Awesome Women of the Ancient World

Books featuring great heroines in ancient Greece, Egypt, Rome, Britannia, etc. My background is largely in fantasy, but "regular" historical fiction is also welcome!

See also:
- Awesome Women of the Medieval/Rennaissance World
- Awesome Women of the 18th and 19th centuries
- Awesome Women of the 20th century
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434 books · 950 voters · list created February 12th, 2010 by Kelly (votes) .
629 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Kelly 1762 books
399 friends
Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) 546 books
365 friends
Jessica 416 books
5 friends
Susanna - Censored by GoodReads 3384 books
853 friends
Morgan 1419 books
1070 friends
Kaia 528 books
91 friends
Leslie 619 books
14 friends
Charlie 844 books
1429 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-22 of 22 (22 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Jessica (new)

Jessica What about The Firebrand, a Marion Zimmer Bradley book about Cassandra of Troy?


message 2: by Kelly (new)

Kelly Ooh, good one. It's been on my TBR list for ages.


message 3: by Jessica (new)

Jessica I read Firebrand before Mists of Avalon, which may be why, but I much prefered it.


message 4: by Megan (new)

Megan Firebrand sounds wonderful. Also, you should consider "My Lady, Pocahontas" by Kathleen V. Kudlinski for this list.


Barbara Gem(ini) I'm afraid "Gone with the Wind" should not be on this list :)


message 6: by L. (new)

L. I agree. Gone With The Wind, The Crucible,and The Constant Princess don't fit the idea of this list.


message 7: by Jasminka (new)

Jasminka And "A thousand splendid suns" don't fit here also!


message 8: by Danna (new)

Danna Philippa Gregory's The Constant Princess - is not ancient world. Same as Scarlett O'Hara from Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell... They are awesome, though!


message 9: by Hanae (new)

Hanae would you like me to clean up the mess and remove the aforementioned books?


message 10: by Hanae (new)

Hanae OK, done :-)


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Same goes for "Madame Tussaud" (which I'll remove on those same grounds).


message 12: by Hanae (new)

Hanae BTW: The Red Tent is awesome. One of my personal favourites. Bible Girl Power!


message 13: by Monica (new)

Monica Thank you for this list!


message 14: by Danna (new)

Danna This is one of the best lists on GR! We should have a Awesome Women of the ________ (medieval/modern...) World.


message 15: by Obeweh (new)

Obeweh Solomon This list is great,thanks


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) I see that a bunch of nonfiction works have crept onto the list. Stay or go?

Also: the Middle Ages are NOT "ancient history" as defined by historians (which essentially covers the millennia BC and the first 2 or 3 centuries AD, approximately up to the beginning of the migration period/fall of Western Rome). Should the likes of World Without End be removed?


message 17: by Jennifer (new)

Jennifer Uhm, I love The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley but that takes place in a fantasy world.


message 18: by Haneen (new)

Haneen Asfoora What a swell list! Thanks for making it!


message 19: by Amy (new)

Amy Miles to go by Miley Cyrus?!?! Someone please pull that junk it's number 109


message 20: by Amy (new)

Amy sorry 194


message 21: by Fiona (last edited Oct 24, 2016 08:03AM) (new)

Fiona Hurley Ðɑηηɑ wrote: "This is one of the best lists on GR! We should have a Awesome Women of the ________ (medieval/modern...) World."

I've just created Awesome Women of the Medieval/Rennaissance World and added some of the books from this list that referred to Medieval/Rennaissance women. Please go and add some more awesomeness :)


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