Meet the Classicist Foremothers

The glyph 'woman' is after 'man' so why does 'sow' come before 'boar' etc?

How gratifying it has been this week to see the role played in decipherment of Linear B by a woman—Alice Kober—finally being acknowledged in the New York Times!  The ‘code’  in which the elusive Mycenaeans wrote their lists was cracked  because several scholarly minds, British and American, male and female, had cumulatively applied their brains to the problem over the course of several decades.  Kober was on the verge of full decipherment when she died young, in 1950.

de Romilly, great Thucydidean

Many other outstanding female classical scholars remain unsung. Two months ago, with my colleague Rosie Wyles and student Lottie Parkyn, I convened an international conference devoted to unearthing them. We chose the date to mark the centenary of the birth of Jacqueline de Romilly, outstanding French Hellenist and first ever woman to be nominated to the Collège de France.

But we also unearthed Lusia Sigea, the 16th-century Spanish humanist who actually made a living out of teaching Latin and Greek to other women.  The foremother of Dutch women classical scholars,  Anna Maria van Schurman, was a leading light of the Dutch Golden Age; her wit and intelligence shine through her Latin treatise Whether a Christian Woman Should Be Educated, available online in English translation. 

Sigea, professional lecturer

The 18th century saw Anne Dacier showing  the French how to do Classics with erudition and style, and in England Elizabeth Carter enthralling Dr Johnson with her command of ancient Greek and translation of Epictetus.  By the late 19th, the study of classics was central to the campaign to secure African American women education in the post-emancipation USA.

van Schurman, prodigy of Utrecht

Excavating these ancestral figures is fun and inspiring.   I want to build a library room in which their portraits hang in the alcoves alongside the standard-issue tired clergymen and bewhiskered dons. Actually, we will be building a virtual gallery, online or in print or both, so my wish will soon enough come true.

Carter as (Smiling) Minerva

There has been a two-month delay in writing about this conference. The reason is that celebrating anything felt entirely inappropriate given the absolutely tragic death in America during it of Professor Kate Bosher, a superb young scholar and the kindest person with whom I have ever worked. 


I had just reviewed a fine volume by her for the Times Literary Supplement on Feb. 1st and can scarcely believe she is dead. She was only thirty-eight, leaves a husband, a young child, and a painful hole in the lives of many friends and colleagues. The output from Women Classical Scholars conference will of course be dedicated to her memory.