Reviewed by Laura Abrahamsen, Cleveland State University.
Stepmothers are notoriously wicked.
Anyone, with any cultural literacy, whether derived from the Brothers Grimm themselves or from the large-screen Disney interpretations of their collected tales, knows that stepmothers are always out to destroy their stepchildren. The Saeva Noverca in Roman Literature, V. Stepmothers in Roman Life. In her introduction, Watson surveys the general ancient stereotypes about stepmothers, carefully separating those that are common to both Athens and Rome, and those that seem to be specific to either culture. While both Greeks and Romans assumed malevolence on the part of stepmothers, the forms this malevolence takes were perceptibly different in the two societies. Watson contends that the murderous stepmother is peculiarly Roman, particularly when she shows up as the saeva noverca of declamation.