Household Gods

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Household Gods is a science fiction/time-travel novel written by Harry Turtledove and Judith Tarr.

The story focuses on a young 20th century woman who is dissatisfied with her hectic life, which includes balancing her career as a lawyer with being a mother and dealing with her deadbeat ex-husband and sexist coworkers. Believing the past was a better time, one evening, after a particularly wild day, she makes a wish before a plaque of two Roman gods, Liber and Libera. The next morning, she finds herself waking up in the body of one of her ancient ancestors in 2nd century Carnuntum in what is now Austria. In general, she finds out the hard way that life in the past was not quite what she thought it would be: slavery taken for granted, no women's rights, no effective medicine or clean medical practices, and no tampons. Over the course of a year, she is forced to revise many of her long-held modern prejudices, including those against alcohol and corporal punishment. She survives epidemic disease and a German invasion; finds that early Christianity was uncomfortably zealous and apocalyptic; and, after a brutal rape by a Roman soldier, discusses the role of government and its duties to abused citizens with Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Eventually, Liber and Libera fulfil her desire to return home, where she wakes from a week-long 'coma' to find that, with her hardwon skills and improved perspective, both her working and family life will improve and she can more easily deal with the stress and difficulties of her modern life.