Sexuality and Gender in the Classical World: Readings and Sources

This book explores the fascinating world of sex and gender roles in the classical period. It provides readers with essays that represent a range of perspectives on women, gender and sexuality in the ancient world. They are accessible to general readers whilst also challenging them to confront problems of evidence and interpretation, new theories and methodologies, and contemporary assumptions about gender and sexuality. The essays cover a broad spectrum of scholarly perspectives, and trace the debates and themes of the field from the late 1960s to the late 1990s. They also address a range of literary and non–literary genres, including some non–canonical sources such as medical writings and inscriptions, to elucidate ancient ideas about sexuality and the discourses that shaped these ideas. The book also provides translations of primary sources to enable readers to confront the evidence for themselves and assess the methodology used by historians. It includes Greek literature and society, Roman culture and the legacy of classical myth for modern feminist scholars. It includes and examines not only women in antiquity but also masculinity and sexuality to provide a comprehensive account of this fascinating topic.

List of Illustrations. Preface. Acknowledgments. Editor′s Introduction. Part I: Greece. 1. Classical Attitudes to Sexual Behaviour. (K. J. Dover). Source: Aristophanes′ Speech from Plato, Symposium 189d7–192a1. 2. Double–Consciousness in Sappho′s Lyrics. (J. J. Winkler). Sources: Sappho 1 and 31; Homer, Iliad 5.114–132; Odyssey 6.139–85. 3. Bound to Bleed. Artemis and Greek Women. (H. King). Excerpts: Hippocrates, On Unmarried Girls; Euripides, Hippolytus 59–105. 4. Playing the Other: Theater, Theatricality, and the Feminine in Greek Drama. (F. Zeitlin). Sources: Sophocles, Women of Trachis 531–587, 1046–1084; Euripides, Bacchae 912–944. Part II: Rome. 5. The Silent Women of Rome. (M. I. Finley). Sources: Funerary Inscriptions: CE 81.1–2, 158.2, 843, 1136.3–4; ILS 5213, 8402, 8394; CIL 1.1211, 1.1221, 1.1837. 6. The Body Female and the Body Politic. Livy′s Lucretia and Verginia. S. R. Joshel. Sources: Livy, On the Founding of Rome, 1.57.6–59.6. 7. Mistress and Metaphor in Augustan Elegy.(M. Wyke). Excerpts: Propertius, 1.8a–b and 2.5; Cicero, In Defense of Marcus Caelius 20.47–21.50. 8. Pliny′s Brassiere. Source: Pliny, Natural History 28.70–82. Part III: Classical Tradition. 10. "The Voice of the Shuttle Is Ours." (Patricia Klindienst). Source: Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.424–623. Bibliography. Index

Laura K. McClure is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Her books include Spoken Like a Woman: Speech and Gender in Athenian Drama (1999), and an edited volume, Making Silence Speak: Women′s Voices in Greek Literature and Society (co–ed. with Andre Lardinois, 2001). She has also published articles on Athenian tragedy, the classical tradition and ancient gender studies. Her current research focuses on the representation of courtesans in second sophistic literature.