This book was such an interesting read, even though it ended up being not quite what I had expected. This ended up being so much more - the research of the science and evidence behind it was so thorough.

Despite being non fiction, I guess I thought this would focus more on theories of women from ancient Greece, maybe even specifically the women of legend (Helen. Briseis, Cassandra, Aphrodite to name a few from the book). But instead of only theories, Dr Emily Hauser provided archeological evidence and discoveries to tell the lives of real world Ancient Greek women.

This book was such a fascinating read and I found myself pausing at times to continue researching and reading about the women Dr Hauser mentions or the study referenced. I loved how the book was broken up into sections based on Homeric women characters, allowing that section to introduce that character and their mythology before diving into an analysis of the time and evidence unearthed since.

I'm looking forward to reading more of Dr Hauser's works - both non fiction and fiction.

Thank you to Netgalley and University of Chicago Press for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 stars

Give me all the female takes of ancient greece mythology! I devoured this one!

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review,

There are parts I enjoyed, and parts I did not enjoy while reading Hauser's work. It is clearly as well-researched as she can be working with the snippets that are provided about the women of the time period. I also enjoyed the writing style and narration. It simply didn't meet my expectations based on the idea that it is presented as a new history.

If you are a fan of female history, give this one a try, but temper expectations that may arise from the title's description.


Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the dARC of this work in exchange for my honest review.

A compelling book that revisits Homer's work by digging into the women behind the myths of The Iliad and the Odyssey - most notably, Helen of Troy, Circe, and Penelope among others. With advances in science (DNA) and Archaeology, the author is able to explore further about the lives of these women, She also is able to provide alternative meanings for why for example, Circe kept Odysseus on the island and then guiding him on how to navigate dangers upon his return home. This book provides new evidence about women warriors, etc. and upends all we have learned about the male heroes. This book finally is able to provide us with tangible evidence in the lives of women in the Bronze age and forces us to re-examine what we thought we knew about history. This book is meticulously researched and is a must-read!

Thank you to Netgalley and University of Chicago Press for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.

Penelope's Bones by Emily Hauser (book cover is in image) aims to tell a narrative of the women found in Greek mythology within the context of the world they lived in. There is a lot of information packed into this short volume based on scientific research, mythology, archeology and anthropology.

While this is an academic text, it is written so it is accessible for the lay person like myself. For those who enjoyed Pandora's Jar or Divine Goddesses by Natalie Hayes, this is the book for you.

Thank you University of Chicago Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 5 Stars
Pub Date: Jun 13 2025

#UniversityofChicagoPress
#PenelopesBones
#EmilyHauser
#History
#NonFiction
#yarisbooknook
#NetGalley

This book offers a thoughtful and introspective examination of the women in Greek mythology. It is not a fictional retelling, so for anyone looking for a book like Circe, this isn't the one, but I'd argue that in a world of feminist retellings, books like Penelope's Bones are crucial by adding historical and cultural context to these famous figures

Like the song of the Sirens, Emily Hauser’s Penelope’s Bones tugs powerfully at its readers, an echoing summons from beyond the horizon. Hauser merges flawless aesthetic intuition about the Homeric epics with a superb command of scientific approaches to Bronze Age history from linguistics, genetics, cell biology, biophysics, and elsewhere.

Using existing archeological discoveries, she calls back from the grave a cadre of anonymous real-life women, most of whom died before 1200 BCE, the approximate time of the reputed fall of Troy, on which the succession of oral bards we’ve come to know as Homer based their depictions. Hauser’s interdisciplinary reportage, which anchors each of her chapters, supplies revealing scientific analysis of these long-dead women, whose social or familial roles markedly parallel those of female characters from Homer’s two epics.

Hauser’s insights underscore an overarching argument that’s thoroughly — and enlighteningly — feminist. The result for the reader: a fresh and exciting familiarity with Homeric epic owing entirely to this scholar’s groundbreaking explorations.

Penelope’s Bones homes in on 15 female figures who appear in The Iliad or The Odyssey. Typically, they play contrasting — though often brief and decidedly ancillary — roles in narratives steeped in harsh, male-centered tropes: conquest, bloody violence, prideful self-assertion, enslavement, and, yes, rape. For the bards we know as Homer, as well as the bulk of the epics’ audiences in Ancient Greece, today, and at all points between, these martial preoccupations are blithely enfolded in the accepted order of war-related practices.

But Homer’s women, for Hauser, stand out in moving counterpoint to the testosterone-addled rhythms of both epics. Although many of these female characters can seem like supernumeraries in the action, she underscores how they often provide subtle, resonantly ironic grace notes in the central thrust of the epics.

Penelope’s Bones considers mortal queens, sorceresses, Amazons, prophetesses, nymphs, and goddesses. Ten appear in The Iliad and five in The Odyssey, among them Helen (whose seduction and flight with Paris starts the war depicted in The Iliad), Briseis (the captive whose seizure by Agamemnon ignites the stubborn wrath of Achilleus), Andromache (the wife of Trojan hero Hector), and Olympian goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. She treats each as an archetype, or at least as an embodiment of a social role or pursuit associated then and now with female agency: daughter, wife, queen, seducer, matriarch, mother, bride, and so on.

For instance, touching on Helen’s reputed beauty, Hauser describes the computerized facial reconstruction from the unearthed skull of a Mycenean contemporary of the legendary queen. In another, she recounts the DNA analysis of 95 Bronze Age skeletons recovered from a single site. Her aim: to illustrate the typical kinship bonds (and consanguinity) of aristocratic married couples. She parallels these patterns with the royal marriage of Trojan King Priam and his queen, Hecuba.

On the topic of Amazons and warriors, Hauser cites a dig at a Black Sea location where, upon skeletal analysis, a Bronze Age warrior buried with great honors turns out to have been female. Another Asia Minor find: a warrior whose tomb items, which customarily reflect the occupant’s most significant and prized possessions, included a comb and makeshift mirror, which, in comparison with similar ancient discoveries, suggests the decedent was something of a dandy (or perhaps a different sort of Bronze Age queen).

This reviewer can offer only one minor quibble with this otherwise marvelous study. Hauser also writes accomplished historical fiction based on Homeric tale, and she leads off each chapter here with a brief excerpt, presumably from her creative work. In themselves, they’re evocative pieces, reflective of considerable novelistic talent. But in the context of Penelope’s Bones, they come across as self-serving and out of place. Still, they’re quite good and are likely to set some readers off in search of their originals (which may be the point — and the problem).

That cavil aside, there’s much in this book to intrigue anyone interested in Homer and the epics ascribed thereto. Check it out if that includes you.

Thanks to NetGalley and University of Chicago Press for an Advanced Reader Copy - pub date 6/13/2025. First things first - this is not a fiction book, this is not a retelling of Homer, and this is not a light read. What this is, though, is a detailed, researched, meticulous combination of technology and archaeology and literary analysis. Dr Hauser takes her lifelong love of Homer and the epics he (she? they?) created and dives deep into the shadows behind the words. How much fact hides between the lines? How are the women of the epics, few indeed and often treated more like prizes or goals, presented vs how they might have actually been?

Dr Hauser draws upon every kind of research you can think of to build the world and lives of the very real women who stood in the background of the legends. Dividing the book up by Homeric characters - from the infamous Helen to the ill-fated Briseis to the demi-gods and goddesses such as Circe and Athena, she also divides up the information into digestible categories. She touches on Troy, both real and imagined, and the first archaeological studies there (somewhat bungled) but then expands it until we have the newer information, the more careful and less fanciful excavations. She pays particular attention to such things as the reality of fiber crafts - how they founded commercial empires, how they fell under women's work, how we can use such things as GC/MS to find out what the colors looked like and how they were made. She re-examines the concept of gender presentation and gender attributes through analysis of various tombs that have come to prove that all is not simple. Combined with aDNA, it is far more complicated, in fact. Then there is the sobering reality of slavery and the treatment of war captives.

It's a deep book and riveting and absolutely busting with information. I had to take my time to make sure that I caught all of the threads woven like some fantastic tapestry!

Using all sorts of resources, from DNA testing to old translations of Homer’s epics to archaeological ruins, Hauser recontextualizes the women of the Iliad and the Odyssey within history.

As a recovering Greek mythology obsessive elementary kid, I really appreciated seeing all the ways that there is historical evidence behind the characters. Maybe not these specific women, but similar enough. And the humanity and depth that Hauser manages to give every woman was really lovely.

A little dry sometimes, and gets very heavy into the really technical details, but very informative and a worthy addition to any collection of Greek mythology books.

Thank you to NetGalley and University of Chicago Press for this arc.

I had very mixed feelings with this book. On the one hand, there was some very cool information on the latest archaeaolgical research and discoveries. New technology means DNA can tell us about travel in the Late Bronze Age, if families are buried together, or prove that more warrior gravesites are women warriors than were earlier believed. Texts unearthed through the Hittite Empire introduce powerful queens helping to rule the Hittite world next to Troy, and letters and tablets have been unearthed that suggest enough similarities between pieces of Homer's poems and real life to make Hauser's arguments plausible that the epics contain fragments of memories for ways of life that would have probably been old when the Iliad and the Odyssey were written down. I enjoyed most of the archaeological information, because I like reading about that kind of thing.

Other parts of the book were, to me, more of a stretch. There was a lot of repetition. Hauser clearly didn't trust her audience to remember who any of the characters were, so would remind you every single time- especially the women already less well known like Briseis. Once or twice I can understand, but it was really annoying having her do it all the time. Each chapter would start with a short fictional story, which I know is the current fad, but personally I find throws me out of the nonfiction narrative and I always find off-putting. Some chapters were a stretch in terms of subject matter. In Circe's chapter, for example, I expected to learn about the ancient world's views on magic, or women living alone, or something else that might focus on women. Instead it is mostly about pigs. Yes, Circe and pigs go together and Hauser manages to connect them to religion and briefly to the mystery cults, but I was hoping for more.

Frequently in the chapters Hauser brings up the modern retellings we see that are so popular today. Madeline Miller, Natalie Haynes, and some of her own books as well. These additions missed the mark for me. The readers of those books may be part of the audience she's trying to reach with this book, but adding the retellings here in the chapters themselves isn't part of the story of Homer's world. It would have worked better in the introduction or conclusion as part of the conversation on why women are now retelling the stories and focusing on reclaiming the lives and voices of the women in Homer's world.

I had high hopes going into Penelope's Bones, and while I would overall recommend reading it, I can't say I was as impressed with the book as I had hoped to be. Maybe I was expecting too much out if it. After all, Trying to uncover what has been pushed to the margins for thousands of years, both by the erosion of time, the men of the time period and by male archeologists until fairly recently, doesn't give you a lot to work with.

I received an ARC of this boon from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I was expecting this to be a book about female empowerment, not about female trauma. The bits about archeology are interesting, but the book isn’t a good fit for me. It should have a trigger warning. DNF ~20%.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

Greek myths and legends long fascinated me, so I was excited to dive into Emily Hauser's 'Penelope's Bones.'

"Achilles. Agamemnon. Odysseus. Hector. The lives of these and many other men in the greatest epics of ancient Greece have been pored over endlessly in the past three millennia. But these are not just tales about heroic men. There are scores of women as well—complex, fascinating women whose stories have gone unexplored for far too long."

Hauser's examination takes literary cues and archeological data to take a closer look at the women notoriously featured in semi-silent roles throughout Homer's epics.

This is such an interesting read, I really loved going into these women that became such anchors of Greek mythology entirely through a male gaze. Hauser also wisely examines that gaze as it progresses through history. By taking the archeological aspects into play she opens the book up to the wider world of mythology.

I really loved this book and marinated on her points often.

A fascinating reexamination of the historical period of the Iliad, using a fresh look at the original ancient Greek text, as well as incorporating the up to the minute science being used to dig up the past, all showing how much women were involved in a world that for far too long was viewed as men-only.

Emily Hauser is the author of THE GOLDEN APPLES TRILOGY, a retelling of several Greek myths. But in Penelope’s Bones, she puts her Classics/Ancient History scholarship to work in the service of non-fiction, using her own knowledge and a veritable mountain of cross-discipline evidence to re-examine the role of women in Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey, while also using those works to animate the real woman of the Bronze Age the fictional portrayals only hint at. A highly successful marriage of history and literary criticism, Penelope’s Bones will reward those interested in ancient history, Classical literature, or the modern retellings of Classical myths and legends that have been so prevalent lately.

Hauser’s general premise is that despite the lack of “page time” in the epics, and the way the women are so frequently silenced (either within the text by the various male heroes or outside the text by Homer), women are not mere background noise. She points to the “central paradox” in Homer:
the claim the epics make that women don’t matter and the fact that in every case they are essential to the story and the myth. There wouldn’t be an epic without a Muse. There wouldn’t be a Trojan War without a Helen. The Iliad wouldn’t begin without a Briseis. The Odyssey wouldn’t end with a Penelope.

And after a wide-ranging introduction that sets some context and offers some background explanation/exploration in areas such as Greek history, recent archaeological discoveries, how the epics came to be, the attitude toward women and gender, and more, Hauser gets down to proving her point regarding the centrality of women to the stories. She devotes each chapter to a female character from either The Iliad or The Odyssey, using them as a springboard for discussion and as a representative of a role or experience:
• Helen (Women at War)
• Briseis (Slave)
• Chryseis (daughter)
• Hecuba (Queen)
• Andromache (Wife)
• Cassandra (Prophet)
• Aphrodite and Hera (Seducer and Matriarch)
• Thetis (mother)
• Penthesilea (warrior)
• Athena (gender fluidity)
• Calypso (Weaving)
• Nausica (Bride)
• Arete (Host)
• Circe (Witch)
• Eurycleia (Handmaid)
• Penelope (End)

As noted, Hauser makes use of a wide range of evidence as she brings the women of the time to life. Besides the texts themselves (which she is careful to point out cannot be read simply as “history”), she turns to archaeological findings, DNA tests, grave artifacts, ancient artwork, trade goods pulled up from an ancient shipwreck, geological studies, climate data based on tree rings and other sources, strontium tests on ancient teeth to determine diet and regional placements, letters and lists inscribed in clay tablets dug up from Sumeria, the Hittite Empire, Egypt, and other sites, and more.

It’s truly an impressive marshalling of cross-disciplinary research and grounds her claims firmly in the data. And when the data isn’t fully there or requires more interpretation, she makes clear that she is moving into the more speculative realm. Something I appreciated, particularly in those (rare) moments when I thought she was moving onto less solid ground, as in the section on gender fluidity for instance (I thought her general argument — that even then gender was less binary than we tend to believe — was strong and well supported, but when she tried to tie it more specifically to a discovered burial site she pushed it a bit too far). That said, I can see how some people might wish for a little less information, say, about pig husbandry/sacrifices or regional trade goods, but I’d rather this type of book errs on the side of “too much” information rather than too little. And to be clear, I personally didn’t consider it too much; I just can imagine some would in spots.

The entire text was strong throughout, but I’ll mention a few favorite elements. One is the way she shows how much of our view either of the portrayal of women in the classical texts or the role of women in this period is often based less on objective findings and more on subjective (read as women-trivializing) interpretation, starting with the Greeks that came after Homer and moving up to more modern times. Multiple examples are provided, for instance, of how bodies found buried with weapons were simply assumed to be male without any attempt to discover if that was actually the case or not. Or course, it turned out not to be, as recent DNA testing of such gravesites has revealed that anywhere from 20-40 percent of bodies buried with weapons were in fact female. In a similar vein, Hauser notes how one body was noted to be buried with a sword, but when it became clear the body was female, the archaeologist’s record magically transformed the sword into a far less significant “dagger.”

Another favorite section debunked the whole “The Classical world was a world of white” — white statuary, white temples, white clothes. Similar to the above examples, where misogyny led the interpretation down the wrong-but-desired path, here a racist view of whiteness as purity and sophistication did the same. Because of course it turns out that the Classical world was a riot of color, whether we’re talking painted statues, painted columns, or brightly dyed clothing.

Perhaps the most powerful section though comes when Hauser spends a goodly amount of time examining the dangers of childbirth during the Bronze Age (for both mother and child). Here she once again pulls together a wide range of source material and disciplines (DNA tests, strontium, bookkeeping records, etc.) to show not only how appallingly common it was for women to die giving birth but how this was not due simply to lack of modern medicine but the result of systemic disparities in food distribution that saw women receiving far, far less. This meant not only were they weak at the time of childbirth, but this lifelong malnutrition also meant they had more narrow pelvises than normal, making childbirth far more dangerous. A physical reality that was exacerbated by being constantly pregnant, further weakening their bodies and never giving them the chance to fully recover.

Finally, I’ll just add that Hauser does put on her fiction writer’s cap at the beginning of each section, giving us a brief vignette with that chapter’s woman in a more vibrant narrative style before shifting smoothly back into non-fiction mode. It’s a nice touch (and probably not a bad advertisement for her trilogy).

Any issues I had with Penelope’s Bones were quite minor. A few spots as noted where she may have pushed connection a bit too far for my own liking. Maybe a few times where we may not have needed quite so much detail. A chapter where the representative characters — the handmaids Odysseus has killed at the end of his story — felt a bit detached from the larger historical points she was exploring (an example perhaps where the structure tied her hands a bit too much). None of them had any large impact at all. If you’re at all interested in ancient history, Greek epics and myths, the ways in which we let our biases lead us astray in our interpretation of “objective history,” or have enjoyed one or more of the recent retellings that have become such a publishing trend, then you’ll find Penelope’s Bones informative, thoughtful, thought-provoking, stimulating, and generally fascinating. Highly recommended.

Attempt to Archeologically Build a History for Greek Women
Emily Hauser, Penelope’s Bones: A New History of Homer’s World, Through the Women Written Out of It (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, June 2025). Cloth: $30. 496pp, 6X9”, 30 color plates, 70 halftones. ISBN: 978-0-226-83969-1.
****
“Weaving together literary and archaeological evidence, Emily Hauser illuminates the rich, intriguing lives of the real women behind Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. Achilles. Agamemnon. Odysseus. Hector. The lives of these and many other men in the greatest epics of ancient Greece have been pored over endlessly in the past three millennia. But these are not just tales about heroic men. There are scores of women as well—complex, fascinating women whose stories have gone unexplored for far too long. In Penelope’s Bones, award-winning classicist and historian Emily Hauser pieces together compelling evidence from archaeological excavations and scientific discoveries to unearth the richly textured lives of women in Bronze Age Greece—the era of Homer’s heroes. Here, for the first time, we come to understand the everyday lives and experiences of the real women who stand behind the legends of Helen, Briseis, Cassandra, Aphrodite, Circe, Athena, Hera, Calypso, Penelope, and more. In this captivating journey through Homer’s world, Hauser explains era-defining discoveries, such as the excavation of Troy and the decipherment of Linear B tablets that reveal thousands of captive women and their children; more recent finds like the tomb of the Griffin Warrior at Pylos, whose tomb contents challenge traditional gender attributes; DNA evidence showing that groups of warriors buried near the Black Sea with their weapons and steeds were, in fact, Amazon-like female fighters; a prehistoric dye workshop on Crete that casts fresh light on ‘women’s work’ of dyeing, spinning, and weaving textiles; and a superbly preserved shipwreck off the coast of Turkey whose contents tell of the economic and diplomatic networks crisscrossing the Bronze Age Mediterranean.”
The preface and introduction are not very well handled. They chat about the author’s childhood introduction to Homer, and about generally why so little has been written about ancient women. This was already stated in the blurb. Something more interesting, or new was needed in these sections. The first interesting fact appears on page 5, when the author comes across a magazine about a DNA finding from the Harvard Medical School. They have found DNA of “Four Mycenaeans” who were women in Greece between 1700-1200 BC “buried in a royal cemetery”, or at approximately the date and place described by Homer, who omits explaining what women’s lives were like, and thus such archeological evidence is needed.
There is a lot of speculation and hot air in this book. But there are some revelations about archeological fraud. For example, Schliemann smuggled a “hoard” of treasure he dug up “on a ship out of Turkey and into Greece” to avoid paying a share, or surrendering the historical pieces to the “Ottoman government”, and instead selling it to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where it was displayed between 1877-80. These were jewels described as belonging to “Helen” and the city found was claimed to be Troy because of the cultural value placed on the myth of the Trojan War (30). To verify this claim, the author summarizes parts of Homer’s fiction, which mostly just has her be “silent” in a world seemingly controlled by men (34). The possibility is considered that Helen was merely “a Homeric fantasy” and never existed. In fact, the Trojan War and Troy might have been fantasies designed by Greeks to claim ancient ownership of an enormous territory with mere historic-fiction, instead of warfare. One piece of evidence noted that suggests this possibility is: “At Hisarlik, the circuit wall that Schliemann thought belonged to Homer’s Troy was just one layer in a site… these remains were far too deep to date to Homer’s Troy: one a thousand years too deep. “Priam’s Treasure’ dates to a layer of the city known to archaeologists as Troy II, to around 2400 BCE—more than a millennium before the Trojan War should have taken place” (36). This confirms my own speculations that most of ancient history is pure-fiction. But while there are no jewels at the correct Trojan War level there is evidence of a war there with: “Skeletons of unburied bodies… in the streets… Bronze arrowheads are scattered everywhere. Houses, their carcasses blackened by fire.” Thus, there are layers that show wealth, and a layer that shows complete destruction by war, but not the two of them together: indicating events could not have happened as Homer described. The author does not draw this latter conclusion (37-8). And the dating of the destruction is incongruent with an attack by Mycenaeans because their “palaces on the Greek mainland had already gone up in flames” (39).
The section on Linear B tablets describes financial records that had been kept and preserved by a central authority. These indicate there were many female “highly specialized textile workers operating in the heart of the palace at Pylos, experts at decorating a finely ornamented cloth border known as o-nu-ka. They’ve been allocated two female supervisors to oversee the work, one ‘TA’ (a supervisor for the group) and one ‘DA’ (a highly-ranked supervisor)”. The female workers’ children are also noted to receive a portion of “food” (59-60). While these records do not indicate these women were enslaved. The author assumes that they were because Homer described women from their area (Chian) in his portrayal of “Briseis—an enslaved woman who first appears at the opening of the Iliad, captive in the Greek camp in the hut of Achilles, who has claimed her as his war prize” (60). This projection is problematic because it claims slavery existed in ancient Greece based on a text with clearly false information about this period. Homer was a propagandist who would have been paid to normalize the use of slavery by the emperor of his time with the claim that this was an ancient practice. Trusting his opinion on this matter is thus historically frivolous. The author then argues that there is archeological evidence in Linear B to support they were enslaved because they were reliant on the palace for food, their children were fed and then some were put to work on reaching maturity, and they were segregated into a woman’s quarters. This is an absurd reasoning. Living in the palace would have been the most luxurious housing in the region. Children would have gained an education by working on-the-job and gaining skills from the highly trained craftsmen at the palace. Being segregated into a woman’s quarters would have given these women special safety from harm: they certainly would not have been sold off as prizes to soldiers to dwell in their huts (64-5). The author seems intent on supporting the traditional version of history, even as archeology fights against its accuracy.
This is a pretty good book, as it introduces some reality into history that tends to just repeat myths or fictions of old without overlaying it with the reality of what the dug-up evidence has been saying. Searching for evidence of what women were up to is certainly a worthy effort, as it can help change modern perceptions about what the “natural” or ancient role of woman has been. It certainly could not have been true that women spent their lives in total leisure while the men worked. Housework became extremely time-consuming at one point: it included laboring as a cook, launderer, plumber, cleaner, woodworker, teacher, farmer, gatherer, and several other tasks. There is much that books have been distorting with sexist subversions of truths. This is a good step towards reality. It should be helpful to researchers of ancient Greece, no matter if they are feminists or masculists.
Pennsylvania Literary Journal: Spring 2025 issue: https://anaphoraliterary.com/journals/plj/plj-excerpts/book-reviews-spring-2025

An Aside: Let me begin by saying: I do not like Homer. I have never liked Homer. As a woman that has always had no interest in men and men's stories (and it is, in fact, a man's story), Homer thus has no appeal to me. I can know that it's foundational western literature—and the contents of it's pages—without torturing myself by reading it. More so, women in any facet of ancient Greek tradition—whether found in literature, like here, or general myth—have always been a hard spot for me. This is the "birthing culture" of the west, of "democracy," and yet one so repulsive toward half of the population.*

So, this book should have been an excellent read for me, someone who considers herself allergic to anything having more than a passing brush to do with classical Greece or Rome and its stories of importance. Fairly or not, this book had to handle the challenge of convincing me there's something valuable to be gleaned in Homer, through that which I do believe in—real history, accessed through modern research methods. To that end, Emily Hauser did well, which is a testament to her love for, and belief in the value of, Homer, and her conscious framing of the issues therein.

Now, the book itself: it operates off of scraps. This is not Hauser's fault, it's simply the nature of trying to tell ancient women's stories, which are so often undocumented, and I've read other books like it ( The Dark Queens by Shelley Puhak). This means there's a lot of mays, might haves, could haves, and perhapses.

Hauser also discusses modern women writers and their reclamation of Homer (including Hauser herself; she's the author of For the Most Beautiful ), which is good and great—but she discusses that, and it's significance, a lot, way after we've gotten the point that it's a good thing, and what these authors are doing in giving agency to these women's voices. This is a clear sign of trying to bring in the Greek retelling crowd, as the book's own blurb advertises. It feels a wee bit like advertising, though, especially when almost every chapter is capped off by another listicle of books.

In a similar vein, some of the more pop culture references made my eye twitch. Comparing Cassandra to Greta Thunberg is a thing Hauser does. And, look, I'm the same age as Thunberg (not a grumpy boomer), and love her, but—please. Please, god, no. Just no. I'm not saying I don't get the parallel she's drawing but... no. Very much giving a "how do you do, fellow kids, this is a reference that is totally hip and relatable" vibe.

The worst, I believe, was organizing each chapter by Homer character, because some characters just don't have enough historical content. And that's okay. I'd rather not have a chapter on Circe if most of what we get is about Mycenaean pig raising. I mean, alright, there's a technical connection, I guess, and the information was a bit interesting. But what sealed the deal for me on this book structure was using the twelve enslaved women killed at the end of the Odyssey to discuss... earthquakes. Well, more broadly, the Late Bronze Age Collapse: a nightmare combination of drought, natural disaster, disease, invasion, and rebellion that brought down civilizations such as the Hittites.

We are introduced to the enslaved women's story, how, after slaughtering Penelope's numerous suitors Odysseus directs twelve slave women to clean the halls of the blood and gore, before they're to be hanged for... being raped by said suitors? (Though there's some debate on whether that was the offense, or if it was that they were colluding with the men. Do you see why I have no interest in Homer?) Either way, to make the medicore connection between these women and the tangent Hauser goes on about the existential crisis the Mediterranean region was facing, she writes:

Seen in this context, perhaps the brutal punishment meted out to the consummate scapegoats of the enslaved women represents an attempt to bar away the terrifying spectres that were to become the hallmarks of the end of the Bronze Age... But the ghosts of the enslaved women, and the flapping of their feet like the butterflies' wings that bring the hurricane, hint darkly that there is much more still to come.


No. Absolutely not. Leave the metaphor and those poor women alone.

Now, a pet peeve: What is her definition of prehistory? She'll write "...in the world of prehistoric Greece," before, in the next sentence, discussing what's been written on Linear B tablets, coming from this same "prehistoric" period—that isn't prehistory. We have written records, which is the standard criteria for "history," which most agree started in the fourth millennium bce, roughly, while this period is 1200/1300s bce. If she's talking pre-Herodotus and other formal "histories," then... that's odd. I'm not implying she doesn't know the difference in the two—thats impossible—but it was just confusing and distracting not having this contrary characterization explained. At least, if it was, I missed it.

In conclusion? Should I meet Heinrich Schliemann in the hereafter, I will give him an uppercut.

*Yes, compared with the changes that came to Greece under Roman Christian colonialism, there were some benefits this "othered" half were afforded, like, say, high priestesshood. But that shouldn't be used to dismiss the reality of most women, and also just why priestesses were offered those positions, and on what terms. And if someone cites goddesses such as Athena as an example of positive conceptions of women—you only need to look at what Minerva did to Medusa in Ovid's recollection to see what the archetypal Athena's role in classical culture was.

Excellent! The way Hauser builds on previous scholarship to illuminate new ways to approach ancient history is intriguing. So grateful I was able to read an ARC of this book. Her chapter on Cassandra was particularly enlightening to my own research, and I look forward to seeing the ways in which other scholars engage with this book.

Even though I could barely understand what was going on in the book with my lack of knowledge about the subject (it is not exactly beginner friendly), I often think about what I could remember from the ancient literature course I took back in college years ago. I remember what happened to the characters inspired by their real life counterparts. But it's often from the Greeks' point of view and not often by women and people who didn't fit their mold. I wish I had a way to give it a better rating, but I can see how essential it is for the modern times and to give the women/people of the minority a voice in history.

Really strong premise, and I have enjoyed it thus far. The formatting on the online version that I got from Netgalley is a bit messed up though, which does take away from the reading experience a bit.

Penelope’s Bones is a stunning mix of mythology, history, and science that pulls you in from the very first page. The way the author brings ancient stories to life—through archaeology, legends, and a sharp scientific lens—feels both fresh and deeply rooted. It’s the kind of book that makes you want to look things up, not because you’re confused, but because it sparks your curiosity. The balance of imagination and research is pitch-perfect, making the past feel alive without losing any of its complexity.

What really makes this book shine, though, is how it tells the stories of so many different kinds of women. From noblewomen to enslaved girls, warriors to mothers, every woman feels fully human and important. The writing gives space to their struggles and strength without turning them into clichés. Even the most difficult topics, like sexual violence, are handled with care and respect—never brushed aside, but never used for shock value either. This is a powerful, thoughtful read that sticks with you long after you’ve finished.