Homer, in the opening lines of the Iliad, writes: "he cast a bad plague among the army." It was the word needed for the subject of the book, a word synonymous with all kinds of plagues that, over the centuries, have decimated millions of people and wiped out entire civilizations.

Amidst the turmoil of plagues, tragic female figures emerged who marked the lives and works of emperors, bishops, great poets, and artists, who, through their ideas and actions, had a significant impact on world history and culture.