Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity

by Sarah B. Pomeroy

"The 1st general treatment of women in the ancient world to reflect the critical insights of modern feminism. Though much debated, its position as the basic textbook on women's history in Greece & Rome has hardly been challenged."--Mary Beard, Times Literary Supplement. Illustrations.
Chronological Table
Introduction
Goddesses & gods
Women in the Bronze Age & Homeric epic
The Dark Age & the Archaic Period
Women & the city of Athens
Private life in classical Athens
Images of women in the literature of classical Athens
Hellenistic women
The Roman matron of the late republic & early empire
Women of the Roman lower classes
The role of women in the religion of the Romans
Epilogue
Works Referred to
Index

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Feminism, Ancient History, Classics, Womens, Historical

Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Sarah B. Pomeroy, Professor of Classics and History, Emerita, at Hunter College and the Graduate School of the City University of New York. She was born in New York City (1938) and earned her B.A. from Barnard College in 1957. She received her M.A. in 1959 and her Ph.D. in 1961, both from Columbia University. Pomeroy has been recognized as a leading authority on ancient Greek and Roman women since her book Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity was first published in 1975. Her other publications include Xenophon, Oeconomicus: A Social and Historical Commentary (1994), Families in Classical and Hellenistic Greece: Representations and Realities (1998), Spartan Women (2002), and, with Stanley M. Burstein, Walter Donlan, and Jennifer Tolbert Roberts, the textbooks Ancient Greece: a Political, Social, and Cultural History (4th edition, 2017) and A Brief History of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society, and Culture (3rd edition, 2011).[i]

Reviews

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars

My last couple of forays into non-fiction historical writing have been kind of disappointing three-star affairs. This book, however – whether it’s the more academic tone or simply the subject matter – I really enjoyed. First published in the 70′s it probably contains some disputed or out-of-date ideas and evidence by now, but it was one of (if not ‘the’) first academic texts to thoroughly examine women’s roles in Ancient Greece and Rome. So, as a woman who is interested in Ancient Greek and Rome, and who gets irritated with 50% of the worlds population being treated as unimportant – and sometimes even completely ignored – by history textbooks*, I had to read.

And it’s a very interesting read. Perhaps a little dry in places but I preferred that to an overly informal tone and I have read plenty much, much, drier – so I think this book probably got the balance about right for me. It’s well footnoted (always a plus, even if I don’t read every citation I like to know they are they in case I ever do want to check out the original source) but, most of all, the subject matter is really interesting. The book examines female roles from Ancient Greece – predominantly Athens as that’s where most of the literature and archaeological evidence comes from, but also Sparta and other city states which were generally lot more favourable towards women’s rights than ‘the birthplace of democracy’ was. From the more passive roles in Classical Greece it then moves through the Hellenistic period towards ancient Rome, where women, although second-class citizens, were considerably more free and even gasp allowed out of the house! It's political correctness gone mad, I tell you!

As someone who is more interested with Ancient Greek literature and legends than the ins and outs of city state politics (and who is less interested in Rome than Greece), I found the early chapters; discussing the iconography and roles of Greek Goddesses, the portrayal of women in Homer, and the way women were depicted in Classical tragedy and comedy, more interesting and more accessible than some of the chapters based more on the historical facts. But that’s a personal preference, and I do think Pomeroy gives enough context in this book that you don’t have to be an expert on the politics of ancient Athens or Rome to understand it.

Although the blurb asks many questions, Pomeroy avoids giving too many answers in the book. The evidence, both literary and archaeological, is sparse and fragmentary for anything to do with how the less privileged classes of Greeks and Romans lived. The literary evidence is almost entirely written by educated men and most histories of the period and analysis of the archaeological evidence has been done by men too. So often, rather than give a definitive answer, Pomeroy will promote a number of theories that both she and others have come up with. The only one of these I really couldn’t stand was when she mentions the Freudian Psychoanalytical approach to examine why male Greek playwrights wrote abut women in the way they did. I guess it was the 70s, but many Freudian ideas are now no longer regarded as sound in actual psychology so they need to start getting the fuck out of disciplines like History already. While there’s nothing, in theory, wrong with psychoanalysis and examining how a person’s childhood shapes the person they become, straight up Freudian psychoanalysis is full of all sorts of misogyny and bollocks and just needs to die. Also it's an approach that really works a lot better when you actually know something about the person's childhood and can use that to interpret how it informed their writing. If all you have is the writing, then you're just making shit up to fit your own theory - and that's just bad history.

Over all, though, a very interesting and informative book. A lot of the Greek stuff I was at least passingly familiar with from A level Classics and First-Year Ancient History modules, but there were several ways of looking and interpreting things (such as the case for female primogeniture in Homer and the Troy myth) that somehow I’d missed myself and had never been mentioned by my teachers, so that was really interesting for me in a really geeky way. Also I know shamefully little about Roman history beyond the bits everyone knows: ‘gladiators!’ ‘The occupation of Britain!’ ‘Baths!’ ‘Pompey!” and ‘Ripping off the Greek Gods, changing their names and stealing their myths!’ – so the chapters on Roman society were really informative for me as well. And I am glad (though not at all surprised) to see that Roman women weren’t treated quite so badly as the poor old Athenians were. Seriously, Athens was a shit place to live if you were a girl.

From the look of Amazon, most of Pomeroy’s works now seem to be out of print or really expensive, which is a shame. But if I ever spot one going cheap in a second-hand bookshop I will probably pick it up. I thought this was a very well written book that got the balance right between not patronising those familiar with the time frame and not alienating those who weren’t. Also, if anyone here is taking GCSE or AS/A level Classic Civs, I would really recommend reading the chapters on Homer and the Greek tragedies. I kind of wish I had.





* The introduction here contains the ridiculous examples of ancient history books where the word ‘women’ was not included in the indexes, and a book on Ancient Greece that stated the only two unenfranchised classes were ‘resident aliens’ and ‘slaves’, conveniently forgetting that no women of any social class in Greece were enfranchised either. But I'm sure the writers weren't actually misogynists - they just momentarily forgot that women existed, that's all! And then so did their proof-readers, editors, and publishers. And that's almost worse.

[Martine · Rating 3 out of 5]

An informative book, but Pomeroy's feminism shines through so much that I have no faith in her objectivity. Combined with the age of this book, I'd advise everyone to look at Pomeroy's assertions with a highly critical eye.

[Lydia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I finally finished it!

I hit a wall because the second half of the book is about Roman women and my knowledge of Rome is minimal and I'm also not as interested. So I just didn't have any enthusiasm to pick it up once I got halfway through.

I remember enjoying the first half but also being put off by some of the sources Pomeroy uses as fact. Plutarch is notorious for not writing factual biographies, particularly when we're talking about the most-likely-fictional founder of Sparta. So weird to just see the odd comment that suggested Spartans did something because Plutarch says so. Or the paragraph in which she mentions Petronius' Satyricon and how it is fictional and the statistics often meant to be ludicrous, and then at the end of that same paragraph uses the Satyricon as evidence for girls being married at the age of 7. Just makes for an odd reading experience. And means that I was skeptical about a lot of the facts, especially when it came to the areas I knew less about, because i didn't know what was accurate and what might require further critique.

Anyway, it's been 6 months since I read the first half of the book, but I do remember enjoying that bit! Me not enjoying the Roman section is just a problem of myself and not of the book. I'm glad I have finally finished it though.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wide-ranging, interesting and provocative, this was marred by lackluster prose, projection of modern viewpoints, and long quotations out of place in such a slender work.

[Alexia ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finally had the chance of reading and finishing this book and I loved it. This book is amazing and I love how detailed and accurate it is. The author is an academic so all of her work is based on historical sources which, for me, as history student, is ideal. I have a big problem with most books about the Sacred Feminine or about Women in History because there's a big tendency to just say things and not back it up with historical references. Some authors tend to say "Women did this" or "Goddesses were portrayed like this" but show no source to these affirmations and I really don't like that since I have no way of understanding where it came from. This book is not like that, the author writes in a very clear but detailed way and provides all the sources necessary for the reader to understand and check the information she's giving us.

I had a different image of how life for women was in Ancient Greece and it was an eye opener to read this book, specially to understand that women were treated differently depending on what part of the Ancient Greece they were with a huge contrast between Athens and Sparta (I prefer Sparta). Also when it comes to Rome, I love how she explained everything and traced several parallels to Egypt and to previous Hellenistic period to show a comparison of how things were. Also enjoyed a small chapter on the cult of Isis which had a huge impact on the history of Women in Classical Antiquity.

I got this book from the Library at my University but I'm going to purchase a copy for myself since this book is amazing, indeed.

[Stephen Simpson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, but pretty densely-packed with information, and yet still pleasant to read. I'm sure armchair historians will quibble with the work, but let 'em (where's their book?) ... I found the book to be well-researched, well-sourced, and well-reasoned. There were some "leaps" and assumptions, but that goes with the territory.

I would have liked another 100-200 pages of this book, but I enjoyed what was there.

[SB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read with my book club - yoga.

[Ryan Schwartz]

Stopped doing the readings for this class…

[Jo · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found that I couldn't focus well on this book. It isn't very academic because it treats a lot of assumptions about the classical world as fact. This is a common problem with the question of women in the ancient world as remaining literature generally portrays women in epic roles which are quite a bit different from the material evidence that is now used to understand the lives of everyday women. It is disappointing

For a more accurate and thoughtful critical review of women's role in classic literature, I would recommend Tragic Ways of Killing a Woman.

If material history is more your cup of tea, then i would recommend more recent archaeology studies and peer reviewed essays.

[Suus Van Den Hurk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this book for school and it's incredibly informational.

Pomeroy is great at explaining her sources and putting herself into the perspective of someone from ancient times to attempt to translate said sources to our mindset nowadays.

Pomeroy explains the role and duties of women in ancient Greece and Rome. She covers mycenaean times up until hellenistic times in Greece, Roman women however are covered less detailed. It is mostly focused around the Roman Empire and wives of Caesar etc. are for example discussed.

If you wish to know more about women in ancient times I definitely recommend this book, it's a good monograph.

[Ellana Thornton-Wheybrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not convinced by all the arguments raised in this, but as a groundbreaking book it is exceptional.

This is a thorough look at a subject that has only recently been a part of Classical Studies, and often discusses the lack of evidence as well as the evidence itself.

[Manuel López · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fue una lectura deseada desde hacía tiempo. Aunque la conocía desde mis años de universidad y estuvo en alguna de las bibliotecas escolares en las que he estado, no fue hasta el 2020 que la leí. Pude reconocer algunas de las mujeres más destacadas de la antigüedad; Theano, la madre de los Gracos; Cornelia y también la poeta Erina. Sería interesante volver a leerlo.

[Nada Khaled · Rating 5 out of 5]

كتاب رائع جداً جداً❤❤❤
للأسف الكتاب باللغة الإنجليزية فقط غير متوفر بالعربي
يمكن لأن النوع دا من الكتب لا يجذب المترجمين لأنه يخص الستات حصراً ونادراً ما يتكتب حاجة مخصوصة عنهم في مجال الmythology بس على كل الكتاب لغته سهلة للي حابب يقرأه باللغة الأصلية
وتسهيلاً عليكم اقرأوه بصيغة epub على application اسمه readEra هيساعدكم في ترجمة الكلمات الصعبة والاحتفاظ بالمقاطع المهمة.
الكتاب بيتكلم عن وضع المرأة في اليونان القديمة والامبراطورية الرومانية من خلال ظهورها في ال٤ أشكال دول (إلهة - عاهرة - زوجة - أمة)
"إن مكافئة المرأة الجيدة في روما كانت غالباً أن يتم مدحها في عبارات نمطية محفوظة ولكن في أثينا كانت مكافئتها هي النسيان."
دا ملخص المقارنة بين الإغريق والرومان في وضع المرأة عندهم
هل وُجِد مجتمع أمومي (متريركي) قبل كدة تاريخياً؟
غالباً لا
طيب لية وجدت إلهات إناث؟
منعرفش السبب الأكيد لدا لكن من المحتمل إن دا جاء لتلبية احتياج نفسي عند رجال المجتمعات دي
مش شرط خالص إن مجتمع بيقدس الإلهة أثينا ومسمي مدينته على اسمها إنه يكون شايف الستات إنسان أصلاً
قصص الmythology ما هي إلا بنات أفكار رجال دين وشعراء ذكور بيخلقوا النموذج المثالي ليهم ولاحتياجهم ولخيالهم
حتى الإلهة أثينا المبجلة جداً هي مبجلة كدة لأنها بتلبي دور معين في منظومة ذكورية كانت إلهة حرب وصيد يعني صفات تخص الذكور في المجتمع دا في المقابل لو ست إغريقية في الزمن دا جاولت تتعلم مهارة من مهارات الحرب أو السياسة بيتم وصمها على طول بالصفة الشهيرة (مسترجلة)
يمكن مدينة اسبارطة كانت استثناء من كدة لأنها كان كل رجالها محاربين فكان لازم الستات يكون عندهم بعض المهارات اللي تمكنهم من إدارة حياتهم في ظل غياب الرجال

في روما بقى الوضع اتطور للأفضل نسبياً نظراً لتغيرات كتيرة سياسية واقتصادية الكاتبة شرحاها باستفاضة.

بالنسبة للعbودية في الزمن القديم حقيقي الموضوع ملوش جانب واحد ومعقد جدا جداً بالنسبة للرجال والستات على حد سواء وملوش حكم مطلق لأن في كتير من الأوقات ممكن يبقى وضع المرأة التي ترزح تحت نير العbودية أفضل بمراحل من المرأة الحرة خاصة في الطبقات الفقيرة ودا اللي الكاتبة موضحاه (في الطبقة الفقيرة على الأقل العbدة ليها تمن حتى لو هتشتغل في الجنس التجاري أو حد هيشتريها في الآخر هتلاقي مأوى أما الحرة الفقيرة فلا تسوى شيء لذاتها ولا تقدر تتصرف في نفسها ولا حد يوفرلها مأوى) عشان كدة لا نستغرب إن كثير من العbيد بعد تحريرهم بيفضلوا على علاقة طيبة واحتياج دائم لأسيادهم السابقين.
فالحكم على العbودية كمنظومة صعب جداً جداً.

وفي ملاحظة أخيرة: أنا بحزن جداً إن تأريخ العصور في الغرب بيبدأ من اليونان القديمة وقبلهاةيعتبر عصور مظلمة
للأسف حضارة مصر وبلاد الرافدين لا تحظى بالاهتمام الكافي أو الدراسة الكافية
كان نفسي يتعمل كتاب مشابه للكتاب دا بسلاسته دي عن وضع المرأة في مصر القديمة وبلاد الرافدين وبالمقارنة نعرف إن الحضارة المصرية أكتر حضارة إدت للمرأة مكانتها اللي تستحقها وكانت مساوية قانونياً للرجل كانت فرد كامل الأهلية
وفي العائلات الملكية كانت تجسيد لإيزيس وهي من تعطي الشرعية للحاكم.
فحقيقي حبيت الفصل الصغير اللي كتبته الكاتبة عن إيزيس 🖤
إيزيس الحامية إيزيس النائحة إيزيس اللي بتحب الكل وتقبل الكل إيزيس معزية الستات وممثلة الأمومة
كانت رمز الدين الشعبي في مواجهة الدين الرسمي
حقيقي كان نفسي الفصل دا يكون أطول من كدة❤

في المجمل كتاب رائع يستاهل ٥ نجوم
وhighly recommended

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pomeroy looks at the roles of women in the classical world of the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians. Interesting to see how some attitudes rarely change, even after thousands of years. Well written and researched, worth reading whether you're a feminist or not

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was great to read about women in Greece and Rome other than the normal 'she was the empress, she was a manipulative evil one', 'she was a prostitute', 'she was perfect, bore lots of children, did the housework and then died early', etc. Sarah Pomeroy delves into woman at all levels, as best as the data will allow. A really great read that was a solid 4 stars until I hit the last chapter, The Role of Woman in the Religion of the Romans, where it jumped to 5 stars. The section "Sovereign Isis: The Loving Mother" in that chapter was excellent but the entire chapter was powerful.

Chapter 6, Images of Women in the Literature of Classical Athens was wonderful. Her analysis of grammar in literature was so cool (pp. 99-100) as was an intriguing thought on the stronger role of brother-sister bond vs. the wife to husband/father bonds (p. 101). I'm also happy that she likes Euripides since I feel his plays are better on many levels compared to Sophocles and Aeschylus (pp. 107-8, 111).

Chapter 8, The Roman Matron of the Late Republic and Early Empire also contains great data and analysis. I was fuming throughout this chapter and cheering for the small and large acts of standing up and talking back against the powerful men in charge.

Her closing line of the book, in the epilogue, is just an airhorn blast to demand we don't stop the work she's started: "And this rationalized confinement of women to the domestic sphere, as well as the systematization of anti-female thought by poets and philosophers, are two of the most devastating creations in the classical legacy" (p. 230)

[José López · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me ha gustado bastante y lo recomiendo. Un trabajo muy completo sobre la vida del género femenino en la Antigüedad clásica. Abarca Grecia y Roma, diferentes clases sociales, distintas edades y todos los periodos. Analiza hallazgos arqueológicos (inscripciones funerarias, tumbas, cerámica, edificios...), además de textuales ( sobre todo epigrafía, leyes, literatura..). Su objetivo no es tanto la visión y los ideales que se tenía de las mujeres, sino más bien su estatus social y situación real en las sociedades griega y latina. Está un poco desactualizado de algunos datos (fechas y nuevos descubrimientos) y a veces emplea términos ya abandonados por otros (ej.homosexualidad por homoerotismo). A veces no distingue del todo entre sexo y género y aborda a las mujeres como sujeto invariable más que construcción. Pero eso no lo resta valor teniendo en cuenta que es un estudio más antiguo y uno de los más amplios.

[l · Rating 2 out of 5]

occasionally i feel a twinge of guilt for not doing any women in antiquity classes (not that there were many in undergrad) and reading this was a response to that but it's really 101, and a little dated tbh

[Isabella Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, I read it for school and would highly recommend reading it even on your own time.
I've always loved Greek mythology, and this look at how the women of Greek mythology influenced the women in the real world (and vice versa) was so very interesting.
4.5/5

[Aneta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so full of information on the lives and treatment of women in antiquity! I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the portrayal of women in mythology and the way goddesses were shaped by the societal standards at the time.

[Miri · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent piece of historical and anthropological writing. Fascinating insights into women's lives in the ancient world

[Rebecca Daun · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was about as an easy of a read as the title might suggest. it wasn't but i also learned a lot so

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75

future fig assassin.

good but possibly a little outdated.

[Jana Giles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely helpful! I use excerpts frequently in my World Lit classes.

[Skye · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because I am a feminist, a Latin teacher, and a lover of anything about the ancient world. Clearly this book is well deserving of its secure place on college curricula, and is a fantastic sourcebook. I learned so much, often about areas of the ancient world I didn't even know I didn't know about. The writing style is direct and organized, and I underlined frequently because I was learning so much.

The only downside was that it wasn't exactly a page-turner. I get that it's hard to write page-turning nonfiction, especially ones that are somewhat designed as textbooks... But I kept wondering if I was doing a disservice to the book by reading it front to back. Maybe it would be best read as it probably is assigned in college courses-- a chapter here, a section there, based on the needs of the reader.

I'll continue recommending it, even though it ain't no beach read :)

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my absolute favorite books from college. Note that the list of "types" in the title is also a ranking. In many ways it was better to be a whore in Classical Greece than a wife, especially in the upper classes. Exhaustively researched using primary sources such as laws, legal documents, letters, plays, etc. from the period. Surprisingly engaging and easy to read.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published during the seventies, this is one of the first--if not the first--books in English to discuss the roles of women in classical antiquity from a scholarly feminist perspective. It is written on an introductory level suitable for undergraduates and studious high schoolers.

[Catherine Siemann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now-classic feminist history of the topic; seems fairly obvious, but that means that it did its job.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the chapters about Athens and Sparta but towards the end of the Roman chapters it kind of ran out of steam which is odd as that's where the evidence becomes more available

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

more like a 3.75. Good, very interesting.

[Wilhelmina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5