There were learned female classicists all over Europe in the early modern period, including several Italian humanists. The works of dead, white elite men have largely been translated by living, white elite men. It is also true, less obviously, of the available translations into English of ancient Greek and Roman texts, most of which are still created by “classicists”. This is true of the blockbuster Hollywood imaginings of ancient Greece and Rome such as Troy, 300 and Gladiator – all male-directed films in which female characters exist primarily as eye candy. But the legacy of male domination is still with us – inside the discipline of classics itself and in how non-specialist general readers gain access to the history and literature of the ancient world.

After all, women from a wide variety of backgrounds are now able to enrol at prestigious universities and colleges and learn Latin and Greek from scratch knowledge of the ancient languages is no longer open only to men. One might assume optimistically that things have changed. (In fact, a handful of women are buried among the “classicists” one can find here several studies of Victorian classical scholar Jane Harrison, including a fine one by Beard.)įor hundreds of years, the study of ancient Greece and Rome was largely the domain of elite white men and their bored sons. Like “female scientists” (42 volumes, as opposed to 303 for “scientists”) or “male nurses” (three to 377), “female classicists” is a category that has been assumed not to exist. Male classical scholars are represented by the heading “classicists” – which counts more than 200 volumes.

Predictably, there are no entries for “male classicists”. Next up, alphabetically, is “female cleaning personnel”, which has a larger number of volumes devoted to it: six, with no duplicates, none by Beard. I f you look up the subject heading “female classicists” in the large research library catalogue at the university where I teach, a grand total of five books pop up – of which two are separate editions of It’s a Don’s Life by Mary Beard.

Antigone modern translation