The reality of women in the universe of the ancient novel This volume gathers chapters related to the condition of women in the ancient novel. To broaden the perspective it integrates not only papers dealing with the Greek and Roman novel as a literary genre in its own right but also as a historical document involving aspects as diverse as history archaeology sociology and the history of law. The twenty six contributions in this volume have been divided into thematic blocks based on the different approaches that the authors have adopted to tackle the subject. The first block is about realia the reality in which the fiction has been conceived. The second block focuses on the legal problems that can be deduced from the plots of the novels. The third block encompasses deals with the Greek and Roman novel from the point of view of classical philology literary criticism and literary theory with chapters dedicated to the tradition of the ancient novel both in our most immediate cultural area (Middle Ages Spanish Golden Age) and in other contexts whether Indo European (India Persia) or of a different origin