women

History

Women in Diodorus Siculus | part 2: Women Associated with Philip II of Macedon

During the summer of 2023 the Kosmos book club read Chapter 17 of Diodorus Siculus’s Library[1], which described the career of Alexander the Great. I began to research more widely the women mentioned in the account, which involved researching Alexander’s family, background and contexts. Plutarch was also a useful source for this[2]. The first blogpost told of the sources and methodology I used and described some of the social and… Read more

History

Women in Diodorus Siculus | part 1: Introduction and Contexts

This series of blogposts originated in the Kosmos Society’s Book Club reading, in the summer of 2023, of Diodorus Siculus’ Library, Book 17, which concerns the campaigns of Alexander the Great[1] in the fourth century BCE. As we read, it became evident that more contextual material was available in Books 16, 18, 19 and 20 of the Library, and also in the works of Plutarch[2] and Arrian[3]. Wikipedia dates Diodorus… Read more

Gallery

Gallery | Amazons

The Iliad starts with the anger of Achilles, but the last words belong to Hector’s funeral. Thus, then, did they celebrate the funeral of Hector, tamer of horses. Sourcebook Iliad 24.802-803[1] However, Casey Dué in Achilles Unbound: Multiformity and Tradition in the Homeric Epics[2] shows that an alternative ending line existed. The medieval manuscripts and all modern editions, such as that of Munro and Allen’s 1920 Oxford Classical Text, end… Read more

Topic for Discussion

Some Thoughts on Plutarch

Bust at Delphi believed to be of Plutarch In September 2022 the Kosmos Society Book Club read Plutarch’s Virtues of Women. We discussed the main themes: the fight for justice, defeating the oppressor, and Plutarch’s writing skills. However, there were some themes that are perhaps less significant, if significance is measured by the amount of attention paid to them, but which, nevertheless, made me think of other similar stories, and… Read more

Book Club

Book Club | September 2022: Bravery of Women

Regarding the virtues [aretē] of women, Clea, I do not hold the same opinion as Thucydides.​ For he declares that the best woman is she about whom there is the least talk among persons … But to my mind Gorgias appears to display better taste in advising that not the form but the fame of a woman should be known to many. . … I would have said …that man’s… Read more