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Author : Wayne R. Dynes,Stephen Donaldson
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 518 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 1992
Category : History
ISBN : 081530546X
This book is a collection of essays focusing on homosexual behavior in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Ancient Greece, and Ancient Rome.
Author : Louis Crompton
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 652 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2009-07
Category : History
ISBN : 0674030060
How have major civilizations of the last two millennia treated people who were attracted to their own sex? In a narrative tour de force, Louis Crompton chronicles the lives and achievements of homosexual men and women alongside a darker history of persecution, as he compares the Christian West with the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome, Arab Spain, imperial China, and pre-Meiji Japan. Ancient Greek culture celebrated same-sex love in history, literature, and art, making high claims for its moral influence. By contrast, Jewish religious leaders in the sixth century B.C.E. branded male homosexuality as a capital offense and, later, blamed it for the destruction of the biblical city of Sodom. When these two traditions collided in Christian Rome during the late empire, the tragic repercussions were felt throughout Europe and the New World. Louis Crompton traces Church-inspired mutilation, torture, and burning of sodomites in sixth-century Byzantium, medieval France, Renaissance Italy, and in Spain under the Inquisition. But Protestant authorities were equally committed to the execution of homosexuals in the Netherlands, Calvin's Geneva, and Georgian England. The root cause was religious superstition, abetted by political ambition and sheer greed. Yet from this cauldron of fears and desires, homoerotic themes surfaced in the art of the Renaissance masters--Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Sodoma, Cellini, and Caravaggio--often intertwined with Christian motifs. Homosexuality also flourished in the court intrigues of Henry III of France, Queen Christina of Sweden, James I and William III of England, Queen Anne, and Frederick the Great. Anti-homosexual atrocities committed in the West contrast starkly with the more tolerant traditions of pre-modern China and Japan, as revealed in poetry, fiction, and art and in the lives of emperors, shoguns, Buddhist priests, scholars, and actors. In the samurai tradition of Japan, Crompton makes clear, the celebration of same-sex love rivaled that of ancient Greece. Sweeping in scope, elegantly crafted, and lavishly illustrated, Homosexuality and Civilization is a stunning exploration of a rich and terrible past.
Author : Eva Cantarella
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 296 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 1992
Category : History
ISBN : 9780300048445
Bisexuality was intrinsic to the cultures of the ancient world. In both Greece and Rome, same gender sexual relationships were acknowledged, and those between men were not only tolerated but widely celebrated in literature and art. Nor for Greeks and Romans was homosexuality an exclusive choice, but alternative to and sometimes concurrent with the love of the opposite sex. Whilst exploring aspects of the female condition in Classical antiquity, Eva Cantarella came to understand that the sheer ubiquity of male homosexuality had a fundamental impact on relationships between men and women. Drawing on the full range of surviving sources - legal texts, inscriptions, medical documents, poetry and philosophical literature - she now reconstructs the homosexual cultures of Greece and Rome and provides a full, readable and thought-provoking history of bisexuality in the Classical age. Cantarella explores the psychological, social and cultural mechanisms that determined sexual choice and consider: the extent to which that choice was free, directed or coerced in each civilization. In Greece the relationship between adults and youngs(sic) boys was deemed the noblest of associations, a means of education and spiritual exhaltation(sic). Cantarella reveals that such relationships, though highly regulated and never left to individual spontaneity, were more than pedagogic and platonic: they were fully carnal. In Imperial Rome, however, the sexual ethic mirrored the political and males were cruelly domineering in love as in war. The critical sexual distinction was that between active and passive, the victims commonly being slaves or defeated enemies, rather than young Roman freemen. In terms of femalebisexuality, accounts of love between Roman women were transmitted exclusively by men. In Greece, however, women had Sappho to give them voice. Cantarella examines the activities of the thiasoi - Greek communities of women - and reveals that their ritual ceremonies also embraced passionate love. Cantarella explains how the etiquette of bisexuality was corrupted over time and how, influenced by pagan and Judeo-Christian traditions, homosexuality came to be regarded as an unnatural act. Her interpretation goes further than any previous study, claiming not only that homosexuality was common, but that for Greeks of both genders it constituted true love.
Author : David M Halperin
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 235 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2012-07-26
Category : History
ISBN : 9781136608773
Halperin's subject is the erotics of male culture in ancient Greece. Arguing that the modern concept of "homosexuality" is an inadequate tool for the interpretation of these features of sexual life in antiquity, Halperin offers an alternative account that accords greater prominence to the indigenous terms in which sexual experiences were constituted in the ancient Mediterranean world. Wittily and provocatively written, Halperin's meticulously drawn windows onto ancient sexuality give us a new meaning to the concept of "Greek love."
Author : Sandra Boehringer
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 449 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2021-09-06
Category : History
ISBN : 9781000396164
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.
Author : Vern L. Bullough
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 235 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2019-01-23
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780429615191
Originally published in 1979. This is at once a look at the realities of homosexuality in history and an examination of the myths that have grown up around it. The record of practices and prejudices moves from biblical and classical through early and medieval Christian, Renaissance, and Victorian times, to our own era of dramatic changes. It looks at prominent figures who were homosexuals, the theories that have flourished and faded, the differing attitudes toward male and female homosexuality, persecution, and contemporary changes. This classic work is a fascinating historical perspective of all the factors that have shaped and changed our attitudes from ancient times to the present.
Author : Kenneth James Dover
Publisher : Bloomsbury Academic
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2016
Category : Greece
ISBN : 1474257186
Author : Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz,Lisa Auanger
Publisher : University of Texas Press
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2009-06-03
Category : History
ISBN : 9780292774346
Women's and men's worlds were largely separate in ancient Mediterranean societies, and, in consequence, many women's deepest personal relationships were with other women. Yet relatively little scholarly or popular attention has focused on women's relationships in antiquity, in contrast to recent interest in the relationships between men in ancient Greece and Rome. The essays in this book seek to close this gap by exploring a wide variety of textual and archaeological evidence for women's homosocial and homoerotic relationships from prehistoric Greece to fifth-century CE Egypt. Drawing on developments in feminist theory, gay and lesbian studies, and queer theory, as well as traditional textual and art historical methods, the contributors to this volume examine representations of women's lives with other women, their friendships, and sexual subjectivity. They present new interpretations of the evidence offered by the literary works of Sappho, Ovid, and Lucian; Bronze Age frescoes and Greek vase painting, funerary reliefs, and other artistic representations; and Egyptian legal documents.
Author : Craig A. Williams
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 512 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2010-02-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9780199889198
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.
Author : Mark Masterson,Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz,James Robson
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 588 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2018-02-05
Category : History
ISBN : 9781317602774
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.
Author : R. B. Parkinson
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 130 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2013
Category : Art
ISBN : 9780231166638
Originally published: London: The British Museum Press, 2013.
Author : James N. Davidson
Publisher : Random House Digital, Inc.
Page : 833 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Greece
ISBN : 9780375505164
For nearly two thousand years, historians have treated the subject of homosexuality in ancient Greece with apology, embarrassment, or outright denial. Now classics scholar James Davidson offers a brilliant, unblushing exploration of the passion that permeated Greek civilization. Using homosexuality as a lens, Davidson sheds new light on every aspect of Greek culture, from politics and religion to art and war. With stunning erudition and irresistible wit–and without moral judgment–Davidson has written the first major examination of homosexuality in ancient Greece since the dawn of the modern gay rights movement. What exactly did same-sex love mean in a culture that had no word or concept comparable to our term “homosexuality”? How sexual were these attachments? When Greeks spoke of love between men and boys, how young were the boys, how old were the men? Drawing on examples from philosophy, poetry, drama, history, and vase painting, Davidson provides fascinating answers to questions that have vexed scholars for generations. To begin, he defines the essential Greek words for romantic love–eros, pothos, philia–and explores the shades of emotion and passion embodied in each. Then, exploding the myth of Greek “boy love,” Davidson shows that Greek same-sex pairs were in fact often of the same generation, with boys under eighteen zealously separated from older boys and men. Davidson argues that the essence of Greek homosexuality was “besottedness”–falling head over heels and “making a great big song and dance about it,” though sex was certainly not excluded. With refreshing candor, humor, and an astonishing command of Greek culture, Davidson examines how this passion played out in the myths of Ganymede and Cephalus, in the lives of archetypal Greek heroes such as Achilles, Heracles, and Alexander, in the politics of Athens and the army of lovers that defended Thebes. He considers the sexual peculiarities of Sparta and Crete, the legend and truth surrounding Sappho, and the relationship between Greek athletics and sexuality. Writing with the energy, vitality, and irony that the subject deserves, Davidson has elucidated the ruling passion of classical antiquity. Ultimately The Greeks and Greek Love is about how desire–homosexual and heterosexual–is embodied in human civilization. At once scholarly and entertaining, this is a book that sheds as much light on our own world as on the world of Homer, Plato, and Alexander.
Author : Michelle A. Gibson,Deborah T. Meem,Jonathan Alexander
Publisher : SAGE
Page : 449 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2013-02-14
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781452235288
By combining accessible introductory and explanatory material with primary texts and artifacts, this text/reader explores the development and growth of LGBT identities and the interdisciplinary nature of sexuality studies. Authors Meem, Gibson, and Alexander clearly situate debates and readings within clear contexts (History, Literature and the Arts, Media and Politics), providing students with a coherent framework and comprehensive introduction to LGBT studies. While this emerging field is complex, multifaceted, and interdisciplinary (and therefore often inaccessible to students), Finding Out - through its instructional apparatus, primary texts, and organization - provides the ideal introduction for today's students. Contents: I. HISTORY 1. Before Identity: The Ancient World through the Nineteenth Century 2. Sexology: Constructing the Modern Homosexual 3. Toward Liberation 4. Stonewall and Beyond II. POLITICS 5. Nature, Nurture, and Identity 6. Inclusion and Equality 7. Queer Diversities 8. Intersectionalities III. LITERATURE AND THE ARTS 9. Homo-sexed Art and Literature 10. Lesbian Pulp Novels and Gay Physique Pictorials 11. Queer Transgressions 12. Censorship and Moral Panic IV. MEDIA 13. Film and Television 14. Queers and the Internet 15. The Politics of Location: Alternative Media and the Search for Queer Space
Author : Thomas K. Hubbard
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 599 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2003-05-12
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780520936508
The most important primary texts on homosexuality in ancient Greece and Rome are translated into modern, explicit English and collected together for the first time in this comprehensive sourcebook. Covering an extensive period—from the earliest Greek texts in the late seventh century b.c.e. to Greco-Roman texts of the third and fourth centuries c.e.—the volume includes well-known writings by Plato, Sappho, Aeschines, Catullus, and Juvenal, as well as less well known but highly relevant and intriguing texts such as graffiti, comic fragments, magical papyri, medical treatises, and selected artistic evidence. These fluently translated texts, together with Thomas K. Hubbard's valuable introductions, clearly show that there was in fact no more consensus about homosexuality in ancient Greece and Rome than there is today. The material is organized by period and by genre, allowing readers to consider chronological developments in both Greece and Rome. Individual texts each are presented with a short introduction contextualizing them by date and, where necessary, discussing their place within a larger work. Chapter introductions discuss questions of genre and the ideological significance of the texts, while Hubbard's general introduction to the volume addresses issues such as sexual orientation in antiquity, moral judgments, class and ideology, and lesbianism. With its broad, unexpurgated, and thoroughly informed presentation, this unique anthology gives an essential perspective on homosexuality in classical antiquity.
Author : Thomas K. Hubbard
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 680 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2013-11-21
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781118610688
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