April - 2024

Voiceless, Invisible, and Countless in Ancient Greece: The Experience of Subordinates, 700―300 BCE (Oxford University Press, 2024, 320 pages, $115), edited by Samuel Gartland and David Tandy, is a study of subordinates and subordinators in Ancient Greece. Although the chapters focus on named subordinates, the authors argue how the precariousness of a single individual can be expanded to their class or social group. Therefore, for the authors, carrying out an analysis that does not consider the interpretations and experiences of subordinates is simply reaffirming the silent and invisible condition that these people experienced in life. Covering a broad time frame, and different types of sources, the chapters seek to emphasize and understand the precariousness that affects groups subject to subordination, as well as the processes that created this subordination, the efforts to maintain and combat it, in a to find the intersections between high politics and the different experiences of different subordinate groups.

Public feminism in times of crisis: from Sappho's fragments to viral hashtags (Lexington Books, 2022, 296 pages, $110), by Leila Easa and Jennifer Stager, is a feminist study of the translation and reception of works by ancient women. Problematizing the concept of “public feminism”, the authors discuss how patriarchal structures create narratives around the body and representations of women. For the authors, the available resources and material conditions influenced the production of these works in Antiquity, and continue to impact their translation and reception in the present. Thus, the authors discuss how recent translations, made by women, call into question the supposed “neutrality, objectivity, and invisibility” of translators, especially in the translations of Sappho's fragments. Finally, the authors argue that a feminist and interdisciplinary approach is a powerful tool both for understanding women in Antiquity and supporting modern researchers.