Join us

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Newsletter

Alessandro Barbero

The Athenian Women

Cover: The Athenian Women - Alessandro Barbero

Alessandro Barbero

The Athenian Women

2018, pp. 208, Paperback
ISBN: 9781609454197
Translated by: Antony Shugaar
Region: Italy
Available as ebook Available as ebook Available as ebook
$ 17.00
READ NOW READ NOW READ NOW
Sample chapter Sample chapter Sample chapter

The book

The Athenian Women offers a powerful vision of class struggle, the subjugation of women by men, and the courage needed to change the course of history.

Athens, 411 BC. In the countryside, just outside the city gates, two veterans, Trasillo and Polemone, live in adjacent cottages. Years earlier they fought together in the infamous battle of Mantinea, where Athens was crushed by Sparta. The two survivors now live as humble farmers, constantly putting off the decision to find husbands for their two daughters, Glicera and Charis, who are beginning to get impatient. For the two old men the only thing that matters is politics. Athens invented democracy, and they must defend it against the rich oligarchs who plot to reinstate their tyrannical rule: even their neighbor Eubulo, a rich landowner who seeks refuge from the fatigue of city life in a nearby villa, cannot fully be trusted.

Charis and Glicera think their fathers are paranoid. The young Cimone, son of Eubolo, rich, brash, and arrogant, is the object of their secret dreams. When all the men head to Athens to see Aristophanes' latest comedy, the girls break all the rules of their patriarchal society and accept an invitation to Cimone's house, far from their fathers' watchful eyes.

Meanwhile, from the stage, the Athenian Lysistrata and the Spartan Lamito raise their voices in protest of misogyny and war, causing life in Eubolo's village to take a dramatic turn.

With his extraordinary ability to bring history to life, Alessandro Barbero has created a fascinating and penetrating look at a surprisingly contemporary Athens.

The author

Alessandro Barbero
Alessandro Barbero is the author of The Battle: A New History of Waterloo (Walker & Co., 2005), Charlamagne: Father of a Continent, and Master Pyle’s Bella Vita and Other People’s Wars, winner of the Strega Prize for Fiction. He is a renowned historian whose two-volume history of the Battle of Lepanto is considered to be the definitive text on the subject. He teaches Medieval History at the University of Eastern Piedmont in Vercelli, Italy.  

From the same country

  • Cover: The Malcontents - Sacha Naspini

    Sacha Naspini

    The Malcontents

    2025, pp. 480, $ 25.00
    There is a village carved into the rock of the Maremma hinterland in Tuscany and its name is Le Case. A dying country. A provincial trap. A microcosm...
  • Cover: The Other Profile - Irene Graziosi

    Irene Graziosi

    The Other Profile

    2025, pp. 208, $ 17.95
    A story of a conflicted friendship and its unraveling, told against the background of an ever-present, mind-twisting social media-verse
  • Cover: The Bishop’s Villa - Sacha Naspini

    Sacha Naspini

    The Bishop’s Villa

    2024, pp. 192, $ 28.00
    From the best-selling author of Nives, a story of love, redemption, and resistance set in Italy during WWII
  • Cover: The Passenger: Naples - AA.VV.

    AA.VV.

    The Passenger: Naples

    2024, pp. 192, $ 22.00
    Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.    IN THIS VOLUME:...
  • Cover: The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl from Milan - Domenico Starnone

    Domenico Starnone

    The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl from Milan

    2024, pp. 144, $ 18.00
    Children can be cruel, and children can love as passionately as adults, more so at times. When these two facts combine and ignite the imagination...
  • Cover: Moving the Moon: A Night at the Acropolis Museum - Andrea Marcolongo

    Andrea Marcolongo

    Moving the Moon: A Night at the Acropolis Museum

    2024, pp. 144, $ 22.00
    From one of Europe’s most original and brilliant classicists, an inspiring and deeply personal reflection on loss, memory, and what we owe the past...

More suggestions

  • Cover: The Ghosts of Rome - Joseph O’Connor

    Joseph O’Connor

    The Ghosts of Rome

    2025, pp. 400, $ 28.00
    In the final months of World War II, a clandestine group known as The Choir smuggles thousands of escapees out of Nazi-occupied Rome via a secret...
  • Cover: The Bishop’s Villa - Sacha Naspini

    Sacha Naspini

    The Bishop’s Villa

    2024, pp. 192, $ 28.00
    From the best-selling author of Nives, a story of love, redemption, and resistance set in Italy during WWII
  • Cover: Paradises Lost - Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

    Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

    Paradises Lost

    2024, pp. 480, $ 30.00
    The beginning of a unique adventure, the tremendous challenge of recounting the history of humanity.
  • Cover: The Throne - Franco Bernini

    Franco Bernini

    The Throne

    2024, pp. 384, $ 30.00
    This meticulously researched and brilliantly told historical novel, the first of a planned trilogy, recounts the enigmatic life of Niccolò Machiavelli,...
  • Cover: The Postcard - Anne Berest

    Anne Berest

    The Postcard

    2024, pp. 480, $ 18.95
    Brilliantly told, Anne Berest’s luminous, moving, and unforgettable new book The Postcard is the most acclaimed and beloved French novel in...
  • Cover: My Father’s House - Joseph O’Connor

    Joseph O’Connor

    My Father’s House

    2024, pp. 368, $ 18.95
    From the acclaimed, bestselling author of Star of the Sea and winner of the 2021 Irish Book Awards Book of the Year for Shadowplay, comes...

Join Our Newsletter and receive a FREE eBook!

Stay updated on Europa’s forthcoming releases, author tours and major news.

Are you a bookseller? Click here!

Are you a librarian? Click here!

X