Goddesses, whores, wives and slaves : women in classical antiquity

What did women do in Ancient Greece and Rome? Did Socrates' wife Xanthippe ever hear his dialogues on beauty and truth? How many women read the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides? When pagan goddesses were as powerful as gods, why was the status of women so low? Why, in traditional histories, is half the population effectively invisible? This book spans a period of 1500 years - from the fall of Troy to the death of Constantine. It examines the evidence - literary and archaeological - and reconstructs the lives of women from all classes of society. Sarah B. Pomeroy is the author of "Women in Hellenistic Egypt from Alexander to Cleopatra", "Women's Realities, Women's Choices: An Introduction to Women's Studies", "Women's History and Ancient History" and "Women in the Classical World: Image and Text".