters. I could've benefitted comprehensive list of all the ancient literary references used.
Overall this book was informative and at times very engaging, any problems I had with it are down to the limitations of my knowledge and my personal tastes and not with it's content. I am also very glad Pomeroy limited her book to objectively describing the lives of women in the classical world and didn't try to include her own theories on why history has overlooked them.