Traditional Media
The New Republic
"Hamel's treatment of this complicated story is outstanding not only for its comprehensive (yet remarkably concise) presentation of the social and historical context of fourth-century Athens, but also, perhaps supremely, for its tact. By presenting sex and the ancient Greek sex trade forthrightly, she puts to shame the ponderous cuteness and leering euphemism that writing about Neaira's case has aroused in many classicists over the centuries. She brings out both the sordid exploitation of Neaira's circumstances and the genuine strength of the bond that linked this former prostitute with Stephanos and his family, piecing together a plausible account from what is often minimal evidence, managing to explore her human characters without idealizing them, and judiciously staying just shy of a historical novel."
The Globe and Mail (H.J. Kirchhoff)
"Hamel reconstructs Neaira's life and her trial, providing as well a lively social history of the time and place."
Erotic Review
"...under its thin veneer of toga-and-sandal skin-flick is a work of first-rate scholarship."
"...Hamel can write, she can think, and she is, accordingly, published by Yale. She turns one of antiquity's more fibrous epochs into a lively and witty slice of history, and gives us a story of cupidity, greed and obduracy, spiced with sexual morsels."
Library Journal
"In the future, this work will be a part of reading lists for courses on the Greek orators. Hamel...has taken the speech Against Neaira by Apollodoros and written a commentary on Athenian culture of the fourth century B.C.E. The work deals with the social mores of the period in abundant detail. Indeed, when focusing on the orator's privilege of manipulating the facts, Hamel's grasp of the current scholarship on Athenian law is formidable. She estimably deciphers the convolutions of Neaira's life as a courtesan in Corinth and Athens. ...Any scholar will enjoy this well-documented work. Recommended for upper division undergraduate and graduate students."
The Daily Telegraph
"It is an extraordinary tale, with more than an echo of Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha, and Hamel, unusually for a classicist, is not afraid of a good narrative. Nor of racy detail: from street-walkers imprinting come-hither messages in the dust with their sandals, to outraged cuckolds shoving radishes up adulterers' bottoms, there is plenty here to delight the most prurient reader."
The Sunday Telegraph
A "gripping story of politics, sex and sleaze in ancient Athens...."
The Scotsman
"As told by Debra Hamel, this true-life story offers an extraordinary window on a civilisation that wasn't half so rarefied in its interests or affections as we tend to assume."
The Chronicle of Higher Education
"Describing, challenging, and fleshing out the text, the scholar sends the reader on a tour of Greek culture and custom linked to the case and the feud. Among the stops are the demimonde hierarchies of prostitution, a raucous Greek jury system, the ancient and very different meaning of sycophant, and a vivid description of how seducing a respectable Athenian's wife or daughter could lead to a fine, death, or correctional intimacy with a root vegetable."
Choice
"Hamel...provides a charmingly written, nicely illustrated, and generally convincing analysis of the lurid Athenian speech 'Against Neaira.'"
"Hamel's account is engaging, accessible to nonexperts, and useful for courses on Athenian society...."
Journal of the History of Sexuality
"While the book is written in a fluent, simple style that makes it accessible to the student and the layperson, behind it lies a wealth of scholarship and learning."
"There is plenty of material in the book that will prove very useful to classical scholars, ancient historians, students of the speech, and every undergraduate student who is trying to become acquainted with women's history, the history of sexuality, and, in general, life in ancient Greece."
Classical Review
"Overall Trying Neaira presents Neaira's story--and the numerous points of social history it raises--in a clear and lively style aimed at the Greekless and 'Greek history-less' reader.... Undergraduates can read the book as an enthusiastic introduction to some of the major issues of Athenian social history, but most likely will need to turn to other sources, primary and secondary, for further study. And the general reader, if enticed to look inside by the cover and title, will discover a colorful story that brings to life the society of Athens in the fourth century B.C.E."
Scholia Reviews
"...Hamel does not simply concentrate on the illogicality of Apollodorus' arguments or on the complex political context of the trial. She explores the wider social and legal background, fleshing out Neaira's extraordinary life with interesting discussions of prostitution, citizenship, slave torture, courtroom procedure and even jury selection in fourth century Athens, which she describes as 'delightfully complicated' (p. 147). Herein lies the strength of Hamel's work: the accessibility of these brief discussions makes the book an ideal introduction to the study of women in antiquity, especially in Classical Civilization courses in which no knowledge of Greek is required."
"Hamel provides her own snappy translations of extracts from Apollodorus (and others), attempting to give as accurate a version of the original as possible (for her approach to translating some of the 'Proustian' sentences of Apollodorus, see p. 183, n. 3). She generally writes with great verve and humour, which makes the footnotes interesting reading (and how often can one say that!): her husband is thanked for his familiarity with Dutch prostitution (p. 164, n. 5); she seems to think that some readers may be interested in the 'logistics of mid-trial dicastic excretion' (p. 182, n. 26)."
"Hamel's work makes a notable contribution to the important process of uncovering the lives of women in antiquity and restoring them to history.... The fact that we have access to the life of a prostitute like Neaira, which has been excavated, in so engaging a manner, from yet another male- produced text, is something to celebrate."
JACT Review
"H., who has previously published a study of the Athenian generalship, does justice to the many facets of the speech in this scholarly and highly entertaining book. She deploys a wide range of other sources and comparative evidence (fragments of comedy, accounts of Japanese geisha). She has a nice turn of phrase (the first husband of Neaira's alleged daughter was 'a pitchfork-wielding American Gothic kind of fellow'). She has (probably unlike most of the original male jury) real and moving sympathy for Neaira, who was 'not the real target...yet had most to lose from the trial.'"
"Although we are several decades on from the Athens of Aristophanes, there is much here to illuminate Wasps, or to provide background to the Culture of Athens topic in JACT Ancient History. The book has clear and useful maps, diagrams and chronological charts, and is excellent value. Sixth-form students could read it with profit and pleasure."
Bryn Mawr Classical Review
"...the end result is a little gem of a book from which everyone will profit. It is informative, serious in its approach, use of source material, and conclusions, and commendably it is written in an unpretentious style."
"Needless to say, I liked H.'s book a lot, and to judge from the enthusiastic endorsements on its cover I am not alone. And it is a book that needed to be written. All too often we focus on some technical aspect of a society, or on why such-and-such a verb is in the passive, and we end up losing sight of the people who make up the society. Neaera as a person gets lost in Apollodorus' speech, but H. redresses that lack. In the process we cannot help but have a new feeling of sympathy for Neaera."
Frankfurter Rundschau (read the review)
"Und dennoch gelingt ihr das Kunststck, diese zweieinhalb Jahrtausende zurckliegende Geschichte so spannend zu erzählen, dass sich das Buch streckenweise liest wie ein Krimi."
["Nevertheless she succeeds in making the telling of this history, two and a half millennia in the past, so gripping that the book reads in sections like a crime film." ]
"...eine ebenso lehrreiche wie vergnügliche Lektüre."
["...a read as instructive as it is entertaining."]
Bulletin of the Schweizerischer Altphilologenverband (read the review)
"Wie die Autorin mit akribischem Spürsinn versucht, Apollodoros' Aussagen auf ihren Wahrheitsgehalt hin zu überprüfen, ist ein weitere Aspekt, der die Lektüre dieses Buches nicht nur empfehlenswert, sondern zu einem wahren Genuss macht."
["...the reading of this book [is] not only recommended, but a true benefit."]
Die Welt
"Debra Hamel erzählt die Geschichte der Hetäre Neaira anhand einer Gerichtsverhandlung, deren Reden von ihr ausgewertet wurden. Und aus denen sich ein sehr plastisches Bild der sozialgeschichtlichen Situation des antiken Griechenland ergibt. Amüsant, seriös und mit Chronologien und Karten versehen. Die schönste Geschichte darin ist die, die uns erzählt, wie mit ehebrecherischen Männern umgegangen wurde. Einfach einen Rettich in den Allerwertesten. Dann war Ruhe. Strafe muss sein."
Sehepunkte: Rezensionsjournal für die Geschichtswissenschaften (read the review)
"In dem hier anzuzeigenden Buch erzählt Hamel die Lebensgeschichte der Neaira in brillantem Stil und in ausgewogener Form nach."
["...Hamel tells the life story of Neaira in brilliant style and in balanced form."]
In the Blogosphere
"There are academic authors who seem to think that scholarly and accessible are by necessity opposites, so making a book unreadable somehow automatically makes a book more scholarly. The great thing about this book is that it smacks that notion down. You can read it for pleasure, but the references and notes also make it suitable for an undergraduate text."
-- History News Network
"TRYING NEAIRA is that rare sort of book that informs and entertains in equal measure."
-- Keeper of the Snails
"Mystery, intrigue, lascivious behavior, sensational speeches, and controlled anger among the real-life characters make this an interesting study of ancient Greek history and people."
-- BOOK reMARKS
"Debra Hamel's Trying Neaira is an object lesson in how to write a non-fiction book which has academic credibility and yet remains easily comprehensible to the general reader.
-- Grumpy Old Bookman
"The amount of information Hamel packs into this book is testament to her concise prose style and superior knowledge of ancient Greek society and the reader will finish this book amazed at the amount of knowledge they have absorbed."
-- Scarecrow
"For anyone interested in the culture and institutions of ancient Greece, this book is a must read. Recommended."
-- Damian McNicholl's Blog
"Trying Neaira is just what one would NOT expect an historical nonfiction book to be--witty and easy to read, with little bizarre bits that one just MUST read out loud!"
-- Blue Ampersand Reviews
"Trying Neaira is written for the non-specialist -- no knowledge at all of Greek history or literature is assumed -- but endnotes provide references for the cognoscenti. It's a lot of fun to read, but Hamel's biggest service is in providing a radically different entry point to classical Athens, one that doesn't involve triremes or tragedies."
-- Danny Yee's Book Reviews
"As absorbing as a mystery story." Guide Rating 5 stars
-- Ancient/Classical History at About.com
From the Back Cover
Victor Bers, Yale University
The subject matter of Trying Neaira suggests a supermarket tabloid -- prominent politicians and their favorite hookers; but in fact this book is a richly informative, exuberant short course in the politics, legal system, and social mores of Athens in the fourth century B.C. The prose is elegant and deliciously ironic, the scholarship fastidious and up-to-date.
Mary R. Lefkowitz, Wellesley College
This clearly written, entertaining, and well-informed book is a wonderful means of entering the world of fourth-century Athens.
Donald Kagan, Yale University
Debra Hamel has written a marvelous account of a fascinating series of events in the life of a Greek woman of the fourth century B.C. She tells the tale with clarity and verve and, along the way, she teaches the reader a vast amount about Athenian society in the most interesting and entertaining way.
The New Republic
"Hamel's treatment of this complicated story is outstanding not only for its comprehensive (yet remarkably concise) presentation of the social and historical context of fourth-century Athens, but also, perhaps supremely, for its tact. By presenting sex and the ancient Greek sex trade forthrightly, she puts to shame the ponderous cuteness and leering euphemism that writing about Neaira's case has aroused in many classicists over the centuries. She brings out both the sordid exploitation of Neaira's circumstances and the genuine strength of the bond that linked this former prostitute with Stephanos and his family, piecing together a plausible account from what is often minimal evidence, managing to explore her human characters without idealizing them, and judiciously staying just shy of a historical novel."
The Globe and Mail (H.J. Kirchhoff)
"Hamel reconstructs Neaira's life and her trial, providing as well a lively social history of the time and place."
Erotic Review
"...under its thin veneer of toga-and-sandal skin-flick is a work of first-rate scholarship."
"...Hamel can write, she can think, and she is, accordingly, published by Yale. She turns one of antiquity's more fibrous epochs into a lively and witty slice of history, and gives us a story of cupidity, greed and obduracy, spiced with sexual morsels."
Library Journal
"In the future, this work will be a part of reading lists for courses on the Greek orators. Hamel...has taken the speech Against Neaira by Apollodoros and written a commentary on Athenian culture of the fourth century B.C.E. The work deals with the social mores of the period in abundant detail. Indeed, when focusing on the orator's privilege of manipulating the facts, Hamel's grasp of the current scholarship on Athenian law is formidable. She estimably deciphers the convolutions of Neaira's life as a courtesan in Corinth and Athens. ...Any scholar will enjoy this well-documented work. Recommended for upper division undergraduate and graduate students."
The Daily Telegraph
"It is an extraordinary tale, with more than an echo of Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha, and Hamel, unusually for a classicist, is not afraid of a good narrative. Nor of racy detail: from street-walkers imprinting come-hither messages in the dust with their sandals, to outraged cuckolds shoving radishes up adulterers' bottoms, there is plenty here to delight the most prurient reader."
The Sunday Telegraph
A "gripping story of politics, sex and sleaze in ancient Athens...."
The Scotsman
"As told by Debra Hamel, this true-life story offers an extraordinary window on a civilisation that wasn't half so rarefied in its interests or affections as we tend to assume."
The Chronicle of Higher Education
"Describing, challenging, and fleshing out the text, the scholar sends the reader on a tour of Greek culture and custom linked to the case and the feud. Among the stops are the demimonde hierarchies of prostitution, a raucous Greek jury system, the ancient and very different meaning of sycophant, and a vivid description of how seducing a respectable Athenian's wife or daughter could lead to a fine, death, or correctional intimacy with a root vegetable."
Choice
"Hamel...provides a charmingly written, nicely illustrated, and generally convincing analysis of the lurid Athenian speech 'Against Neaira.'"
"Hamel's account is engaging, accessible to nonexperts, and useful for courses on Athenian society...."
Journal of the History of Sexuality
"While the book is written in a fluent, simple style that makes it accessible to the student and the layperson, behind it lies a wealth of scholarship and learning."
"There is plenty of material in the book that will prove very useful to classical scholars, ancient historians, students of the speech, and every undergraduate student who is trying to become acquainted with women's history, the history of sexuality, and, in general, life in ancient Greece."
Classical Review
"Overall Trying Neaira presents Neaira's story--and the numerous points of social history it raises--in a clear and lively style aimed at the Greekless and 'Greek history-less' reader.... Undergraduates can read the book as an enthusiastic introduction to some of the major issues of Athenian social history, but most likely will need to turn to other sources, primary and secondary, for further study. And the general reader, if enticed to look inside by the cover and title, will discover a colorful story that brings to life the society of Athens in the fourth century B.C.E."
Scholia Reviews
"...Hamel does not simply concentrate on the illogicality of Apollodorus' arguments or on the complex political context of the trial. She explores the wider social and legal background, fleshing out Neaira's extraordinary life with interesting discussions of prostitution, citizenship, slave torture, courtroom procedure and even jury selection in fourth century Athens, which she describes as 'delightfully complicated' (p. 147). Herein lies the strength of Hamel's work: the accessibility of these brief discussions makes the book an ideal introduction to the study of women in antiquity, especially in Classical Civilization courses in which no knowledge of Greek is required."
"Hamel provides her own snappy translations of extracts from Apollodorus (and others), attempting to give as accurate a version of the original as possible (for her approach to translating some of the 'Proustian' sentences of Apollodorus, see p. 183, n. 3). She generally writes with great verve and humour, which makes the footnotes interesting reading (and how often can one say that!): her husband is thanked for his familiarity with Dutch prostitution (p. 164, n. 5); she seems to think that some readers may be interested in the 'logistics of mid-trial dicastic excretion' (p. 182, n. 26)."
"Hamel's work makes a notable contribution to the important process of uncovering the lives of women in antiquity and restoring them to history.... The fact that we have access to the life of a prostitute like Neaira, which has been excavated, in so engaging a manner, from yet another male- produced text, is something to celebrate."
JACT Review
"H., who has previously published a study of the Athenian generalship, does justice to the many facets of the speech in this scholarly and highly entertaining book. She deploys a wide range of other sources and comparative evidence (fragments of comedy, accounts of Japanese geisha). She has a nice turn of phrase (the first husband of Neaira's alleged daughter was 'a pitchfork-wielding American Gothic kind of fellow'). She has (probably unlike most of the original male jury) real and moving sympathy for Neaira, who was 'not the real target...yet had most to lose from the trial.'"
"Although we are several decades on from the Athens of Aristophanes, there is much here to illuminate Wasps, or to provide background to the Culture of Athens topic in JACT Ancient History. The book has clear and useful maps, diagrams and chronological charts, and is excellent value. Sixth-form students could read it with profit and pleasure."
Bryn Mawr Classical Review
"...the end result is a little gem of a book from which everyone will profit. It is informative, serious in its approach, use of source material, and conclusions, and commendably it is written in an unpretentious style."
"Needless to say, I liked H.'s book a lot, and to judge from the enthusiastic endorsements on its cover I am not alone. And it is a book that needed to be written. All too often we focus on some technical aspect of a society, or on why such-and-such a verb is in the passive, and we end up losing sight of the people who make up the society. Neaera as a person gets lost in Apollodorus' speech, but H. redresses that lack. In the process we cannot help but have a new feeling of sympathy for Neaera."
Frankfurter Rundschau (read the review)
"Und dennoch gelingt ihr das Kunststck, diese zweieinhalb Jahrtausende zurckliegende Geschichte so spannend zu erzählen, dass sich das Buch streckenweise liest wie ein Krimi."
["Nevertheless she succeeds in making the telling of this history, two and a half millennia in the past, so gripping that the book reads in sections like a crime film." ]
"...eine ebenso lehrreiche wie vergnügliche Lektüre."
["...a read as instructive as it is entertaining."]
Bulletin of the Schweizerischer Altphilologenverband (read the review)
"Wie die Autorin mit akribischem Spürsinn versucht, Apollodoros' Aussagen auf ihren Wahrheitsgehalt hin zu überprüfen, ist ein weitere Aspekt, der die Lektüre dieses Buches nicht nur empfehlenswert, sondern zu einem wahren Genuss macht."
["...the reading of this book [is] not only recommended, but a true benefit."]
Die Welt
"Debra Hamel erzählt die Geschichte der Hetäre Neaira anhand einer Gerichtsverhandlung, deren Reden von ihr ausgewertet wurden. Und aus denen sich ein sehr plastisches Bild der sozialgeschichtlichen Situation des antiken Griechenland ergibt. Amüsant, seriös und mit Chronologien und Karten versehen. Die schönste Geschichte darin ist die, die uns erzählt, wie mit ehebrecherischen Männern umgegangen wurde. Einfach einen Rettich in den Allerwertesten. Dann war Ruhe. Strafe muss sein."
Sehepunkte: Rezensionsjournal für die Geschichtswissenschaften (read the review)
"In dem hier anzuzeigenden Buch erzählt Hamel die Lebensgeschichte der Neaira in brillantem Stil und in ausgewogener Form nach."
["...Hamel tells the life story of Neaira in brilliant style and in balanced form."]
In the Blogosphere
"There are academic authors who seem to think that scholarly and accessible are by necessity opposites, so making a book unreadable somehow automatically makes a book more scholarly. The great thing about this book is that it smacks that notion down. You can read it for pleasure, but the references and notes also make it suitable for an undergraduate text."
-- History News Network
"TRYING NEAIRA is that rare sort of book that informs and entertains in equal measure."
-- Keeper of the Snails
"Mystery, intrigue, lascivious behavior, sensational speeches, and controlled anger among the real-life characters make this an interesting study of ancient Greek history and people."
-- BOOK reMARKS
"Debra Hamel's Trying Neaira is an object lesson in how to write a non-fiction book which has academic credibility and yet remains easily comprehensible to the general reader.
-- Grumpy Old Bookman
"The amount of information Hamel packs into this book is testament to her concise prose style and superior knowledge of ancient Greek society and the reader will finish this book amazed at the amount of knowledge they have absorbed."
-- Scarecrow
"For anyone interested in the culture and institutions of ancient Greece, this book is a must read. Recommended."
-- Damian McNicholl's Blog
"Trying Neaira is just what one would NOT expect an historical nonfiction book to be--witty and easy to read, with little bizarre bits that one just MUST read out loud!"
-- Blue Ampersand Reviews
"Trying Neaira is written for the non-specialist -- no knowledge at all of Greek history or literature is assumed -- but endnotes provide references for the cognoscenti. It's a lot of fun to read, but Hamel's biggest service is in providing a radically different entry point to classical Athens, one that doesn't involve triremes or tragedies."
-- Danny Yee's Book Reviews
"As absorbing as a mystery story." Guide Rating 5 stars
-- Ancient/Classical History at About.com
From the Back Cover
Victor Bers, Yale University
The subject matter of Trying Neaira suggests a supermarket tabloid -- prominent politicians and their favorite hookers; but in fact this book is a richly informative, exuberant short course in the politics, legal system, and social mores of Athens in the fourth century B.C. The prose is elegant and deliciously ironic, the scholarship fastidious and up-to-date.
Mary R. Lefkowitz, Wellesley College
This clearly written, entertaining, and well-informed book is a wonderful means of entering the world of fourth-century Athens.
Donald Kagan, Yale University
Debra Hamel has written a marvelous account of a fascinating series of events in the life of a Greek woman of the fourth century B.C. She tells the tale with clarity and verve and, along the way, she teaches the reader a vast amount about Athenian society in the most interesting and entertaining way.
