Book Citation Pomeroy, Sarah. Women in Hellenistic Egypt: from Alexander to Cleopatra (New York: Schocken Books), 1984.
Author’s Goal The author’s goal in writing this book is to inform people about ancient women, focusing more on Egypt and sounding areas in the earliest centuries, from 2nd century through the 4th. Women were not very popular in ancient times; therefore people know less about them compared to men. Because of this lack of information many people argue about the status of ancient women. That is why Pomeroy wrote this book, she wants to provide as much information about ancient women as she could, to inform her readers. Pomeroy also tends to focus on the women who achieved great goals in life, as to say that even women in …show more content…
I did not realize that there were women in ancient times that could ride horses and even go into battle if they wanted to. I thought that all women back then had no rights and could not even breathe if told not to. I viewed women as objects that men could do with as they please. In most cases, sadly that was true, but not for the women in this book. This book started off with how royal women could go to battle, and that baffled my mind. People have discovered this because they found weapons like bows and arrows in the grave of a woman. That woman must have been pretty amazing with that bow for her to be buried with it; she must have been known for it. Another thing I found interesting was that some fathers actually loved their daughters! Most fathers only wanted sons and it was bad luck to have a daughter, Islamic cultures could even kill their baby girls if they wanted to! One section of the book even talks about how a father viewed himself lucky because he had 4 daughters, and no sons. Back then in most cases he would have been extremely unlucky, but he was happy. He told people that he could afford to have girls. This made me think that fathers joked about how expensive daughters could be, like how fathers in today’s world …show more content…
In the first chapter it talked about how queens would sometimes help their people in times of need. Queen Laodice III set up a foundation to give dowries to poor girls. This was interesting to me because I had no clue that they set up foundations that far back in history. I thought that foundations were relatively new. It reminds me of how the first lady has set up foundations for the less fortunate. It is as if there is not a couple thousand-year gap. Women in power today are still doing things that women in power so long ago did. History truly does repent itself, even in the little