The Missing Thread

A Women's History of the Ancient World

De: Daisy Dunn

Narrado por: Daisy Dunn, Jenny Funnell

A dazzlingly ambitious history of the ancient world that places women at the center—from Cleopatra to Boudica, Sappho to Fulvia, and countless other artists, writers, leaders, and creators of history

Around four thousand years ago, the mysterious Minoans sculpted statues of topless women with snakes slithering on their arms. Over one thousand years later, Sappho wrote great poems of longing and desire. For classicist Daisy Dunn, these women—whether they were simply sitting at their looms at home or participating in the highest echelons of power—were up to something much more interesting than other histories would lead us to believe. Together, these women helped to make antiquity as we know it.

In this monumental work, Dunn reconceives our understanding of the ancient world by emphasizing women's roles within it. The Missing Thread never relegates women to the sidelines and is populated with well-known names such as Cleopatra and Agrippina, as well as the likes of Achaemenid consort Atossa and Olympias, a force in Macedon. Spanning three thousand years, the story moves from Minoan Crete to Mycenaean Greece, from Lesbos to Asia Minor, from the Persian Empire to the royal court of Macedonia, and concludes with Rome and its growing empire. The women of antiquity are undeniably woven throughout the fabric of history, and in The Missing Thread they finally take center stage.


* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF that includes maps, charts, and photos of artifacts from the printed book.

So comprehensive!

Dan provides an almost exhaustIve Compendium of information and commentary. Extraordinarily well put together, It’s text challenges all that we know that comes from the male view of history.

Not quite what I expected

I qualify my review saying that I don't have much background in the more traditional or male centered versions of ancient history covered in this book. The book felt like a very detailed whirlwind tour through ancient history with female figures incerted in where they were presumably left out in the past. This is fine, but I was expecting the book to contain more analysis of the broader theme of women in this part of history, especially as compared to what we might conclude from previous accounts. I finished feeling as though I knew more about ancient history in general, but don't feel I gained clear insights on the "missing thread" and how the exclusion of women from previous accounts might change conclusions about both historical events and the roles of women more generally.

How little is actually known about women of antiquity and how much is surmised, guessed really.

The reader’s pronunciation was unusual and inconsistent, often difficult to follow. I appreciated the author’s giving both the ancient name and more current names of cities and areas.

Great read!

Very well researched. I was amaze
d by the details. Worth the read. Highly recommend to anyone interested in women’s voices that have been excluded from history.

Learning the names

A corrective to my own, long ago classical education, and I’m sure I will reread this.