Women in Classical Video Games

Jane Draycott is Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Glasgow, UK. Kate Cook is Associate Lecturer in Classics at the University of St Andrews, UK.

• Introduction (Jane Draycott, University of Glasgow, UK and Kate Cook, Durham University, UK)Part One1. Playable Girls in Ancient Worlds: Athena (1986) Opens the Door (Dunstan Lowe, University of Kent, UK)2. A Historical Overview of Women in Ancient-Period Video Games (Jordy Orellana Figueroa, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Germany)3. Dangerous Defaults: Demographics and Identities Within and Without Video Games (Marcie Persyn, University of Pittsburg, USA)Part Two4. The Maiden, the Mother and the Monster: The Monstrous-Feminine in Historical and Archaeological Video Games (Dan Goad, Independent Scholar, UK)5. Bringing Down the Divine Patriarchy through Deicide in Apotheon (2015) (Amy Norgard, Truman State University, USA)6. Argonautic Women? Gender and Heroic Status in Rise of the Argonauts (Sophie Ngan, Durham University, UK)7. Good Riddance: Refiguring Eurydice in Supergiant’s Hades (Kira Jones, Emory University, USA)8. Reception and Representation of Greco-Roman Goddesses in Smite: Battleground of the Gods (Katherine Beydler, University of Michigan, USA)9. Aphrodite, A Caricature of Female Sexuality (Olivia Ciaccia, University of Bristol, UK)Part Three10. Violence against Women in Classical Video Games (Hannah-Marie Chidwick, University of Bristol, UK)11. Playing Cleopatra in Assassin's Creed Origins (Jane Draycott, University of Glasgow, UK)12. Playing Salammbô? Orientalism, Gender and Gaming with the Punic World (Andrew Dufton, University of Edinburgh, UK)13. Kassandra’s Odyssey (Richard Cole, University of Bristol, UK)14. 'We Do What we Must to Survive': Prostitution and Power in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’ (Roz Tuplin, GameLondon, UK)15. 'It’s the Most Freedom a Woman can Have': Gender, Genre and Agency in Choices: A Courtesan of Rome (Kate Cook, Durham University, UK)NotesBibliographyIndex

Cohesive, accessible and informative, illuminating the real-world issue of the video game industry’s hostility towards women ... While the individual chapters are well written and thoroughly researched, the real strength of the book lies in the thematic interlinking and consistent dialogue between chapters, which provides readers with various perspectives on the key tropes, stereotypes and modes of representation used to portray ancient women.