Rhetoric of Manhood: Masculinity in the Attic Orators

by Joseph Roisman

The concept of manhood was immensely important in ancient Athens, shaping its political, social, legal, and ethical systems. This book, a groundbreaking study of manhood in fourth-century Athens, is the first to provide a comprehensive examination of notions about masculinity found in the Attic orators, who represent one of the most important sources for understanding the social history of this period. While previous studies have assumed a uniform ideology about manhood, Joseph Roisman finds that Athenians had quite varied opinions about what constituted manly values and conduct. He situates the evidence for ideas about manhood found in the Attic orators in its historical, ideological, and theoretical contexts to explore various manifestations of Athenian masculinity as well as the rhetoric that both articulated and questioned it.

Roisman focuses on topics such as the nexus between manhood and age; on Athenian men in their roles as family members, friends, and lovers; on the concept of masculine shame; on relations between social and economic status and manhood; on manhood in the military and politics; on the manly virtue of self-control; and on what men feared.

300 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Joseph Roisman is Professor of Classics at Colby College. He has authored and edited several books, among them Brill’s Companion to Alexander the Great (2003) and The Rhetoric of Manhood: Masculinity in the Attic Orators (2005).

Reviews

[Jessi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative if you care about Greek rhetoric more than you care about ancient masculinities and their perceptions. A bit too repetitive on some of the points as well.