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A review by dragonbitebooks
Hour Of The Olympics by Mary Pope Osborne
Excerpt from a longer review on my blog, Dragon Bite Books.
I have serious problems with the portrayal of ancient Greece in Hour at the Olympics.
1) You can’t conflate all the Greek city-states when talking about the place of women or the education of children. Upper class women in Athens were barely allowed to leave the house; Spartan women were given public education and expected to be athletic. If Pope had even added a “most” in front of her sweeping depiction of women’s lives in ancient Greece, I might be satisfied.
2) The Olympics website and the Penn Museum say that unmarried women could attend the men’s games and that the priestess of Demeter would be in attendance. Annie is definitely an unmarried woman.
3) Some Greek women were definitely allowed to be poets. Sappho is among the most famous of the Greek poets and was in her own time too.
Plato, a character in this story, lived roughly between 429-347 BCE. Plato is an old man in this story, so this is set probably in the latter part of his life (40+).
I have serious problems with the portrayal of ancient Greece in Hour at the Olympics.
1) You can’t conflate all the Greek city-states when talking about the place of women or the education of children. Upper class women in Athens were barely allowed to leave the house; Spartan women were given public education and expected to be athletic. If Pope had even added a “most” in front of her sweeping depiction of women’s lives in ancient Greece, I might be satisfied.
2) The Olympics website and the Penn Museum say that unmarried women could attend the men’s games and that the priestess of Demeter would be in attendance. Annie is definitely an unmarried woman.
Spoiler
Whether unaccompanied minors were allowed or whether there was a punishment for impersonating a soldier, I don’t know.3) Some Greek women were definitely allowed to be poets. Sappho is among the most famous of the Greek poets and was in her own time too.
Plato, a character in this story, lived roughly between 429-347 BCE. Plato is an old man in this story, so this is set probably in the latter part of his life (40+).