Following Odysseus Not the end of the world Amarna city of light ...

Women in the Ancient WorldJenifer NeilsBritish Museum Press, 2011216pp, 200 colour photographs and one mapPaperback, £18.99Jenifer Neils has taught Classical Art andArchaeology at Case Western ReserveUniversity since 1980. She has also guestcuratedtwo major international loan exhibitions,Goddess and Polis: The PanathenaicFestival in Ancient Athens and Coming ofAge in Greece: Images of Childhood fromthe Classical Past.Her latest book, a handsome volume,lavishly illustrated throughout with colourphotographs of objects largely drawn fromthe collections of the British Museum,focuses on both the role and perception ofwomen in the past.Small details like a map of the ancientworld, a list of goddesses across differentcultures and a potted history of each in theopening chapter, make this a self-containedprimer on the topic for those who inclinetowards the aesthetic.Neils does broach the awkward truth thatthe vast majority of what we know of womenin the ancient world is filtered through representationsleft to us by men, and makessome effort to navigate round this by touchingon the clues that can be drawn frombiological remains, for example, preservedbodies. This is, however, clearly not theraison d’être of this book, as more spaceis filled by beautiful images of well photographedobjects than by CAT scans.Having accepted that male-authoredaccounts concerning the female membersof the population are heavily biased,the book unashamedly focuses ona visual celebration of women while atthe same time placing them in a sociohistoriccontext.The cultures under scrutiny are AncientGreece, Rome, Egypt, and the Near East.But, by examining the subject thematically,rather than geographically, Neils allowsfor interesting comparisons to be drawnbetween the different cultures, for instanceMinerva November/December 2012views and laws concerning the legal rights ofwomen and approaches to marriage.This book ambitiously covers a vastperiod, stretching from 4000 BC to AD 600and involving a range of religions and cultures– particularly from the Ancient NearEast. But the chapter headings: ‘FemaleStereotypes’, ‘Mothers and Mourners’,‘Working Women’, ‘The Body Beautiful’,‘Women and Religion’ and ‘Royal Women’allow these introductory studies to be presentedin accessible portions.The chapters are peppered throughoutwith comparative and supporting accounts,from myths and old textual sources, whichadd to our understanding of the imagery onthe objects (eg. black figure pots). A few surprisingexamples of biased ancient thoughtinclude the fact that Aristotle thoughtwomen were no more than mutilated men.At its close Neils concedes once more thatmost of what we know about women in theancient world is seen through male eyes,but as the remit of her book is to show howart celebrates the female form, it succeeds inbeing an engaging, informative and beautifullypresented book.Greek Prostitutes in the AncientMediterranean 800 BCE–200 CEAllison Glazebrook and Madeleine M.Henry [eds.]University of Wisconsin Press, 2011360pp, 14 black and white photos and12 drawingsPaperback, £23.50If, on finishing Jenifer Neils’ Women inthe Ancient World (reviewed left), youwanted to study in greater depth one ofthe more taboo aspects of feminine life,what is commonly referred to as ‘theoldest profession in the world’, then GreekProstitutes in the Ancient Mediterranean800 BCE – 200 CE provides the idealscholarly assessment of the sex workers ofAncient Greece.Glazebrook and Henry have edited contributionsfrom 11 academics (including themselves)on this subject, and the 10 essayswithin this book, along with appropriatereferencing glossary and indices, are verymuch aimed at those studying the Classicalworld at degree or higher level.This is not to say, though, that the bookis unapproachable or unengaging, quite thecontrary in fact, as it covers such fascinatingsubject matter. On the other hand, this is notto say it is a vicarious peepshow into ancientsexual practices.Much of the book focuses on the importanceof Ancient Greek prostitutes to society.Among the ideas discussed are thesocio-political power that prostitutes cameto wield and how this sat with the lay (forwant of a better term) community, the socialstatus of women, civic endorsement of theprofession and a philological study of thelanguage associated with sex.Architectural and archaeological evidenceis also examined, with particular referenceto the brothels on Delos. Coupledwith liberal citations of ancient writings andfragments this makes for a pleasingly multidisciplinaryapproach to the subject.Greek vase painting is a great resourcefor this type of study and Nancy SorkinRabinowitz’s chapter, ‘Sex for Sale?’,analyses the representations of women seen(predominantly) on drinking vessels. Bydrawing attention to body language, rendering,attributes, and how these relate towritten accounts, Rabinowitz explains thatprevious interpretations of rites of passage,courtship scenes, companionship and lovescenes, may have been erroneous.Many of the examples cited throughoutthis book create small vignettes of lifein Ancient Greece and show how prostitutionwas fundamentally and vitally linkedto many aspects of the social and economicposition of the city-states.What can be learnt from the prostitutesof Ancient Greece is evidently far more thanmight be expected and in many instancesquite surprising – one good example of thisis the madam who wrote out the rules ofher brothel in 237 stanzas of high oratoricallanguage.Overall this highly engaging book demonstratesthe need to use all the availableancient resources to build up an accuratecultural picture of the times.As Glazebrook and Henry acknowledge,the academic study of the oldest profession isfar more acceptable today than it once was.Geoff Lowsley55