Sex and Difference in Ancient Greece and Rome

Sex and Difference in Ancient Greece and Rome PDF Author: Golden Mark Golden
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 1474468543
Category : Sex
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
This volume collects and introduces some of the best writing on sexual behaviour and gender differences in ancient Greece and Rome including four chapters newly translated from German and French. For centuries discussions of sexuality and gender in the ancient world, if they took place at all, focussed on how the roles and spheres of the sexes were divided. While men occupied the public sphere of the community, ranged through the Greek and Roman worlds and participated in politics, courts, theatre and sport, women kept to the home. Sex occupied a separate sphere, in scholarly terms restricted to specialists in ancient medicine. And then the subjects were transformed, first by Sir Kenneth Dover, then by Michel Foucault.This book charts and illustrates the extraordinary evolution of scholarly investigation of a once hidden aspect of the ancient world. In doing so it sheds light on fascinating and curious aspects of ancient lives and thought.

Greek and Roman Sexualities: A Sourcebook

Greek and Roman Sexualities: A Sourcebook PDF Author: Jennifer Larson
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441123423
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Since the publication of Foucault's History of Sexuality the volume of Classical scholarship on gender, sexuality and the body has steadily increased in tandem with the expansion of these topics in other areas of the Humanities. This volume will provide readers with a substantial selection of primary sources documenting sexualities, sexual behaviors, and perceptions of sex, sexuality, gender, and the body among people in the ancient Greco-Roman world. The coverage will begin with Homer in the eighth century BCE and will focus most heavily on Classical Greece and Rome from the Republic to the early Empire, though sources reflecting societal changes in later antiquity and a selection of Jewish and Christian readings will also be included. Authors will include Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Galen, Ovid and Plutarch, with each chapter including one or two substantial 'focal' readings. The materials will include poetry, history, oratory, medical and philosophical writings, letters, and inscriptions, both public and private.

Controlling Desires

Controlling Desires PDF Author: Kirk Ormand
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313056072
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
Historians of ancient Greece and Rome are sometimes hesitant to engage with the well-documented fact that Greek and Roman men regularly engaged in same-sex sexual relations with younger men. In a similar vein, scholars have constructed elaborate social explanations for Sappho, a 6th-century woman from the island of Lesbos who wrote passionate poetry about her erotic relations with a number of women, in order to avoid her apparent sexual orientation. On the other hand, in recent times the Greeks and Romans have occasionally been idealized as prototypes of modern homosexuality or bisexuality. In this engaging, cross-disciplinary book, Ormand argues that the Greeks and Romans thought of sex and sexuality in ways fundamentally different from our own. Ormand's exploration of Greek and Roman sexual practice allows readers the opportunity to see how attitudes and beliefs about sex—sexuality, in short—functioned in the early civilizations of the West, and how those attitudes reveal the unspoken rules that defined public and private behavior. Ormand treats Greece and Rome in separate sections, with ample cross-references and comparisons. Within each section, individual chapters focus on different types of texts and visual arts. Just as sexuality is presented differently in our legal cases than it is on television sitcoms, or supermarket tabloids, the reader will naturally find that the Greeks and Romans talk one way about sex, love, and marriage in legal speeches and another way in comedies, satires, and philosophical texts. Ormand's analysis takes into account changes in attitude over time, as well as different modes of presenting a complex and interconnected set of social beliefs and behaviors.

Sex in Antiquity

Sex in Antiquity PDF Author: Mark Masterson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317602765
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 823

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Book Description
Looking at sex and sexuality from a variety of historical, sociological and theoretical perspectives, as represented in a variety of media, Sex in Antiquity represents a vibrant picture of the discipline of ancient gender and sexuality studies, showcasing the work of leading international scholars as well as that of emerging talents and new voices. Sexuality and gender in the ancient world is an area of research that has grown quickly with often sudden shifts in focus and theoretical standpoints. This volume contextualises these shifts while putting in place new ideas and avenues of exploration that further develop this lively field or set of disciplines. This broad study also includes studies of gender and sexuality in the Ancient Near East which not only provide rich consideration of those areas but also provide a comparative perspective not often found in such collections. Sex in Antiquity is a major contribution to the field of ancient gender and sexuality studies.

Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture

Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture PDF Author: Marilyn B. Skinner
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 111861108X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
This agenda-setting text has been fully revised in its second edition, with coverage extended into the Christian era. It remains the most comprehensive and engaging introduction to the sexual cultures of ancient Greece and Rome. Covers a wide range of subjects, including Greek pederasty and the symposium, ancient prostitution, representations of women in Greece and Rome, and the public regulation of sexual behavior Expanded coverage extends to the advent of Christianity, includes added illustrations, and offers student-friendly pedagogical features Text boxes supply intriguing information about tangential topics Gives a thorough overview of current literature while encouraging further reading and discussion Conveys the complexity of ancient attitudes towards sexuality and gender and the modern debates they have engendered

Female Homosexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome

Female Homosexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome PDF Author: Sandra Boehringer
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000396169
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
This groundbreaking study, among the earliest syntheses on female homosexuality throughout Antiquity, explores the topic with careful reference to ancient concepts and views, drawing fully on the existing visual and written record including literary, philosophical, and scientific documents. Even today, ancient female homosexuals are still too often seen in terms of a mythical, ethereal Sapphic love, or stereotyped as "Amazons" or courtesans. Boehringer's scholarly book replaces these clichés with rigorous, precise analysis of iconography and texts by Sappho, Plato, Ovid, Juvenal, and many other lyric poets, satirists, and astrological writers, in search of the prevailing norms, constraints, and possibilities for erotic desire. The portrait emerges of an ancient society to which today's sexual categories do not apply—a society "before sexuality"—where female homosexuality looks very different, but is nonetheless very real. Now available in English for the first time, Female Homosexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome includes a preface by David Halperin. This book will be of value to students and scholars of ancient sexuality and gender, and to anyone interested in histories and theories of sexuality.

Sex Or Symbol?

Sex Or Symbol? PDF Author: Catherine Johns
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780415925679
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in the Classical Tradition of the West

Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in the Classical Tradition of the West PDF Author: Beerte C. Verstraete
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317953371
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 506

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Book Description
New and surprising insights into homoeroticism of times past In ancient times, the Greek god Eros personified both heterosexual and homosexual attractions. Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in Classical Tradition of the West explores the homosexual side of the vanished civilizations of Greece and Rome, and the resulting influence on the Classical tradition of the West. Respected scholars clearly present evidence that shows the extensive nature of homoeroticism and homosexuality in the Classical world. Iconography such as vase decoration and carved gemstones is presented in photographs, and the text includes an examination of a wide selection of literature of the times with an eye to opening new vistas for future study. Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in Classical Tradition of the West lays to rest the myths generally accepted as truth about Greco-Roman views on homosexuality and brings fresh insights to philological and historical scholarship. This book provides nuanced, humanistic discussions on the common phenomena of same-sex desire. Topics include Greek pederasty and its origins, the Greek female homoeroticism of Sappho, homosexuality in Greek and Roman art and literature, and the emergence of the gay liberation movement with the influence of discussions of Greek and Roman homosexuality in the twentieth century. The text is extensively referenced and includes helpful notation. Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in Classical Tradition of the West provides a comprehensive table of abbreviations, subject index, and index of names and terms. It discusses in detail: the integral role athletic nudity played in athlete-trainer pederasty the central role of pederasty in Greek history, politics, art, literature, and learning tracing the history of the Ganymede myth how the athletic culture of Sparta contributed to the spread of pederasty in Greece homosexuality in Boeotia in contrast to the rest of Greece the homoeroticism of Sappho dispelling generally accepted myths prevalent about Roman sexuality Roman visual representations of homosexuality as evidence of prevailing attitudes homoerotic connotations in literature and philosophy of the Italian Renaissance the effect of German classical philology on gay scholarship English Romantic poets and the importance of male love in their lives the Uranians’ use of allusions and themes from ancient Greece the building of intellectual community through gay print culture—through the use of Greece and Rome as models and more Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in Classical Tradition of the West is essential reading for Classicists, specialists in gender/sexuality studies, humanists interested in the classical tradition in Western culture, psychologists, and other social scientists in human sexuality.

Sex and the Ancient City

Sex and the Ancient City PDF Author: Andreas Serafim
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 311069588X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 613

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Book Description
This volume aims to revisit, further explore and tease out the textual, but also non-textual sources in an attempt to reconstruct a clearer picture of a particular aspect of sexuality, i.e. sexual practices, in Greco-Roman antiquity. Sexual practices refers to a part of the overarching notion of sexuality: specifically, the acts of sexual intercourse, the erogenous capacities and genital functions of male and female body, and any other physical or biological actions that define one’s sexual identity or orientation. This volume aims to approach not simply the acts of sexual intercourse themselves, but also their legal, social, political, religious, medical, cultural/moral and interdisciplinary (e.g. emotional, performative) perspectives, as manifested in a range of both textual and non-textual evidence (i.e. architecture, iconography, epigraphy, etc.). The insights taken from the contributions to this volume would enable researchers across a range of disciplines – e.g. sex/gender studies, comparative literature, psychology and cognitive neuroscience – to use theoretical perspectives, methodologies and conceptual tools to frame the sprawling examination of aspects of sexuality in broad terms, or sexual practices in particular.

Rethinking Eros

Rethinking Eros PDF Author: Brian Carmany
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1452092885
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description
Rethinking Eros uses modern popular culture to examine sex, bodies, and gender in the ancient world in all their complexities.