The Missing Thread
For centuries, men have been writing histories of antiquity filled with warlords, emperors and kings. But when it comes to incorporating women aside from Cleopatra and Boudica, writers have been more comfortable describing mythical heroines than real ones. While Penelope and Helen of Troy live on in the imagination, their real-life counterparts have been relegated to the margins. In The Missing Thread, Daisy Dunn inverts this tradition and puts the women of history at the centre of the narrative.
These pages present Enheduanna, the earliest named author, the poet Sappho and Telesilla, who defended her city from attack. Here is Artemisia, sole female commander in the Graeco-Persian Wars, and Cynisca, the first female victor at the Olympic Games. Cleopatra may be the more famous, but Fulvia, Mark Antony’s wife, fought a war on his behalf. Many other women remain nameless but integral. Through new examination of the sources combined with vivid storytelling Daisy Dunn shows us the ancient world through fresh eyes, and introduces us to an incredible cast of ancient women, weavers of an entire world.
Daisy Dunn
Dr Daisy Dunn is an award-winning classicist and author of seven books.
Daisy has consulted and participated in interviews on documentaries for the BBC, Channel 5, Sky, Netflix, Discovery, Glyndebourne Opera and American television networks. In 2016 she played for the winning team on BBC 2’s University Challenge Christmas Special. She has written and presented two short films on the classical world for BBC Ideas, and on radio she has contributed to BBC Radio 4, the World Service, Times Radio, TalkRadio, LBC, Monocle and RTÉ’s Arena.
Born in London, Daisy grew up in a family of artists in Wimbledon before reading Classics at the University of Oxford and winning a scholarship to study for a Master’s in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, specialising in Titian, Venice and Renaissance Europe. In 2013 she was awarded her PhD in Classics at University College London, where she was recipient of the AHRC doctoral award, the Gay Clifford Award for Outstanding Women Scholars, and an Italian Cultural Society scholarship.
Elisabeth Grass
Elisabeth is a DPhil student in the History Faculty. Through the prism of the country estate, her research focuses on the socio-cultural activities of West Indian slaveholders in Britain in the eighteenth century. It offers perspectives on wealth derived from enslaved labour and its legacy in our built environment. Elisabeth works closely with the Colonial Countryside initiative and has given presentations and training to staff and volunteers in the heritage sector. A rare book specialist by profession, she is particularly interested in the colonial dimensions of collecting, and in the country house library as a repository of imperial knowledge.
