You wouldn't think anyone could come up with a new or original idea for a book about ancient Greece, but actually, this book comes close in its focus on the treatment of women. Blundell's book is well-written, scholarly, and even includes the occasionally humorous (and possibly apocryphal) story. For example, there is a section in which she discusses the punishments for adultery. According to Athenian law, a husband had the right to kill a man caught in the act of adultery with his wife. However, the law also allowed the dead man's family to sue the aggrieved man for damages, so it's suspected that very few men actually availed themselves of this right, and perhaps opted for other choices, such as payment for damages, and so on. There is even mentioned the punishment of "radishment," which is "to have a large radish stuffed up one's anus." I kid you not. Well, this piece of information comes from the satiric playwright Aeschylus, who mentions it in one of his plays, and so is perhaps the product of the writer's over-active imagination. But whether this was actually part of the law or not, I found this to be a well-written, scholarly, and occasionally humorous account of life in ancient Greece.

Blundell has taken a famous work of art, on the Acropolis, at the heart of Classical Athens, and used it to introduce and discussion women's roles in the city at its height of power. While specialists may disagree with some ideas and therefore profit from considering her take on classical women, her approach is also enticing enough and short enough to keep undergraduates interested. I think this is a great book to use in a women's history course or a course focused on the classical period. Needs better citations overall.