WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE

In this latest entry in the Other Half of History series, Macdonald (Women in 19th-Century America, p. 967, etc.) addresses both the myths and realities of life for women in ancient Greece. Every aspect of those lives is examined forthrightly; women were kept indoors to master housekeeping skills, not allowed to speak in public or to hold property, subject to arranged marriages at the age of 14 to men twice their age, and only too aware that female infanticide was a husband’s prerogative. Macdonald makes clear that Greece was a society that exalted womanhood, but seemed to deplore real women. Divided into easy-to-read sections, the main text is broken up by informative sidebars, photographs, and quotations from contemporary poets, authors, playwrights, and philosophers, e.g., Aristotle stated, “A woman is an imperfect male. She is female because her body is not properly made.” Macdonald is balanced in her presentation and wary of modern pronouncements about this distant culture; she tempers her research with phrasing that helps readers understand what is fact and what is speculation, and may inspire them to further study on their own. Eye-opening and useful. (glossary, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 7-14)