Looking back, I think I chose this book because the title sounded dramatic. I stumbled on a jewel.

Ettore is the owner of a brothel in Athens at a time when it was the center of civilization. Ettore's Women is the story of his acquisition of three slaves, and of each of the three women's initiations into his house.

Her father sold Alessia to Ettore to satisfy a debt. Alessia fears Ettore and dreads her first night in his house, which coincides with the end of the wrestling games in honor of Hercules. She has seen the wrestlers and found the sight disturbing. Alessia reluctantly prepares for the coming night under the threat of being forcefully prepared if she does not.

Daria is a woman of good family who flees to Ettore to escape wedding the man her parents had chosen for her. Her promised husband has no passion for her. She fears a life of loneliness. Unlike Alessia, whom she prepares for her first night, Daria happily has remained with Ettore for two years.

Argeia is a Spartan woman captured in the Athens-Spartan war. In Sparta, women are taught to fight, as well as to read and write. Argeia feels contempt for the women of Athens. She has fought and injured the Athenian soldiers bringing her to Athens, and she arrives in chains. She did not allow the soldiers to take her, and she is determined that she will not be taken after she arrives at Ettore's house. Ettore chooses to initiate her himself, and he does so by allowing her to fight him.

Ettore's Women is a beautifully written and perhaps deliberately fragmented story of women who work in a brothel. Terri Pray's voice fascinates me. I want to read more. I want to be enchanted again.

Reviewed By Catherine H.
© December 3, 2004