Greek Women - Resources on Women in Ancient Greece

The second book of the Odyssey tells about Penelope's wily resourcefulness and her power play with the suitors and reveals Telemachus' fruitless, but tearful attempts to persuade the suitors to leafve his family alone.

Aspasia, some say, was courted and caressed by Pericles upon account of her knowledge and skill in politics. Socrates himself would sometimes go to visit her, and some of his acquaintance with him; and those who frequented her company would carry their wives with them to listen to her.

Chrysame was a witch of Thessaly.

Circe is a sorceress best known in Greek mythology for her hosting of Odysseus in the Odyssey.

Cynisca was a Spartan woman who gained fame as the first woman to be a victor in the Olympic games.

Glossary entry on the sister of Orestes and Iphigenia, Electra, also known as Elektra.

Gorgo was the daughter of one king and wife of the next Agiad king of Sparta and was renowned for wisdom.

Medea is the witch of Colchis known for killing the children she and her husband Jason produced.

Medusa was once a beauty but her name became associated with a terrifying female form that turned men to stone.

Basic information on the Greek courtesan Neaira.

Olympias was the mother of Alexander the Great.

How could Oedipus marry his mother? Surely he could see how much older she was than he? And how did she not know he was her son?

Had it not been for the beauty of Helen, Hermione's mother, there would have been no Trojan War. Had it not been for their mothers, Jocasta and Clytemnestra, the heroes Oedipus and Orestes would have remained obscure. Mortal mothers of other legendary heroes had important (if lesser) roles in the ancient Greek epics of Homer and drama of the tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.

Books explaining the position of women in ancient Greek and Roman society either directly -- through select passages about women, written by men, or visual representation on art, or indirectly, by explaining the significance to women of the poetry, drama, philosophy, and medical and legal treatises.

In Greek mythology, Niobe was the proud and fertile daughter of Tantalus who lost all her children as a result of her boast to the mother of Apollo and Artemis, Leto (Latona).