This volume explores the intersections of time and gender in antiquity, primarily focusing on literary texts, but with some exploration of other fields. Time is a fairly widely discussed topic in modern scholarship, including with regard to areas such as historiography and tragedy. Yet in both cases the question of gender is somewhat absent. Important studies have approached issues of space as a common metaphor for time (the work of A. Purves [2010] and R. Rosen [ed. 2004] is notable), the connections between time and narrative (especially D. Kennedy [2013], and I.J.F. De Jong and R. Nünlist [2007]), and time as socially constructed. C. Darbo-Pechansky (2000) is closer to this volume's goals, and J. Ben-Dov and L. Doering (2017) also offers some studies that include gender considerations and time. Yet, while there are many fruitful studies of time, the editors note that the relationship between time and gender has received scant attention. Hence, the need for this insightful book. One must, however, acknowledge the important contributions of one of the authors in the volume, H.H. Gardner, in her 2013 book Gendering Time in Augustan Love Elegy.

The scope of the collection spans from archaic Greece to early Christian times, and the essays appear chronologically. The chapters approach different narratives with multiple theoretical outlooks on time, among which J. Kristeva's ‘Women's Time’ (Signs 7 [1981]) is often highlighted, especially ideas of linear, cyclical/repetitive and monumental time in connection with the masculine and the feminine respectively. A. Cavarero's views in In Spite of Plato (1995), as well as L. Irigaray's, H. White's and M. Bakhtin's theories, form the theoretical basis of some chapters. Issues such as the ‘abstract conceptualization of time’, ‘physical and embodied expressions and experiences of time’, the ‘subversion of dominant paradigms’ (p. 5) and the discontinuation and disruption in the representation of time are important topics of the essays. The book comprises an introduction and ten chapters.

Chapter 1, ‘Women's Tangible Time: Perceptions of Continuity and Rupture in Female Temporality in Homer’ by A. Karanika, explores women's weaving and textiles, not as related to space, which they are often linked to, but also as a feminine ‘temporal marker of beginnings, ruptures or ends’ (p. 13). Weaving products can mark ‘defining moments’ in ritual, such as burials or weddings, and tangibility in textiles is again connected with time. Karanika offers a piquant discussion of the differences of time and temporality and of the close associations of temporality with materiality, as well as questions of monumental time, cyclical time and human time in weaving scenes and textile products in the Iliad and the Odyssey, especially with regards to Andromache, Penelope and Helen. This chapter provides an interesting understanding of time, women and weaving in epic.

Chapter 2, ‘Atalanta and Sappho: Women In and Out of Time’ by K. Ormand, recognises how time is perceived differently by men and women in antiquity, exploring embodied temporality. Specifically, Ormand tries to show that in archaic poetry women appear to express a different connection to time. Ormand recognises linear time (envisioned as spatial movement) and cyclical time, but he also adds the time of immortality, belonging to the gods and experienced quite differently from human time. This is close to Kristeva's ‘monumental temporality’. Ormand discusses time concerning Atalanta in Theognis and shows how her rejection of marriage marks ‘an indefinite period of being outside of the normal structures of time, whether perceived as linear or cyclical’ (pp. 32–3). He then moves on to the poem known as ‘The New Sappho’ in relation to the ‘eternal present’ of the divinities and the temporal sense of immortality, drawing links to temporal aspects of the figure of Tithonos and the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite. The focus is on temporality and old age, and the essay is a thought-provoking contribution to a less explored topic and a clear discussion of these works.

Chapter 3, ‘Feminizing aion (Life/Lifetime) in Pindar's Epinikians’ by M. Pavlou, studies the use of the word aion as feminine in Pindar and suggests that this may not be simply a capricious use that differs from the norm, but that it may have a semantic significance. In all three instances it is the aion of men that is at play, and it is relevant that men's lives are seen in feminine terms. The chapter brings forth an enlightening discussion of Pythian 4, 5 and Nemean 9 in particular.

Chapter 4, ‘Gendered Time and Narrative Structure in Herodotus’ Histories’ by Eidinow, discusses one of White's tropes, the synecdochic and how it can be found in Herodotus’ Histories. The works of White, Kristeva and Butler are also illuminating for the essay's arguments. Eidinow connects time with embodiment, displaying the symbolic links between bodies and time and between time and gender. The essay explores cultural constructions of time and female gender in patterns of historical events. Women are seen as metaphors for the continuity of time and the future, yet often we see disruption of time as well.

Chapter 5, ‘Time and Gender in Epic Quests and Delphic Oracles’ by Maurizio, approaches issues of monumental and linear time in connection with male and female characters. Maurizio notes that in the Odyssey's episode of the sirens ‘oracles are pivotal narrative devices because they bring knowledge of past, present and future’ (p. 94). Maurizio notes the dangers to males when listening to female speeches. The male is aligned with linear time and the female with monumental time. In these interactions we see how heroes are mostly mobile, yet threatened by women who may stop their linear progress and trap them. The exploration of oracles, gender and time is useful and original, though some of the ideas of linear and circular heroic time progress are more familiar.

Chapter 6, ‘Gendered Patterns: Constructing Time in the Communities of Catullus 64’ by A.M. Seider, based on Kristeva's ideas, argues that ‘poem 64 destabilizes Roman gender binaries concerning time and agency’ (p. 106). Seider focuses on two episodes in the poem: the ekphrasis in the coverlet presenting the myth of Ariadne and Theseus, and the prophecy about Achilles’ future. Against the heroic linear time, Seider shows Ariadne ‘as recording male actions and dictating their meaning in a cyclical structure’ (p. 107). Seider points to the difference between mythical time of the past and his own times. Catullus 64 is a well-studied poem, yet this chapter offers a fresh perspective on it.

Chapter 7, ‘“Delia's Saturnian Day”: Gender and Time in Tibullan Love Elegy’ by H.H. Gardner, shows that time impacts men and women differently in elegy. Gardner newly uses Kristeva's ideas as theoretical backdrop. ‘Time for the elegiac puella is similarly impervious to historical events: she is often depicted in a virtually sealed-off house’ (p. 119). Gardner discusses arrested development in the youth of the principate, in contrast to the accelerated time of the traditional male of the times. Gardner presents ideas of the elegiac inertia, explored by Tibullus. Inertia and segnis are highlighted as temporal dimensions the amator chooses for himself. Yet, Gardner sees a linear development of the male lover, but at the same time a rejection of forward movement. This ties in nicely with other well-studied gender inversions in Roman elegy.

Chapter 8, ‘Eating up Time in Ovid's Erysichthon Episode (Metamorphoses 8.738–878)’ by R.S. Santucci, discusses the interactions between gender, time and consumption in Ovid's story of Erysichthon and sees him ‘as a destructively masculine figure’ and his autophagia as ‘an imposition of recursive time’ (p. 136). According to Santucci, Erysichthon is unable to control his own experience of time. ‘He is stuck in an infinite loop of consumption’ (p. 136). Erysichthon tries to assert masculine dominance over time and his future, by eating himself, yet he fails as he is constantly ‘starting’ to consume himself. The connection between Erysichthon, Ceres, Fames and tree violation as sexual violation shows how the interactions between gender and time in autophagia are expressions of cyclical time. This is an original and most stimulating chapter, which forges interesting connections between time and gender. Occasionally, though, the chapter drifts slightly from the matter of time.

The last two chapters discuss late antiquity and early Christian themes, a welcome inclusion. Chapter 9, ‘Telling Time with Epiphanius: Periodization and Metaphors of Genealogy and Gender in the Panarion’ by E. Castelli, discusses time, gender and heresy and how Epiphanius envisions the periods of history as linear and sees the first ones as the ‘“mothers” of future heresies’ (p. 150). This genderisation of time and historical periods is remarkable and worthy of discussion. The chapter uses feminist philosophy and poststructuralism, especially the ideas of A. Cavarero, which is a positive addition to the theoretical frameworks used in other chapters.

Chapter 10, ‘(En)Gendering Christian Time: Female Saints and Roman Martyrological Calendars’ by N. Denzey Lewis, is about the martyr St Agnes, and it deals with the evolution from Roman time to Christian time. ‘Time was marked through human flesh – quite literally, through the torture and death of human beings … What does it mean that time came to be performed through the destruction of female flesh?’ (p. 167). The chapter interestingly deals with the inclusion of women in calendars, with particular attention to the calendar of 354 ce. Yet, none of the memorialisations of female martyrs coincide with Roman holidays. Agnes is the only female martyr whose birthday is still commemorated. Just as in the previous chapter, explorations of Christian texts are enriching in a volume on antiquity.

This is an insightful and well-crafted volume, which students of gender, time or specific topics will find helpful and illuminating. It is well written, with no obvious errors. One particularly positive aspect, as one reads the entire volume in chronological order, is the variety of historical periods and genres discussed (from Greek epic to history, Latin poetry and Christian works). The chapters are clear and concise, with helpful subtitles, notes and a friendly length. However, as with most wide-ranging edited volumes of this kind, it is challenging to keep a focus on one particular theme, though gender and time are certainly at the core of all the chapters, yet it is harder to forge connections between all of them at times. The theorists used are certainly most relevant, though occasionally, the use of Kristeva's linear, cursive/cyclical and monumental time in various chapters, feels a bit repetitive. For the most part, the interpretations are innovative, yet some are less novel than others. In general, this is a very useful contribution to ancient studies.