Women in Ancient Greece

Bonnie MacLachlan is Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Western Ontario. Her published volumes include The Age of Grace: Charis in Early Greek Poetry (1993) and Virginity Revisited: The Autonomy of the Unpossessed Body, co-edited with Judith Fletcher (2007).

• I: Women in the Near East; II: Women in Greek epic a) Goddesses b)Mythical women; III: Monstrous women; IV: Women and archaic poetry a) Women in the male poets b)Women poets; V: Dorian women a)Poetic sources b)Prose sources c) Gortyn Law code; VI: Women of Classical Athens a) Domestic arrangements b) Legal arrangements c) Understanding of the female body d) Religious activity of women e) Female slaves f) Women in drama g) Women and philosophy; VII: Women of the Hellenistic period a) Poetic sources b) Women in Hellenistic Egypt; VIII: Etruscan women; IX: Women of the early Roman Republic a)Legendary women b) Legal status c) Private and public life; X: Women of the middle Republic a) Private and public life b) Women in comedy; XI: Women of the late Republic a) Women and the Civil War b) Legal status c) Women and the poets; XII: Women of the early Principate a) Private and public life b) Women and the poets; XIII: Women of the high Empire; XIV: Christian women.

The author provides a stylishly written and academically concise overview of the topic… including much needed information on how one should approach such a broad range of source material on the lives of ancient Greek women … MacLachlan’s translations work well and are reader-friendly. … The selection of materials is also admirable.