Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves
A 1975 feminist history of women in classical antiquity.
Published in 1975, Sarah B. Pomeroy's feminist history explores women's lives in classical antiquity, spanning from the Greek Dark Ages to Constantine's death. It stands among the first English-language works on women's history and has served as a standard university textbook for courses on women in the ancient world.
Quick Facts
- Author
- Sarah B. Pomeroy
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Subject
- Women's history
- feminist history
- classical antiquity
- Published
- 1975 (Schocken Books)
Facts from the source article.
Reception
Upon its release, reviewers noted that Pomeroy's book improved upon earlier works such as J. P. V. D. Balsdon's Roman Women, and it was commended for lacking polemical bias. Marylin Arthur deemed the book important, singling out the chapter on women in the Hellenistic period as its high point. Daphne Nash, however, criticized the work for poor historical argumentation and for Pomeroy's reluctance to offer her own opinion on disputed matters, concluding that it ultimately failed to surpass its predecessors.
Over time, the book has been regarded as a turning point in the study of women in ancient history. In 1994, Edith Hall stated that it marked the inauguration of women's studies within classics, and Shelley Haley wrote that it legitimized the study of Greek and Roman women in antiquity. Lin Foxhall later described the book as revolutionary and a major step forward relative to existing scholarship on women in the ancient world.
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