How the idea of the author was born in the battleground of gender When Sappho sang her songs, the only word that existed to describe a poet was a male one—aoidos, or “singer-man.� The most famous woman poet of ancient Greece, whose craft was one of words, had no words with which to talk about who she was and what she did. In How Women Became Poets, Emily Hauser rewrites the story of Greek literature as one of gender, arguing that the ways the Greeks talked about their identity as poets constructed, played with, and broke down gender expectations that literature was for men alone. Bringing together recent studies in ancient authorship, gender, and performativity, Hauser offers a new history of classical literature that redefines the canon as a constant struggle to be heard through, and sometimes despite, gender. Women, as Virginia Woolf recognized, need rooms of their own in order to write. So, too, have women writers through history needed a name to describe what it is they do. Hauser traces the invention of that name in ancient Greece, exploring the archaeology of the gendering of the poet. She follows ancient Greek poets, philosophers, and historians as they developed and debated the vocabulary for authorship on the battleground of gender—building up and reinforcing the word for male poet, then in response creating a language with which to describe women who write. Crucially, Hauser reinserts women into the traditionally all-male canon of Greek literature, arguing for the centrality of their role in shaping ideas around authorship and literary production.

After twenty years, Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca, but instead of receiving the homecoming he had hoped for finds himself caught in an intense battle of wills with his faithful and long-suffering wife Penelope. When Penelope recognizes him under the guise of a beggar, she becomes furious with him for not trusting her enough to include her in his plans for ridding the palace of the Suitors. As a result, she plays her own game of fictions to make him suffer for this lack of faith, inspiring jealousy, self-doubt, and misgivings in her husband, the legendary Homeric hero. In this captivating retelling of the Odyssey, Penelope rises as a major force with whom to be reckoned. Shifting between first-person reflections, Ithaca Forever reveals the deeply personal and powerful perspectives of both wife and husband as they struggle for respect and supremacy within a marriage that has been on hold for twenty years. Translated by PEN award-winner Douglas Grant Heise, Luigi Malerba's novel gives us a remarkable version of this greatest work of western literature: Odysseus as a man full of doubts and Penelope as a woman of great depth and strength.

Some three thousand years ago, in a time before history, the warriors of Greece journeyed to the ends of the earth in the greatest expedition the world had ever seen. One woman fought alongside them. Abandoned at birth on the slopes of Mount Pelion, Atalanta is determined to prove her worth to the father who cast her aside. Having taught herself to hunt and fight, and disguised as a man, she wins a place on the greatest voyage of that heroic age: with Jason and his band of Argonauts in search of the legendary Golden Fleece. And it is here, in the company of men who will go down in history as heroes, that Atalanta must battle against the odds - and the will of the gods - to take control of her destiny and change her life forever. With her unrivalled knowledge and captivating storytelling, Emily Hauser brings alive an ancient world where the gods can transform a mortal's life on a whim, where warriors carve out names that will echo down the ages . . . and where one woman fights to determine her own fate.

We don't have to look to works of fiction to find tales of true love. The pages of history are crammed with stories about love that are, quite literally, true. And many of them are among the greatest love stories ever told. Ancient Love Stories brings together some of the most remarkable romances in history - from tales of fearless queens and besotted emperors to men who died fighting for the men they loved. These accounts of passion, jealousy, hope and longing show that perhaps little has changed over the last three thousand years - love, above all, has endured. Written by award-winning classicist Emily Hauser and with beautiful artwork by illustrator Sander Berg.

After twenty years, Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca, but instead of receiving the homecoming he had hoped for finds himself caught in an intense battle of wills with his faithful and long-suffering wife Penelope. When Penelope recognizes him under the guise of a beggar, she becomes furious with him for not trusting her enough to include her in his plans for ridding the palace of the Suitors. As a result, she plays her own game of fictions to make him suffer for this lack of faith, inspiring jealousy, self-doubt, and misgivings in her husband, the legendary Homeric hero.   In this captivating retelling of the Odyssey, Penelope rises as a major force with whom to be reckoned. Shifting between first-person reflections, Ithaca Forever reveals the deeply personal and powerful perspectives of both wife and husband as they struggle for respect and supremacy within a marriage that has been on hold for twenty years. Translated by PEN award-winner Douglas Grant Heise, Luigi Malerba’s novel gives us a remarkable version of this greatest work of western literature: Odysseus as a man full of doubts and Penelope as a woman of great depth and strength.

If you've been gripped by Pat Barker's The Women of Troy and The Silence of the Girls, then For the Most Beautiful is a must-read for you . . . Three thousand years ago a war took place that gave birth to legends - to Achilles, the greatest of the Greeks, and Hector, prince of Troy. It was a war that shook the very foundations of the world. But what if there was more to this epic conflict? What if there was another, hidden tale of the Trojan War? Now is the time for the women of Troy to tell their story. Thrillingly imagined and startlingly original, For the Most Beautiful reveals the untold story of Krisayis, daughter of the Trojans' High Priest, and of Briseis, princess of Pedasus, who fight to determine the fate of a city and its people in this ancient time of mischievous gods and mythic heroes. In this novel full of passion and revenge, loyalty and betrayal, bravery and sacrifice, Emily Hauser breathes exhilarating new life into one of the greatest legends of all - in a tale that has waited millennia to be told. 'Brings ancient Troy wildly, raucously, passionately alive' Manda Scott, author of Boudica

'Offers a fresh and feminist take' Madeline Miller, bestselling author of Circe Thousands of years ago, two remarkable women found themselves swept up in one of the greatest legends of all . . . and discovered the price that must be paid for immortality. Desperate to save her dying brother, Admete persuades her father, the king of Tiryns, to allow her to accompany Hercules on one of his celebrated twelve labours. They travel to the land of the Amazons in the hopes of finding a cure - but their arrival causes tension with the infamous female warriors. Hippolyta, the revered queen of the tribe, sees their presence as a threat - both to her people, but also to the long-guarded secret she has been keeping from them. As battle lines are drawn between the Greeks and the Amazons, Admete and Hippolyta soon learn the inevitable truth - that in war, sacrifices must be made; especially if they are to protect the ones they love most . . . PRAISE FOR EMILY HAUSER: 'Hauser recreates one of the oldest tales in Greek myth with great skill and panache.' The Times 'Once in a while something comes along that's so utterly right, so necessary for now, that you wonder why nobody thought of it before. Emily Hauser's stunning debut novel . . . brings ancient Troy wildly, raucously, passionately alive.' Manda Scott, bestselling author of Boudica and Into the Fire 'A delight from start to finish. Hauser's fresh perspective on one of the great archetypal epics, in focusing on the marginalised women's stories, makes for fascinating reading . . . a clever premise and thoroughly enjoyable.' Elizabeth Fremantle, author of Sisters of Treason 'Kept me utterly absorbed. Here is a heroine to cheer for, and a book to cherish.' Margot Livesey, author of The House on Fortune Street 'Beautifully descriptive . . . drawing the reader into a lost world of gods and heroes.' Glyn Iliffe, author of King of Ithaca

This ground-breaking volume connects the situatedness of genre in English poetry with developments in classical scholarship, exploring how an emphasis on the interaction between English literary criticism and Classics changes, sharpens, or perhaps even obstructs views on genre in English poetry. "Genre" has classical roots: both in the etymology of the word and in the history of genre criticism, which begins with Aristotle. In a similar vein, recent developments in genre studies have suggested that literary genres are not given or fixed entities, but subjective and unstable (as well as historically situated), and that the reception of genre by both writers and scholars feeds back into the way genre is articulated in specific literary works. Classical scholarship, literary criticism, and genre form a triangle of key concepts for the volume, approached in different ways and with different productive results by contributors from across the disciplines of Classics and English literature. Covering topics from the establishment of genre in the Middle Ages to the invention of female epic and the epyllion, and bringing together the works of English poets from Milton to Tennyson to Josephine Balmer, the essays collected hereargue that the reception and criticism of classical texts play a crucial part in generic formation in English poetry.

This ground-breaking volume connects the situatedness of genre in English poetry with developments in classical scholarship, exploring how an emphasis on the interaction between English literary criticism and Classics changes, sharpens, or perhaps even obstructs views on genre in English poetry. "Genre" has classical roots: both in the etymology of the word and in the history of genre criticism, which begins with Aristotle. In a similar vein, recent developments in genre studies have suggested that literary genres are not given or fixed entities, but subjective and unstable (as well as historically situated), and that the reception of genre by both writers and scholars feeds back into the way genre is articulated in specific literary works. Classical scholarship, literary criticism, and genre form a triangle of key concepts for the volume, approached in different ways and with different productive results by contributors from across the disciplines of Classics and English literature. Covering topics from the establishment of genre in the Middle Ages to the invention of female epic and the epyllion, and bringing together the works of English poets from Milton to Tennyson to Josephine Balmer, the essays collected hereargue that the reception and criticism of classical texts play a crucial part in generic formation in English poetry.