Philosophy is a human discipline, so it should speak to all human experience. However, as others have indicated, philosophical scholarship often excludes women’s views and experiences (see introductions to L. Lopez McAllister [ed.], Hypatia’s Daughters [1996], K.R. O’Reilly and C. Pellò [ed.], Ancient Women Philosophers [2023] and M.E. Waithe [ed.], A History of Women Philosophers [1987]). Historically, this is especially the case in ancient Greek philosophy, where few texts survive by or about women philosophers. Writings that have survived initially seem only to support patriarchal gender norms rather than to depict women as thinkers and valuable community members apart from their contributions to family life. (One might consider the received interpretations of Aristotle that women cannot philosophise or Phyntis’ letter that women’s virtue is temperance.)

The volume under review challenges this narrative by providing a much-needed resource for scholars interested in questions of gender, women and philosophy in the ancient Greek world. Offering new methodologies, fresh textual analyses and novel perspectives, this highly ambitious volume comprises forty essays in five sections that span the period from the Presocratic and classical philosophers to later receptions of these ancient ideas. Throughout, the book tackles three questions: (1) How were women treated as thinkers and knowers in their own time? (2) How were women treated as epistemic agents in the tradition of textual transference? (3) How is reception of the texts influenced by contemporary gender understandings in academia and beyond? A summary of the book’s contents will show how successful the editors are in addressing these questions.

Part 1 covers early Greek antiquity, with chapters on Presocratic philosophy, Sappho and Greek tragedy (700s–400s bce). Particularly noteworthy is this section’s interdisciplinary emphasis, pushing the boundaries of what is traditionally called ‘philosophy’ to include classical literature and theatre. It begins appropriately with J.E. Decker’s ‘The Way Up and Down: Liminal Agency in the Homeric Hymns and Presocratic Philosophy’, which, by examining liminality in the Homeric Hymns, signals how the book’s content expands the traditional philosophical canon. C.C. Harry, in ‘Sappho of Lesbos and the Time of Erosophy’, continues this trend by arguing that Sappho’s erotic poetry deserves consideration because philosophy entails love. Three chapters integrate Greek tragedy with philosophy. K. Nikolopoulou’s ‘Sex, Family, and Chthonic Justice: On the Cosmology of the Choephoroi’ connects justice to family life in Aeschylus’ tragedy, while D. Dutsch’s ‘Euripides on Epistemic Injustice? Interpreting the Fragments of Melanippe Sophe and Desmotis’ examines Euripides’ fragmentary portrayals of women to reveal how women were philosophically represented. Similarly, M.C. Coelho, in ‘On Not-Believing: A Gorgianic Reading of the Tragic Cassandra’, describes how Aeschylus’ character Cassandra illustrates Gorgias’ sophism. C. Balla completes Part 1 with ‘The Correctness of Grammatical Gender in the Sophistic Tradition’, which examines how ancient sophistic teachings anticipated modern conversations about gender.

Part 2 continues into classical Greek antiquity, targeting the Socratic dialogues of Aeschines, Plato and Xenophon (400s–300s bce). F. Pentassuglio begins with ‘Eis gynaikos andra: Aeschines on Women, Eros, and Politics’ by analysing Aeschines’ character Aspasia as a complex figure possessing philosophical ability. The next two chapters, C. Atack’s ‘“By Zeus,” Said Theodote: Women as Interlocutors and Performers in Xenophon’s Philosophical Writings’ and D.M. Johnson’s ‘Women in Xenophon’s Socratic Works’, discuss how Xenophon depicts women. The rest of the section examines women, gender and family in Plato’s philosophy, especially the Republic (E. Hulme’s ‘Plato’s Argument for the Inclusion of Women in the Guardian Class: Prospects and Problems’; P. Marechal’s ‘Women, Spirit, and Authority in Plato and Aristotle’; R. Singpurwalla’s ‘Plato on Women and the Private Family’; J. Proios and R. Kamtekar’s ‘Plato’s Scientific Feminism: Collection and Division in Republic V’s “First Wave”’). It also includes chapters about women’s portrayals in Phaedo (S. Tanner’s ‘Socrates’ Laughing Bodies: Women and Comedy in Plato’s Phaedo’), Statesman (J. Frank and S.B.K. Greenberg’s ‘Weaving Politics in Plato’s Statesman’), Symposium (D.A. Layne’s ‘Divine Names and the Mystery of Diotima’), Theaetetus (M.B. McCoy’s ‘Socratic Midwifery’) and Timaeus (J. Gordon’s ‘Sex Difference and What It Means to Be Human in Timaeus’).

Part 3 advances to the late classical period, with chapters on the Cyrenaics, Cynics and Aristotle (300s–200s bce). K.R. O’Reilly, in ‘Cyrenaics on Philosophical Education and Gender’, argues that the Cyrenaics possessed noteworthy gender inclusivity due to their emphasis on philosophical education. M. Grahn-Wilder, in ‘Wives or Philosophers? Hipparchia and the Cynic Criticism of Gendered Economics’, argues that the Cynic Hipparchia exemplifies the Cynic characteristics of outspokenness and commitment to virtue. The section’s remaining six chapters tackle Aristotle’s philosophy, particularly concerning women’s philosophical ability (C. Witt’s ‘Diagnosing Aristotle’s Sexism’ and G. Sissa’s ‘What Is Wrong with Women: Aristotle’s Paradigm of Gender and Its Anomalies’). Chapters also discuss Aristotle’s views of women in medicine (M. Leunissen’s ‘Women in Ancient Medical Texts as Sources of Knowledge in Aristotle’) and biology (A.M. Trott’s ‘Aristotle’s Hylomorphism Reconsidered Through Aristotle’s Account of Generation’ and A.L. Edelhoff’s ‘The Role of Females in Aristotle’s Teleology of Reproduction’). Of note is S. Connell’s chapter, ‘Aristotle on Women’s Virtues’, which argues against the conventional interpretation of Aristotle that women are incapable of leading virtuous, flourishing lives.

Part 4 proceeds to the Hellenistic and Roman Imperial periods, and includes chapters on the Pythagoreans, Stoics, Pyrrhonists and late Platonists (200s bce–700s ce). Significantly, the section emphasises women’s roles as respected philosophical agents, upending the view that women rarely philosophised in antiquity. C. Pellò, in ‘Pythagorean Women: An Example of Female Philosophical Protreptics’, argues that letters written by Pythagorean women should be viewed as philosophical texts. J. Wildberger’s ‘Women in the Household and Public Sphere: Two Contrasting Stoic Views’ demonstrates how Stoic philosophy recognises that women have the capacity for virtue. C. Olfert makes a similar point regarding the Pyrrhonist Sceptics in ‘Pyrrhonian Skepticism on Gender and Virtue’. The section’s last three chapters examine women as teachers in later Platonism (C. Addey’s ‘The Reception of Diotima in Later Platonism: Clea, Sosipatra and Asclepigeneia’, A. Michalewski’s ‘The Place of Women in the Neoplatonic Schools’ and A. Čelkytė’s ‘The School of Hypatia and the Problem of the Gendered Soul’).

Finally, Part 5 jumps ahead to later receptions of ancient Greek philosophical ideas concerning women in the Renaissance and beyond. M. Deslauriers opens with ‘The Worth of Women: The Reception of Ancient Debates in the Renaissance’ by arguing how ancient Greek philosophy influenced ideas of women’s value in sixteenth-century Italy. A.W. Saxonhouse moves the conversation to Elizabethan England with ‘Philosopher Queens and a Female Prospero(a): Plato’s Republic and Shakespeare’s Tempest’, which shows how Shakespeare’s Tempest could serve as a commentary on Socrates’ proposals about women’s ability to rule. L. McClure then argues against Nietzsche’s interpretation of the female chorus in favour of a model of female agency in ‘“Possessed, Magical, and Dangerous to Handle”: Jane Harrison, Nietzsche, and the Maenad Chorus’. H. Fertik compares Aristotle’s concept of the household to accounts of menial service and civic life described by African American visionaries in ‘Women’s Work: Exploring a Tradition of Inquiry with W.E.B. Du Bois, Anna Julia Cooper, and Aristotle’. P.A. Miller’s ‘Sarah Kofman: Socratic Lover’ interprets Kofman’s reimagining of Socrates for modern audiences. A.F. Henao Castro in ‘Decolonial Ruminations on a Classic: Medea, Sethe and La Llorona’ argues for the need to decolonialise interpretations of ancient texts. Finally, M. Ortega and D.A. Layne conclude the volume with a Socratic-style dialogue inviting readers to further re-envision Greek ideas of women, gender and love in ‘Eros, the Elusive? A Dialogue on Plato’s Symposium, Diotima and Women in Ancient Philosophy’.

In general, the editors’ hopes for the book are well-realised within its 649 pages. The book’s range and breadth of discussion is impressive, as is its ability to do so much to unpack an under-explored topic. It is especially striking how the chapter selections challenge traditional methods of doing philosophy by addressing the epistemic injustice of excluding women from the conversation. However, two potential criticisms should be noted.

First, someone might criticise the volume’s methodology. Although the book minimally discusses women thinkers’ own activities (notably O’Reilly’s and Grahn-Wilder’s chapters in Part 3, and the chapters of Part 4), most of the book examines what ancient male philosophers, doctors and tragedians said about women. Some readers may be disappointed by this fact. Second, someone might criticise the volume’s choice of content, claiming that the selections on drama, literature and later receptions (Parts 1 and 5) are ill-fitting, an arbitrary conglomerate rather than a cohesive tale detailing development of Greek ideas. Moreover, some readers may dislike the 800-year gap between Parts 4 and 5, which skips the Middle Ages, a period during which men and women built on Greek philosophy.

In defence of the book’s methodology, I suggest that the editors have found a unique way to tackle the problem of source material plaguing many attempts to explore ancient women and philosophy. The latest book on this topic is Ancient Women Philosophers (edd. K.R. O’Reilly and C. Pellò [2023]), which addresses women philosophers’ contributions to philosophy. Nearly every chapter in that volume cautions that we cannot conclude anything definitive about ancient women philosophers due to the dearth of surviving writings. Arguably, by broadening the scope of primary source material to include texts (by men) in the traditional philosophical canon, the editors of The Routledge Handbook of Women in Ancient Greek Philosophy sidestep this concern, providing new ways to explore ancient Greek ideas surrounding women, including women philosophers.

I am sympathetic to the criticism regarding content. However, I think it is fruitful to recognise that philosophy involves many aspects of human experience and therefore overlaps with other disciplines. Consequently, I find it refreshing that the editors emphasise philosophy’s interdisciplinary nature. Of course, incorporating chapters on early Christian women influenced by Greek thought (e.g. Macrina, Eudocia) or on the transmission of Greek texts via Islamic scholarship would have helped close the 800-year gap between Parts 4 and 5. But I think a charitable reader should recognise that even a massive volume such as this one cannot include everything. Although Part 5 gestures to some later receptions of Greek philosophy, it does not purport to cover all. Thus, readers should expect that the book only begins rather than completes investigations. In fact, I read the book’s last chapter as an invitation for us to continue conversations long after we have put this book back on our bookshelves.

The book’s most important contributions to scholarship are that it opens new avenues of inquiry into ancient Greek philosophy, the status of women in antiquity and the contemporary role of philosophy. The book pushes conventional disciplinary and interpretative boundaries by expanding our understanding of the traditional canon. Its range of chapters will advance many conversations, and each chapter’s concluding section of suggested further reading will help readers advance their learning. Altogether, the volume will be an essential source for scholars interested in the role and position of women in Greek antiquity.