Xanthippe

It was not Xanthippe's carrot colored sheath of hair, or her lissome way of walking, like a cat, nor even her devilish gift of mimicry that caused talk. What really set people's tongues wagging were her wild and crazy escapades. For one, she was often seen racing around the country-side on a horse! Granted her father was a renowned riding master, there are certain things that nice girls just don't do! She is still pining for her first love when her parents betroth her to Socrates, a controversial cult leader, who challenges long-held beliefs and takes orders from a 'Daemon'. Unfamiliar surroundings and the characters she meets following her marriage bring a mixture of laughter and rage, a new approach to an old affair, and some hitherto undiscovered strengths. Xanthippe wearies of her husband's ideologies, yet hears them until they become etched on her mind. A turning point in her life comes when she does battle with Zeus himself! Much has been and continues to be written about Socrates. On the other hand there is little to be found about his wife beyond random comments about her sassy tongue and bad temper. After twelve years of meticulous research and writing, author Eileen Ebert Smith presents a captivating new view of Xanthippe and her lace in Greek history. Jill, of Bang Printing, said it all in a note to the author: "Until working on your book, I was never at all interested in Greek history. Your introduction to the many characters involved makes it all come alive like never before." M. E. Robertson Palm Springs, CA 1994

When bubonic plague breaks out in Athens in the year 404 B.C., several families escape to a deserted Aegean island. As the refugees confront the external and social challenges facing them, they are attacked by pirates and are beset by crime. To cope with these pressures, Xanthippe's Dream offers solutions to these life-changing dilemmas. But in the end, there is no prescribed resolution and readers become involved in the novel's outcome. The titular character Xanthippe is a well-born Athenian who is modest about her talents. With her friends Philippa and Cleo, she sets out to domesticate her new homeland and a different world is created in this imaginative page-turner. Xanthippe's Dream offers a 50-year history of the island colony.

Erasmus' Familiar Colloquies grew from a small collection of phrases, sentences, and snatches of dialogue written in Paris about 1497 to help his private pupils improve their command of Latin. Twenty years later the material was published by Johann Froben (Basel 1518). It was an immediate success and was reprinted thirty times in the next four years. For the edition of March 1522 Erasmus began to add fully developed dialogues, and a book designed to improve boys' use of Latin (and their deportment) soon became a work of literature for adults, although it retained traces of its original purposes. The final Froben edition (March, 1533) had about sixty parts, most of them dialogues. It was in the last form that the Colloquies were read and enjoyed for four centuries. For modern readers it is one of the best introductions to European society of the Renaissance and Reformation periods, with lively descriptions of daily life and provocative discussions of political, religious, social, and literary topics, presented with Erasmus's characteristic wit and verve. Each colloquy has its own introduction and full explanatory, historical, and biographical notes. Volumes 39 and 40 of the Collected Works of Erasmus series - Two-volume set.

In his writings Erasmus was more interested in arguing than in settling a case. However the equivocation we find in his writings is more than a literary game or a technical expedient. It is the corollary of his scepticism. One can hardly expect unequivocal statements on complex issues such as the role of women in society from a man who holds that `human affairs take so many shapes that definite answers cannot be provided for them all.' But as Erika Rummel demonstrates, the difficulties of interpreting Erasmus' texts do not invalidate their use as sources of social history; they only prevent us from ascribing the views expressed specifically to Erasmus. What emerges from the text is a composite picture of women's role in society, reflecting a spectrum of views held in Erasmus' time rather than a coherent set of views advocated by him personally. Erasmus on Women offers selections from Erasmus' manuals on marriage and widowhood, his rhetorical treatises, and the Colloquies. The texts deal with the courtship, marriage, child-rearing, and widowhood. Selections treating particular topics, such as prostitution, scholarship, and activism, are placed within the context in which they are discussed by Erasmus. Erasmus' dialogues present a lively cast of virgins and mothers, housewives and harlots, shrews and activists. The fifteen texts and excerpts offered here represent a mixture of traditional and progressive thought. Along the traditional lines, he commends women for their role as caregivers and for their service to God and society. In contrast, he holds progressive views (by the standards of his time) on the education of women and breaks with tradition by challenging the idea that celibacy is superior to the married state. Erasmus' views were radical for his time and frequently involved him in controversy. Lavishly praised by some, his writings were bitterly denounced by others. Yet the wide dissemination of his writings makes him an important commentator and influence on the social thought of the sixteenth century.