Awesome Women of the Ancient World

Author

Juliet Marillier

Lovely Sorcha is the seventh child and only daughter of Lord Colum of Sevenwaters. Bereft of a mother, she is comforted by her six brothers who love and protect her. Sorcha is the light in their lives, they are determined that she know only contentment.

But Sorcha's joy is shattered when her father...

Author	Euripides
ISBN	0486275485

One of the most powerful and enduring of Greek tragedies, Medea centers on the myth of Jason, leader of the Argonauts, who has won the dragon-guarded treasure of the Golden Fleece with the help of the sorceress Medea. Having married Medea and fathered her two children, Jason abandons her for a more favorable...

Author	Madeline Miller
ISBN	0316556343

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child—not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power—the power of witchcraft,...

Author

Alice Hoffman

Over five years in the writing, The Dovekeepers is Alice Hoffman's most ambitious and mesmerizing novel, a tour de force of imagination and research, set in ancient Israel.

In 70 C.E., nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert....

Author

Esther M. Friesner

She is beautiful, she is a princess, and Aphrodite is her favorite goddess, but something in Helen of Sparta just itches for more out of life. Not one to count on the gods—or her looks—to take care of her, Helen sets out to get what she wants with steely determination and a sassy attitude. That same attitude...

Author	Caroline B. Cooney
ISBN	0440229308

At age six Anaxandra is taken by King Nicander to be a companion to his crippled daughter on the island of Siphnos. Anaxandra has adjusted to her new life when, six years later, Siphnos is sacked by pirates, and she is the sole survivor. When a fleet of ships stops on the island to investigate, she assumes...

Author	Esther M. Friesner
ISBN	0375856544

Nefertiti was far more than just a pretty face.

Nefertiti may be the dutiful daughter of a commoner, but her inquisitive mind often gets her into situations that are far from ordinary, like receiving secret lessons from a scribe. And she’s the kind of girl who acts first, and apologizes...

Author	Pauline Gedge
ISBN	0939149850

She ruled Egypt not as Queen but as Pharaoh, thirty five centuries ago. Yet her name--Hatshepsut--does not appear in dynastic scrolls, nor is her reign celebrated on monuments. This is the story of the young woman who assumed the throne of Egypt, mastered the arts of war and government, lived her life...

Author	Eloise Jarvis McGraw
ISBN	0140319298

Mara is a proud and beautiful slave girl who yearns for freedom. In order to gain it, she finds herself playing the dangerous role of double spy for two arch enemies - each of whom supports a contender for the throne of Egypt.

Against her will, Mara finds herself falling in love with one of her masters,...

Author	Jo Graham
ISBN	0316068004

The world is ending. One by one the mighty cities are falling, to earthquakes, to flood, to raiders on both land and sea.

In a time of war and doubt, Gull is an oracle. Daughter of a slave taken from fallen Troy, chosen at the age of seven to be the voice of the Lady of the Dead, it is her destiny to counsel...

Author

Kristiana Gregory

Disclaimer: The last time I read this book was in middle school, so my review will be spotty and more nostalgic than any review should be. Oh well.

I avidly read the Royal Diaries series during my middle school years. Like most young girls, I was fascinated with princesses and--maybe not so much...

Author	Aeschylus
ISBN	0140443339

Alternate cover edition can be found here, here, here, here

In the Oresteia—the only trilogy in Greek drama which survives from antiquity—Aeschylus took as his subject the bloody chain of murder and revenge within the royal family of Argos.

Moving from darkness to light, from...

Author	Manda Scott
ISBN	0385336705

Dreaming the Eagle is the first part of the gloriously imagined epic trilogy of the life of Boudica.

Boudica means Bringer of Victory (from the early Celtic word “boudeg”). She is the last defender of the Celtic culture in Britain; the only woman openly to lead her warriors into battle and...

Author	June Rachuy Brindel
ISBN	0312049129

As Minos plots against the matriarchy, as famine stalks the mountains and the people grow restive, Ariadne struggles to preserve her religion, her throne, and her life. Bold, handsome Theseus, prince of Athens, appears to offer help: but does he come to save Ariadne—or destroy her?


"Ariadne...

Author

Jean Anouilh

TWO DIFFERENT WORLDS -
WE LIVE IN TWO DIFFERENT WORLDS.
1960's song.

If Sophocles' version of this is the best, Anouilh's is the one that's most like we all are INSIDE.

When I was 16, a callow youth, I thought Anouilh's heroine just couldn't compromise. I thought, how dumb!...

Author

Esther M. Friesner

In this rousing sequel to Nobody’s Princess, young Helen of Sparta is not about to be left behind when her older brothers head off to join the quest for the Golden Fleece. Accompanied by her friend Milo, and disguised as a boy herself, Helen sets out to join the crew of heroes aboard the massive ship known...

Author	Michelle Moran
ISBN	1476716358

From the internationally best-selling author of Nefertitiand Cleopatra's Daughter comes the breathtaking story of Queen Lakshmi - India's Joan of Arc - who against all odds defied the mighty British invasion to defend her beloved kingdom.

When the British Empire sets its sights on India...

Author	Nicola Griffith
ISBN	0374280878

Hild is born into a world in transition. In seventh-century Britain, small kingdoms are merging, usually violently. A new religion is coming ashore; the old gods’ priests are worrying. Edwin of Northumbria plots to become overking of the Angles, ruthlessly using every tool at his disposal: blood,...

Author	Elizabeth Cunningham
ISBN	0976684330

For the millions of readers fascinated by Dan Brown's revelations about Mary Magdalen in The Da Vinci Code, here, at last, is their chance to meet the Gospel's most provocative woman face to face-on her own terms.

Make way for a new Magdalen. Born on a Celtic isle to eight warrior-witch mothers,...

Author	Esther M. Friesner
ISBN	0375856579

Ancient Egypt springs to life in this enthralling sequel to "Sphinx's Princess." As she did in "Nobody's Princess" and "Nobody's Prize," author Esther Friesner offers readers a fresh look at an iconic figure, blending historical fiction and mythology in a heady concoction.
"Hunted" . . . Overnight,...

Author	Marion Zimmer Bradley
ISBN	0671656155

A wounded Atlantean prince...a deadly battle between Dark and Light...and the sisters Deoris and Domaris, whose lives are changed utterly by the magic involving them. These are the elements of The Fall of Atlantis, Marion Zimmer Bradley's epic fantasy about that ancient and legendary realm.

On...

Author	Lisa Ann Sandell
ISBN	0439918480

The year is 490 AD. Fiery 16-year-old Elaine of Ascolat, the daughter of one of King Arthur's supporters, lives with her father on Arthur's base camp, the sole girl in a militaristic world of men.

Elaine's only girl companion is the mysterious Morgan, Arthur's older sister, but Elaine cannot...

Author	Agatha Christie
ISBN	0312981619

In this startling historical mystery, unique in the author's canon, Agatha Christie investigates a deadly mystery at the heart of a dissonant family in ancient Egypt. Imhotep, wealthy landowner and priest of Thebes, has outraged his sons and daughters by bringing a beautiful concubine into their...

Author	Jean M. Auel
ISBN	0553381660

This unforgettable odyssey into the distant past carries us back to the awesome mysteries of the exotic, primeval world of The Clan of the Cave Bear, and to Ayla, now grown into a beautiful and courageous young woman.

Cruelly cast out by the new leader of the ancient Clan that adopted her as a child,...

Author	Jennifer Roberson
ISBN	0821748912

As the gates of Ravenskeep swing open and a young woman flees into the primeval depths of Sherwood Forest and into the arms of the man she loves, a saga of exceptional power and remarkable passion begins...

He is Sir Robery Locksley--the heroic nobleman who has turned his back on all he knows to...

Author	Donna Gillespie
ISBN	0515119660

It took me a long time to read this book, because it is a long book. It is way, way, way, way, WAY too long!

The story is great, but there were many times when I found myself wanting to shout a the words in front of my eyes, for page after page, "Just get on with it!" There was a long period during which reading...

Author	India Edghill
ISBN	0312289197

My husband spotted this book on the library shelf and handed it to me. When I read the inside cover, I was really intrigued - a novel that shows King David's life from the perspective of Michal, his first wife. That should be interesting!

Well... I didn't like the narrating style. This tells the...

Author	Martha Marks
ISBN	0979519349

AD 53 — Strong-willed, impetuous, and naive, Theodosia Varro inherits the family estate after her brother is murdered on the streets of Rome. With no preparation, she goes from poverty and isolation to great wealth and a prestigious position in society. Only by identifying her brother's killer...

Author	Rosalind Miles
ISBN	1400081548

Isolde’s day has come. In Ireland her mother, the Queen, lies dying. The throne of the Emerald Isle, one of the last strongholds of the Goddess, awaits her. But while Ireland is her destiny, Isolde is already Queen of Cornwall, trapped in a loveless marriage to the mean-spirited King Mark. Her true...

Author	Diane Wolkstein
ISBN	0060908548

A fresh retelling of the ancient texts about Ishtar, the world's first goddess. Illustrated with visual artifacts of the period.

With the long-awaited publication of this book, we have for the first time in any modern literary form one of the most vital and important of ancient myths: that...

Author	Clysta Kinstler
ISBN	0062504975

Narrative weaving the biblical account of Mary and Jesus, the Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris, and the Sumerian story of Inanna and Dumuzi to create an exotic tale of a strong, sensual woman.

From Publishers Weekly
This feminist retelling of the conception, birth, life and death of Christ...

Author	Nicole Galland
ISBN	0062026887

Everyone knows the legend of Lady Godiva-the woman who (in)famously rode naked on horseback through Coventry to relieve her people from unfair taxation. But why would a lady of the court take it all off and risk everything, including husband, home, and well-being?

In this richly imagined...