I got home yesterday from Ecuador and the nicest thing I saw when I got back to my place was my dear old reference books scattered all over the floor. There’s a bunch I rely on. I keep meaning to review them in some form here, but I guess I’m not really much of a reviewer. If you’re interested in what I recommend, you should check out my Bibliography.
If not then you probably won’t be interested in what follows either, but I won’t let that stop me! Books I want to add to my collection include:
- Female Power and Male Dominance: On the Origins of Sexual Inequality
- Recommended to me by Carol Christ herself, and by an anthropologist (Peggy Reeves Sanday) that I respect.
- Spartan Women
- By the impressive Classicist Sarah Pomeroy, who I frequently refer to and quote liberally. Also, I know almost nothing about Spartan women, most of my ladies come from an Athenian perspective.
- Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan’s Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece
- Legal cases are crucial to our understanding of ancient Greek life, and of all the ancient Greek lives I could learn about, Neaira’s seems to be among the most fascinating.
- Greek Religion and Society
- Seems like a good place to start for me since my Classical background is so heavily literary and mythic. That’s the same reason I want to read Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece and Finding Persephone: Women’s Rituals in the Ancient Mediterranean recommended to me via Anahita-L.
- The Constraints of Desire: The Anthropology of Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece
- I’m not sure why I didn’t read this in college, but I want to remedy that as soon as possible. Winkler founded this branch of Classical research in many ways.
- Greek Nymphs: Myth, Cult, Lore
- I’ve got Amazons covered, but I’m ready to learn more about these wily lovable women.
- Lavinia
- By favorite author Ursula K. LeGuin, this is actually a historical fiction about the silent princess from the Aeneid. Promises to be interesting – and you can even buy it at the airport!
I used to just buy the books with an interesting title, but I’ve learned the hard way that that doesn’t yield the best information. Recommendations are better. So recommend! Are there any other books you’ve read that were particularly relevant and accurate? Do you know anything about any on this list? Please comment and tell me about them!
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