The Missing Thread: A Women's History of the Ancient World (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780593299661)

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.

Author: Daisy Dunn
ISBN-10: 0593299663
ISBN-13: 9780593299661
Publisher: Viking
Language: English
Published: 07/30/2024
Pages: 512
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 02/01/2024 pg. 11