Mary R. Lefkowitz's Books

The Lives of the Greek Poets

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz

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Renowned scholar Mary R. Lefkowitz has extensively revised and rewritten her 1981 classic to introduce a new generation of students to the lives of the Greek poets. Thoroughly updated with references to the most recent scholarship, this second edition includes new material and fresh analysis of the ancient biographies of Greece's most famous poets. With little or no independent historical information to draw on, ancient writers searched for biographical data in the poets’ own works and in comic poetry about them. Lefkowitz describes how biographical mythology was created, and she offers a sympathetic account of how individual biographers reconstructed the poets’ lives. She argues that the life stories of Greek poets, even though primarily fictional, still merit close consideration, as they provide modern readers with insight into ancient notions about the creative process and the purpose of poetic composition. Accessible to students and readers unfamiliar with ancient Greece as well as to scholars, this comprehensive and compelling study includes translations of the original biographies of seven of ancient Greece’s most storied poets.

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237

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JHU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1421404648

ISBN 13

9781421404646

Women's Life in Greece and Rome

A Source Book in Translation

By: Maureen B. Fant,Mary R. Lefkowitz

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Women's Life in Greece and Rome

A Source Book in Translation

By: Maureen B. Fant,Mary R. Lefkowitz

This highly acclaimed collection, the first sourcebook on ancient women and now in its fourth edition, provides a unique look into the public and private lives and legal status of Greek and Roman women. The texts represent women of all social classes, from public figures remembered for their deeds (or misdeeds), to priestesses, poets, and intellectuals, to working women, such as musicians, wet nurses, and prostitutes, to homemakers. The editors have selected texts from hard-to-find sources, such as inscriptions, papyri, and medical treatises, many of which have not previously been translated into English. The resulting compilation is both an invaluable aid to research and a clear guide through this complex subject. The brand new design of the fourth edition integrates the third edition's appendix and adds many new and unusual texts and images, as well as such student-friendly features as a map and chapter overviews. Many notes and explanations have been revised with the non-classicist in mind. Its readings cover women's legal status, domestic conditions, health issues, and relations with other people. The emphasis throughout is not so much on what ancient writers thought about women, as on what women actually did, both within the home and outside it, from their intellectual achievements, benefactions, and religious roles, to humble jobs and acts of physical and moral courage.

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497

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1472578481

ISBN 13

9781472578488

The Lives of the Greek Poets

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz

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The Lives of the Greek Poets

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz

Mary R. Lefkowitz has extensively revised and rewritten her classic study to introduce a new generation of students to the lives of the Greek poets. Thoroughly updated with references to the most recent scholarship, this second edition includes new material and fresh analysis of the ancient biographies of Greece's most famous poets. With little or no independent historical information to draw on, ancient writers searched for biographical data in the poets' own works and in comic poetry about them. Lefkowitz describes how biographical mythology was created and offers a sympathetic account of how individual biographers reconstructed the poets' lives. She argues that the life stories of Greek poets, even though primarily fictional, still merit close consideration, as they provide modern readers with insight into ancient notions about the creative process and the purpose of poetic composition.

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237

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Bloomsbury Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1472503082

ISBN 13

9781472503084

Not Out Of Africa

How ""Afrocentrism"" Became An Excuse To Teach Myth As History

By: Mary Lefkowitz

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Not Out Of Africa

How ""Afrocentrism"" Became An Excuse To Teach Myth As History

By: Mary Lefkowitz

Not Out of Africa has sparked widespread debate over the teaching of revisionist history in schools and colleges. Was Socrates black? Did Aristotle steal his ideas from the library in Alexandria? Do we owe the underlying tenets of our democratic civilizaiton to the Africans? Mary Lefkowitz explains why politically motivated histories of the ancient world are being written and shows how Afrocentrist claims blatantly contradict the historical evidence. Not Out of Africa is an important book that protects and argues for the necessity of historical truths and standards in cultural education.For this new paperback edition, Mary Lefkowitz has written an epilogue in which she responds to her critics and offers topics for further discussion. She has also added supplementary notes, a bibliography with suggestions for further reading, and a glossary of names.

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321

Published Date

ISBN 10

0786723971

ISBN 13

9780786723973

History Lesson

A Race Odyssey

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz

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History Lesson

A Race Odyssey

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz

In the early 1990s, Classics professor Mary Lefkowitz discovered that one of her faculty colleagues at Wellesley College was teaching his students that Greek culture had been stolen from Africa and that Jews were responsible for the slave trade. This book tells the disturbing story of what happened when she spoke out. Lefkowitz quickly learned that to investigate the origin and meaning of myths composed by people who have for centuries been dead and buried is one thing, but it is quite another to critique myths that living people take very seriously. She also found that many in academia were reluctant to challenge the fashionable idea that truth is merely a form of opinion. For her insistent defense of obvious truths about the Greeks and the Jews, Lefkowitz was embroiled in turmoil for a decade. She faced institutional indifference, angry colleagues, reverse racism, anti-Semitism, and even a lawsuit intended to silence her. In History Lesson Lefkowitz describes what it was like to experience directly the power of both postmodernism and compensatory politics. She offers personal insights into important issues of academic values and political correctness, and she suggests practical solutions for the divisive and painful problems that arise when a political agenda takes precedence over objective scholarship. Her forthright tale uncovers surprising features in the landscape of higher education and an unexpected need for courage from those who venture there.

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Page Count

208

Publisher

Yale University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0300145195

ISBN 13

9780300145199

Women's Life in Greece and Rome

A Source Book in Translation

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz,Maureen B. Fant

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Women's Life in Greece and Rome

A Source Book in Translation

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz,Maureen B. Fant

This highly acclaimed collection provides a unique look into the public and private lives and legal status of Greek and Roman women of all social classes-from wet nurses, prostitutes, and gladiatrixes to poets, musicians, intellectuals, priestesses, and housewives. The third edition adds new texts to sections throughout the book, vividly describing women's sentiments and circumstances through readings on love, bereavement, and friendship, as well as property rights, breast cancer, female circumcision, and women's roles in ancient religions, including Christianity and pagan cults.

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Page Count

464

Publisher

JHU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0801883105

ISBN 13

9780801883101

Women in Greek Myth

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz

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Women in Greek Myth

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz

In the first edition of Women in Greek Myth, Mary R. Lefkowitz convincingly challenged narrow, ideological interpretations of the roles of female characters in Greek mythology. Where some scholars saw the Amazons as the last remnant of a forgotten matriarchy, Clytemnestra as a frustrated individualist, and Antigone as an oppressed revolutionary, Lefkowitz argued that such views were justified neither by the myths themselves nor by the relevant documentary evidence. Concentrating on those aspects of women’s experience most often misunderstood—life apart from men, marriage, influence in politics, self-sacrifice and martyrdom, and misogyny—she presented a far less negative account of the role of Greek women, both ordinary and extraordinary, as manifested in the central works of Greek literature. This updated and expanded edition includes six new chapters on such topics as heroic women in Greek epic, seduction and rape in Greek myth, and the parts played by women in ancient rites and festivals. Revisiting the original chapters as well to incorporate two decades of more recent scholarship, Lefkowitz again shows that what Greek men both feared and valued in women was not their sexuality but their intelligence.

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284

Publisher

JHU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0801886503

ISBN 13

9780801886508

First-person Fictions

Pindar's Poetic "I"

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz

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First-person Fictions

Pindar's Poetic "I"

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz

This collection of essays, although written over a period of almost 30 years, deals with one problem: who is the I in the odes of the most celebrated ancient Greek poet, Pindar?. since antiquity, the complex and allusive language of the first-person statements has provoked many different answers, Professor Lefkowitz describes the function and nature of Pindar's I statements and proposes a controversial solution that would cause some histories of Greek literature to be rewritten. Rather than accept the view that the identity of the speaker could be subject to instant and unannounced change, she proposes that the voice of the victory odes is the poet himself, in his most professional persona. Professor Lefkowitz also refutes the traditional belief that the odes were sung by a chorus. She shows that in most, if not all cases, they were sung as solos and that Pindar was continuing the tradition established by the Homeric bards.

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252

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0198146868

ISBN 13

9780198146865

Euripides and the Gods

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz

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Euripides and the Gods

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz

Modern readers find it hard to come to terms with the gods in Euripides' dramas. Readers try to dismiss them as a literary convention. Stage productions leave them out, especially in the cases when they appear ex machina. Instead, they place disproportionate emphasis on the harsh criticisms of the gods uttered by some of the characters in the dramas, and have sought to interpret Euripides ironically, viewing his portrayal of the cruel and capricious gods as a means of drawing attention to the deficiencies of ancient Greek religion. In their view Euripides' dramas seek to question the nature and sometimes even the very existence of traditional Greek gods. In Euripides and the Gods, classicist Mary Lefkowitz sets out to show that the tragedian is not undermining ancient religion, but rather describing with a brutal realism what the gods are like, impressing upon his mortal audience the limitations of human understanding. Writing the first extended treatment of these issues for a general audience, Lefkowitz provides a book that deals with all of Euripides' dramas, and argues for a more tolerant and nuanced understanding of ancient Greek religion. Euripides, like Homer, is making a statement about the nature of the world and human life, terrifying but accurate. She explains how the idea that Euripides was an atheist derives from ancient biographies that drew their evidence from comic poets, and shows why the doubts about the gods expressed by his characters must be understood in their dramatic context. Euripides and the Gods offers a compelling invitation to return to the dramatic masterpieces of Euripides with fresh eyes.

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321

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199752052

ISBN 13

9780199752058

Women's Life in Greece & Rome

A Source Book in Translation

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz,Maureen B. Fant

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Women's Life in Greece & Rome

A Source Book in Translation

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz,Maureen B. Fant

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426

Publisher

JHU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0801844754

ISBN 13

9780801844751

Women's Life in Greece and Rome

A Source Book in Translation

By: Maureen B. Fant,Mary R. Lefkowitz

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Women's Life in Greece and Rome

A Source Book in Translation

By: Maureen B. Fant,Mary R. Lefkowitz

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497

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

147257849X

ISBN 13

9781472578495

Greek Gods, Human Lives

What We Can Learn from Myths

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz

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Greek Gods, Human Lives

What We Can Learn from Myths

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz

Insightful and fun, this new guide to an ancient mythology explains why the Greek gods and goddesses are still so captivating to us, revisiting the work of Homer, Ovid, Virgil, and Shakespeare in search of the essence of these stories. (Mythology & Folklore)

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Page Count

306

Publisher

Yale University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0300107692

ISBN 13

9780300107692

Women in Greece and Rome

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz,Maureen B. Fant

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Women in Greece and Rome

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz,Maureen B. Fant

Collection of translations of Greek and Latin comments on and discussions of women.

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244

Published Date

ISBN 10

0888665873

ISBN 13

9780888665874

Women in Greek Myth

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz

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Women in Greek Myth

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz

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284

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JHU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0801886503

ISBN 13

9780801886508

History Lesson

A Race Odyssey

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz

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History Lesson

A Race Odyssey

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz

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Page Count

202

Published Date

ISBN 10

030012659X

ISBN 13

9780300126594

First-person Fictions

Pindar's Poetic "I"

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz

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First-person Fictions

Pindar's Poetic "I"

By: Mary R. Lefkowitz

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252

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0198146868

ISBN 13

9780198146865

Doctor Mary in Arabia

Memoirs

By: Mary Bruins Allison

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Doctor Mary in Arabia

Memoirs

By: Mary Bruins Allison

Until fairly recently, Arab women rarely received professional health care, since few women doctors had ever practiced in Arabia and their culture forbade them from consulting male doctors. Not surprisingly, Dr. Mary Bruins Allison faced an overwhelming demand when she arrived in Kuwait in 1934 as a medical missionary of the Reformed Church of America. Over the next forty years, "Dr. Mary" treated thousands of women and children, faithfully performing the duties that seemed required of her as a Christian—to heal the sick and seek converts. These memoirs record a fascinating life. Dr. Allison briefly describes her upbringing and her professional training at Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania. She then focuses on her experiences in Kuwait, where women of all classes, including royalty, flocked to her care. In addition to describing many of her cases, Dr. Allison paints a richly detailed picture of life in Kuwait both before and after the discovery of oil transformed the country. Her recollections include invaluable details of women's lives in the Middle East during the early and mid-twentieth century. They add a valuable chapter to the story of modern medicine, to the largely unsuccessful efforts of the Christian church to win converts in the Middle East, and to the opportunities and limitations that faced American women of the period. Dr. Allison also worked briefly in Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and India, and she includes material on each country. The introduction situates her experiences in the context of Middle Eastern and medical developments of the period.

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372

Publisher

University of Texas Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0292792271

ISBN 13

9780292792272

Forgetting's No Excuse

The Autobiography of Mary Stott

By: Mary Stott

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Forgetting's No Excuse

The Autobiography of Mary Stott

By: Mary Stott

The first volume of her autobiography in which Mary Scott describes her life as a distinguished journalist, including her time as women's editor in The Guardian, 1957-72.

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Page Count

203

Publisher

Virago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1853811025

ISBN 13

9781853811029

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