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Love, Sex and Marriage in Ancient Greece
Book is easy format to follow describing family life, education, young men, young women and marriage customs, societal norms. Each chapter includes illustrations of ancient art which highlight the points being made. Direct discussion of sexuality and social norms of the time and place - very interesting book!
87 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 3, 2021
I bought this as the museum on Delos. It was a quick, fascinating overview. Apparently reports of pederasty have been greatly exaggerated and male homosexuality of most any kind was actually taboo.
July 8, 2019
Poorly written, biased, and while mostly there is no problem in that regard, a *few factual mistakes creep in too, some of them obviously intentional*.
The writing itself is lacking. The author obviously doesn't speak English at a high level, and should've written in Greek and had it translated, or at the very least, hired a proofreader. It is mostly easily understandable, but feels unprofessional and is a dull read. Some factual mistakes probably appear because the author just doesn't know the proper term. For example, he keeps talking about a matriarchal pre-history as a fact, but this is a highly debated theory/myth with little else than the Venus of Willendorf statues to go by. What's worse, he goes on to explain what he means by "matriarchy"... and it turns out that he means matrilinearity, and has simply misused the phrase.
He also sometimes throws in topics incoherently (brings up funeral vases for a mere 2 sentences, implies that they are very closely related to marriage vases, never explains), and he shows his bias in never shying away from throwing in sentences about the nobility and great virtues and ideals of the ancient Greeks, so as to outright state that these everchanging subjective cultural customs are somehow inherent and natural, when he agrees with them ("the polygamous nature of man"). Very unscientific.
He is also homophobic. As I said, mostly there are no factual problems, and a lot of what he says about pederasty is correct, but when he tries to argue that the reason children weren't abused in pederasty is that passive homosexuality was outlawed and severely punished, it was incomprehensible and foul to me. Let's face it, if the eromenos (younger partner) was always the receptive partner when intimacy did occur, as the author agrees too, punishing the passive partner *does not* ensure the protection of children *in any way*. He tries to prove that children were protected by bringing up Timarchus, but Timarchus was accused of prostituting himself *as a youth*, and got punished for it. It is not a normal case of pederasty, but prostitution, and the erastai (older partners) are not the one punished. No protection to children involved anywhere in the case!
Unfortunately, the author also intentionally misinforms the reader. He explicitly says: "In Sparta now, according to the law set by Lycurgus, pederasty was strictly forbidden." This is factually wrong. The laws forbade homosexuality, literal physical sexuality, but *the very same sources and laws he cites* also mention that pederasty (which was not necessarily physical and sexual, as the author also explains elsewhere) was *encouraged*. This intentionally selective quoting of the very same texts is an inexcusable bending of information to further his personal bias.
One of his arguments is also that Greek pederasty couldn't have been homosexuality, because pederasty was "noble". Highly inappropriate display of bias and judgment over people.
The writing itself is lacking. The author obviously doesn't speak English at a high level, and should've written in Greek and had it translated, or at the very least, hired a proofreader. It is mostly easily understandable, but feels unprofessional and is a dull read. Some factual mistakes probably appear because the author just doesn't know the proper term. For example, he keeps talking about a matriarchal pre-history as a fact, but this is a highly debated theory/myth with little else than the Venus of Willendorf statues to go by. What's worse, he goes on to explain what he means by "matriarchy"... and it turns out that he means matrilinearity, and has simply misused the phrase.
He also sometimes throws in topics incoherently (brings up funeral vases for a mere 2 sentences, implies that they are very closely related to marriage vases, never explains), and he shows his bias in never shying away from throwing in sentences about the nobility and great virtues and ideals of the ancient Greeks, so as to outright state that these everchanging subjective cultural customs are somehow inherent and natural, when he agrees with them ("the polygamous nature of man"). Very unscientific.
He is also homophobic. As I said, mostly there are no factual problems, and a lot of what he says about pederasty is correct, but when he tries to argue that the reason children weren't abused in pederasty is that passive homosexuality was outlawed and severely punished, it was incomprehensible and foul to me. Let's face it, if the eromenos (younger partner) was always the receptive partner when intimacy did occur, as the author agrees too, punishing the passive partner *does not* ensure the protection of children *in any way*. He tries to prove that children were protected by bringing up Timarchus, but Timarchus was accused of prostituting himself *as a youth*, and got punished for it. It is not a normal case of pederasty, but prostitution, and the erastai (older partners) are not the one punished. No protection to children involved anywhere in the case!
Unfortunately, the author also intentionally misinforms the reader. He explicitly says: "In Sparta now, according to the law set by Lycurgus, pederasty was strictly forbidden." This is factually wrong. The laws forbade homosexuality, literal physical sexuality, but *the very same sources and laws he cites* also mention that pederasty (which was not necessarily physical and sexual, as the author also explains elsewhere) was *encouraged*. This intentionally selective quoting of the very same texts is an inexcusable bending of information to further his personal bias.
One of his arguments is also that Greek pederasty couldn't have been homosexuality, because pederasty was "noble". Highly inappropriate display of bias and judgment over people.
November 2, 2019
If it had been possible to rate this book six-star or even seven-star, I would have done it, definitely. Actually, reading Love, Sex, Marriage in Ancient Greece by Nikos A. Vrissimtzis is like being projected into life in archaic, classic, and Hellenistic Greece. It looks like reliving those eras!
Nikos A. Vrissimtzis describes the habits of the ancient Greeks in a simple way, and upholds his narrative with detailed reference to Greek literature and archaeological finds. Superb is his narration about symposiums where hetaeras took part. They were prostitutes of high rank, learned and above all of extraordinary beauty. Even Pericles fell in love with one of them, called Aspasia, and had a child from her.
Some commonplaces are debunked. There is no evidence that the famous poet Saffo was a lesbian. In my opinion she can be considered as the archetype of modern feminism.
Ettore Grillo, author of these books:
- A Hidden Sicilian History
- The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregr...
Nikos A. Vrissimtzis describes the habits of the ancient Greeks in a simple way, and upholds his narrative with detailed reference to Greek literature and archaeological finds. Superb is his narration about symposiums where hetaeras took part. They were prostitutes of high rank, learned and above all of extraordinary beauty. Even Pericles fell in love with one of them, called Aspasia, and had a child from her.
Some commonplaces are debunked. There is no evidence that the famous poet Saffo was a lesbian. In my opinion she can be considered as the archetype of modern feminism.
Ettore Grillo, author of these books:
- A Hidden Sicilian History
- The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregr...
May 26, 2023
This book undoubtedly contains some interesting and useful information, but Vrissimtzis’ presentation of it is so coloured by his own prejudices that it becomes ridiculous and self-contradictory. He is desperate to prove that the Ancient Greeks were far more noble than we are today. However, his misogyny and homophobia make it difficult to argue this, so he ties himself in knots. He quotes single phrases said by one man and applies them to all three thousand years of Ancient Greek history and all the hundreds of city states. I almost want to list all his inaccuracies, ridiculous statements and inconsistencies but this review would end up as long as the book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews