Sexuality In Greek And Roman Culture

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

This Sourcebook contains numerous original translations of ancient poetry, inscriptions and documents, all of which illuminate the multifaceted nature of sexuality in antiquity. The detailed introduction provides full social and historical context for the sources, and guides students on how to use the material most effectively. Themes such as marriage, prostitution and same-sex attraction are presented comparatively, with material from the Greek and Roman worlds shown side by side. This approach allows readers to interpret the written records with a full awareness of the different context of these separate but related societies. Commentaries are provided throughout, focusing on vocabulary and social and historical context. This is the first major sourcebook on ancient sexuality; it will be of particular use on related courses in classics, ancient history and gender studies.

A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities presents a comprehensive collection of original essays relating to aspects of gender and sexuality in the classical world. Views the various practices and discursive contexts of sexuality systematically and holistically Discusses Greece and Rome in each chapter, with sensitivity to the continuities and differences between the two classical civilizations Addresses the classical influence on the understanding of later ages and religion Covers artistic and literary genres, various social environments of sexual conduct, and the technical disciplines of medicine, magic, physiognomy, and dream interpretation Features contributions from more than 40 top international scholars

"Comprehensive, reader-friendly, richly detailed, forthright, subtle, and very clear, Controlling Desires is the only handbook on ancient sexuality that works persistently to offset modern readers' assumptions about sex and sexuality, to challenge the notion that sexuality is natural and universal, and to bring out the differences between ancient and modern discourses of sex—or, even, between ancient and modern experiences of desire. As such, it is a very helpful resource for students working on the history of sexuality in classical antiquity, because it shows how such a history might be possible and what is actually historical about sexuality." —David M. Halperin, University of Michigan, author of One Hundred Years of Homosexuality, Saint Foucault, and How to Do the History of Homosexuality Since its first publication in 2009, Controlling Desires has been widely lauded as an accessible introduction to sexual practices, attitudes, and beliefs in the classical world. Treating Greece and Rome in separate sections, with ample cross-references and comparisons, Kirk Ormand presents a wide array of evidence from literary texts and visual arts, including two new chapters on Greek vase painting and Roman artifacts and wall paintings.

Providing a comprehensive overview of nine successive stages of Greek sexual culture, this illustrated book serves as a guide to the origins of our complex attitudes regarding marriage, the rights of women, homosexuality, and the role of eroticism in culture. 115 illustrations.

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.

Important primary texts on homosexuality in ancient Greece and Rome are translated into modern, explicit English and collected together in this comprehensive sourcebook. Covering an extensive period, the volume includes writings by Plato, Sappho Aeschines, Catullus and Juvenal.

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.

Ten years after its original publication, Roman Homosexuality remains the definitive statement of this interesting but often misunderstood aspect of Roman culture. Learned yet accessible, the book has reached both students and general readers with an interest in ancient sexuality. This second edition features a new foreword by Martha Nussbaum, a completely rewritten introduction that takes account of new developments in the field, a rewritten and expanded appendix on ancient images of sexuality, and an updated bibliography.

Analysis of sexual ambivalence in antiquity, which was both deeply threatening to the social order and profoundly attractive.