Ancient Women

Discover the shocking truth about ancient Greece's most controversial women. While their Athenian sisters lived in seclusion, forbidden to leave their homes without permission, Spartan women ran naked in public, wrestled with men, and controlled vast wealth that made them the richest females in the ancient world. They were history's first female athletes, training from childhood in running, javelin, and combat sports. They owned 40% of Sparta's land and managed estates with complete autonomy. They chose their husbands, divorced at will, and wielded political influence that terrified the ...

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...

In the Yoruba religion, the seven powerful orisha are thought to bring about miracles and change a person’s life. They can help you cross the divide between the natural and spiritual dimensions. There are also rituals for fertility and prosperity, such as instructions for a sacred bath. But the author does not stop there. It is explained how the orisha can be manifested within the body in multiple ways: how you walk and talk, by appreciating your body, in how you sleep, by being mindful of what you say about yourself, and by making an effort with your appearances.

Step into the sultry heat of 1920s Egypt, where ancient secrets hide beneath the shadow of the Great Pyramid. Dr. Clarissa Bell came to Giza to prove herself a serious archaeologist, not to sort pottery while her male colleagues claim the glory. But when she discovers a mysterious scribe's palette stained with rare blue pigment, she uncovers more than just an artifact—she stumbles into a deadly conspiracy. Armed with nothing but her Cambridge education, an alarming tendency toward sarcasm, and a talent for finding trouble in supposedly empty tombs, Clarissa navigates a world where British...

This first comprehensive work on women in pre-Columbian cultures describes gender roles and relationships in the Americas from 12,000 B.C. to the A.D. 1500s. Utilizing many key archaeological works, Karen Olsen Bruhns and Karen E. Stothert redress some of the long-standing male bias in writing about ancient Native American lifeways. The authors pay particular attention to the problems of interpreting archaeological remains and the uses of historic and ethnographic evidence in reconstructing the past.

The scandalous image of the Empress Messalina as a ruthless and sexually insatiable schemer, derived from the work of Roman historians such as Tacitus and Suetonius, has taken deep root in the Western imagination. The stories they told about her included nightly visits to a brothel and a twenty-four-hour sex competition with a prostitute. Tales like these have defined the empress's legacy, but her real story is much more complex. In her new life of Messalina, the classicist Honor Cargill-Martin reappraises one of the most slandered and underestimated female figures of ancient history.

Amazons - fierce warrior women dwelling on the fringes of the known world - were the mythic archenemies of the ancient Greeks. Heracles and Achilles displayed their valor in duels with Amazon queens, and the Athenians reveled in their victory over a powerful Amazon army. In historical times, Cyrus of Persia, Alexander the Great, and the Roman general Pompey tangled with Amazons.

"The way Jonas built up the atmosphere of menace to an all-encompassing evil is frightening and shocking. The magnitude, the scale of badness, blew me away." —Liz Nugent, author of Strange Sally Diamond. Nothing escapes. Not even time... Something is wrong in the deep woods of Oregon. Horribly, unnaturally wrong. For decades, people have vanished without a trace—tourists, locals, even law enforcement. The few bodies recovered are unrecognizable: aged decades in days. The government sealed the area with barbed wire and silence. No answers. No access. But when four strangers miss their ...

If you love the TV series, THE CHOSEN, you'll love THRONES IN THE DESERT. THRONES IN THE DESERT does what no Biblical novel has done before. It weaves the story of five fictional characters through twelve chapters, with each chapter corresponding to the first twelve chapters of the Book of Luke. The five main characters--a tax collector, a slave, a guard in Herod's Palace, a Pharisee, and the daughter of a Zealot--have all placed a false god on a throne in their life, only to see it overturned by the rabbi from Nazareth. "He has brought down rulers from their thrones. He has lifted up the ...

Twenty thousand years ago, women were making and wearing the first clothing created from spun fibers. In fact, right up to the Industrial Revolution the fiber arts were an enormous economic force, belonging primarily to women. Despite the great toil required in making cloth and clothing, most books on ancient history and economics have no information on them. Much of this gap results from the extreme perishability of what women produced, but it seems clear that until now descriptions of prehistoric and early historic cultures have omitted virtually half the picture.

This riveting narrative explores the lives of six remarkable female pharaohs, from Hatshepsut to Cleopatra - women who ruled with real power - and shines a piercing light on our own perceptions of women in power today. Female rulers are a rare phenomenon - but thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt, women reigned supreme. But throughout human history, women in positions of power were more often used as political pawns in a male-dominated society. What was so special about ancient Egypt that provided women this kind of access to the highest political office?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A “captivating villain origin story” (People Book of the Week) reimagining one of the most iconic monsters in Greek mythology as a provocative and powerful young heroine “Ayana Gray brings her fresh, dynamic storytelling to one of the most monstered, maligned...

Step into the sultry heat of 1920s Egypt, where ancient secrets hide along the banks of the Nile River. Fresh from solving her first murder case in Egypt, archaeologist Dr. Clarissa Bell thought the most dangerous thing about her new assignment would be authenticating ancient pigments. She was wrong. When a respected Egyptologist is poisoned at an elegant house party, Clarissa finds herself trapped with a collection of suspicious guests—including the devastatingly competent Benedict Quinn, whose true profession remains tantalizingly unclear. With her insufferable ex-fiancé offering ...

Discover the holistic and revelatory experience of fasting in this seminal guide on the practice, science, and ancient context of the biblical tradition—with a foreword by John Mark Comer, New York Times bestselling author of Practicing the Way and The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. “At last!...

Discover the hidden history of philosophy through the extraordinary women who helped shape it. Women in Greek Philosophy: The Lives and Ideas of Philosophers Who Challenged Ancient Norms uncovers the stories of thinkers whose voices were nearly forgotten, yet whose influence helped guide some of the most important intellectual traditions of the ancient world. From Diotima’s transformative insights on love, to Aspasia’s mastery of rhetoric, to Hypatia’s brilliance in mathematics and astronomy, this book restores long overlooked figures to their rightful place in the story of Greek ...

Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero - these are the names history associates with the early Roman Empire. Yet, not a single one of these emperors was the blood son of his predecessor. In this captivating history, a prominent scholar of the era documents the Julio-Claudian women whose bloodline, ambition, and ruthlessness made it possible for the emperors' line to continue. Eminent scholar Guy de la Bedoyere, author of Praetorian, asserts that the women behind the scenes - including Livia, Octavia, and the elder and younger Agrippina - were the true backbone of the dynasty.

A killer prowls the sands of the unfinished Great Pyramid, and only one man can stop him. Hemi, Egypt’s brilliant Grand Vizier, has dedicated his life to engineering the magnificent pyramid for his beloved cousin and Pharaoh, Khufu. But when Hemi’s closest friend is found murdered, the bonds of trust between the cousins begin to unravel, threatening the very foundation of their grand project. As the body count rises around Khufu’s Great Pyramid, Hemi must confront the ghosts of his past and unearth long-buried secrets. Amidst the turmoil, an unexpected challenge arises in the form of ...

This #1 New York Times bestseller is a "bold and subversive retelling of the goddess's story" that brilliantly reimagines the life of Circe, formidable sorceress of The Odyssey (Alexandra Alter, TheNew York Times). In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is...

Is it possible that a place called Lemuria existed? What about the missing continent of MU? What does being a Lemurian actually mean for you today? The answer to these questions and more is revealed in this book.

The darkness has found her again. Daria’s new position, as a language tutor to the wealthy and charming merchant Lucas, takes her to the dazzling city of Ephesus on the Aegean coast. As their connection deepens, Daria finds herself drawn to Lucas, despite the evil and violence that churn beneath the city's beauty. A collision is coming, between the high priests of Artemis, the sorcerers who pursue arcane knowledge, and a new movement called The Way, centered around the Jewish martyr, Jesus. Daria longs to remain apart, safe from the evil she barely escaped in the past, but her growing ...