Classical Women Poets

Fragmented and forgotten, the women poets of ancient Greece and Rome have long been overlooked by translators and scholars. Yet to Antipater of Thessalonica, writing in the first century AD, these were the ''earthly Muses'' whose poetic skills rivalled those of their heavenly namesakes.

Today only a fraction of their work survives - lyrical, witty, often innovative, and always moving - offering surprising insights into the close...