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A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Classical World
Though many of the sexual practices of the Ancient Greeks and Romans are known and accepted today, the meanings the Ancients associated with these acts were often utterly different from our own. Both idea and practice also varied within antiquity, shaped by locale, history, social class, age, legal status, and gender. Focusing on the cultures of the Mediterranean from 800 Bce to 350 Ce, A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Classical World covers sexual practices, feelings, and ideas from the time of Homer to the transformation of the Roman Empire.
A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Classical World presents an overview of the period with essays on heterosexuality, homosexuality, sexual variations, religious and legal issues, health concerns, popular beliefs about sexuality, prostitution and erotica.
A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Classical World presents an overview of the period with essays on heterosexuality, homosexuality, sexual variations, religious and legal issues, health concerns, popular beliefs about sexuality, prostitution and erotica.
- GenresHistoricalNonfiction
356 pages, Paperback
First published May 8, 2012
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February 5, 2025
Plenty of interesting information in this book but you have to wade through a whole bunch of repetition and unnecessary academese to get to it.
The first essay feels like a recycled PhD thesis; there are many explanations in parenthesis which are obviously tacked on after the fact, where a re-write would have made sense. It's not the end of the world but it lengthens an already overly-long book, which brings me to the issue of overlap.
There are a number of essays and there is a significant amount of overlap between them. Some of this is inevitable such as the use of the same quotes of examples from ancient sources (there aren't many sources that have survived and so the pool for selection is rather small); however, there is plenty of overlap that an editor with a strong hand could have worked with the authors to do some re-writes. That said, as already alluded to, the feeling is overwhelmingly of a bunch of essays that were not written specifically for the volume. Again, it's not terrible but it doesn't hang together as well thematically as well as the essay topics would suggest.
My only other issue (aside from the unnecessary academese- I'm not against it if it's necessary) is around a methodological theme. The authors give the impression that it's in-vogue to not judge based on our contemporary values. To an extent that makes a lot of sense but, here, it feels like they forgot that our relativisation of cultural-values is itself a contemporary value. So, there's a little bit of looking down the nose at some older theorists on that count and it comes off as a bit unreflective.
Overall, I'd say worth the read but I'm very much on the fence about reading another volume in the series.
The first essay feels like a recycled PhD thesis; there are many explanations in parenthesis which are obviously tacked on after the fact, where a re-write would have made sense. It's not the end of the world but it lengthens an already overly-long book, which brings me to the issue of overlap.
There are a number of essays and there is a significant amount of overlap between them. Some of this is inevitable such as the use of the same quotes of examples from ancient sources (there aren't many sources that have survived and so the pool for selection is rather small); however, there is plenty of overlap that an editor with a strong hand could have worked with the authors to do some re-writes. That said, as already alluded to, the feeling is overwhelmingly of a bunch of essays that were not written specifically for the volume. Again, it's not terrible but it doesn't hang together as well thematically as well as the essay topics would suggest.
My only other issue (aside from the unnecessary academese- I'm not against it if it's necessary) is around a methodological theme. The authors give the impression that it's in-vogue to not judge based on our contemporary values. To an extent that makes a lot of sense but, here, it feels like they forgot that our relativisation of cultural-values is itself a contemporary value. So, there's a little bit of looking down the nose at some older theorists on that count and it comes off as a bit unreflective.
Overall, I'd say worth the read but I'm very much on the fence about reading another volume in the series.
Displaying 1 of 1 review