Customer Reviews:
 Plus Ca Change? May 5, 2003
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
The problem with just about anything to do with the ancient world is that the view is always from the male of the species, and that view is now more than two millenia out of date. Michael Massey does his best to sweep away thousands of years' worth of misogynistic myopia by taking a fresh, unblinkered look at the sources, which he has mostly translated himself, in an effort to interpret them for a very modern, post-feminist audience. The result is, in my view, a very even-handed treatment of one of the trickiest aspects of classical culture and society. The translations are very snappy, and the illustrations very well chosen. One big surprise is to discover that classical women did actually write about their lives for themselves, and I'm grateful to Michael Massey for compiling this very useful collection of source material. One depressing note is that some features of women's lives do not seem to have changed much over the centuries, but it is encouraging to think that we are now no longer the goods and chattels of our fathers and husbands! This book was enjoyed by my daughter studying GCSE Latin - a valuable counterblast to more male-orientated texts.
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