{"product_id":"women-in-the-classical-world-image-and-text-9780195067279","title":"Women in the Classical World: Image and Text","description":"\u003cp\u003eBits of information about women are scattered throughout the fragmented mosaic of ancient history. The vivid poetry of Sappho survived antiquity on remnants of damaged papyrus  riddled with gaps. The inscription on a beautiful fourth century B.C.E. grave praises the virtues of Mnesarete  an Athenian woman who died young  but we do not know if the graves marble stele shows Mnesarete  or simply a ready-made design chosen by her family. We read that on one occasion in the fourth century a great number of Roman wives were given a collective public trial and found guilty of poisoning their husbands  but we can only guess whether these \"poisonings\" were linked to a high occurrence of accidental food poisoning  or disease  or something more sinister. Apart from the legends of Cleopatra  Dido and Lucretia  and images of graceful maidens dancing on urns  the evidence about the lives of women of the classical world--visual  archaeological  and written----has remained uncollected and uninterpreted.  Now  the lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched Women in the Classical World lifts the curtain on the women of ancient Greece and Rome  from slaves and prostitutes  to Athenian housewives  to Romes imperial family. The first book on classical women to give equal weight to written texts and artistic representations  it brings together a great wealth of materials--poetry  vase painting  legislation  medical treatises  architecture  religious and funerary art  womens ornaments  historical epics  political speeches  even ancient coins--to present women in the historical and cultural context of their time. Written by leading experts in the fields of ancient history and art history  womens studies  and Greek and Roman literature  the books chronological arrangement allows the changing roles of women to unfold over a thousand year period  beginning in the eighth century B.C.E. The authors seek out literature that preserves womens own voices. Both the art and the literature highlight womens creativity  sexuality and coming of age  marriage and childrearing  religious and public roles  and other themes. Fascinating chapters probe revealing aspects of the classical world: the ubiquitous reports of wild behavior on the part of Spartan and Etruscan women and the mythical Amazons; the changing views of the female body presented in male-authored gynecological treatises; the \"new woman\" represented by the love poetry of the late Republic and Augustan Age; and the traces of upper and lower-class life in Pompeii  miraculously preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E.  Provocative  surprising  filled with timeless examples of the rich legacy of classical art  Women in the Classical World is a masterly foray into the past  and a definitive statement on the lives of women in ancient Greece and Rome.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45953291321397,"sku":"ByrdShop_0195067274","price":29.32,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780195067279.jpg?v=1788288643","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/women-in-the-classical-world-image-and-text-9780195067279","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}