Female characters play various roles in the Odyssey: Patron goddess (Athena), seductress (Kirke, the Sirens, Nausikaa), carnivorous monster (Skylla), maid servant (Eurykleia), and faithful wife (Penelope). The Distaff Side examines the poem's female representations and their significance in Greek culture, mythology, and history. In addition, several of the book's eleven essays address the visual and iconographic implications of
Odysseus' female encounters as depicted in Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art. The distinguished contributors are AJ. Graham, Seth L. Schein, Diana Buitron-Oliver, Beth Cohen, Sheila Murnaghan, Lillian Eileen Doherty, Helene P. Foley, Froma I. Zeitlin, H.A. Shapiro, Richard Brilliant, Jenifer Neils, and Christine Mitchell Havelock. Feminine in orientation, but not narrowly feminist in approach, this interdisciplinary work on the Odyssey's female characters will have a broad audience among scholars and students working in classical studies, iconography and art history, women's studies, mythology, and ancient history.