Sex and Difference in Ancient Greece and Rome
Mark Golden and Peter Toohey
Abstract
This book collects and introduces some of the writing on sexual behaviour and gender differences in ancient Greece and ancient Rome, including four chapters translated from German and French. For centuries, discussions of sexuality and gender in the ancient world, if they took place at all, focussed on how the roles and spheres of the sexes were divided. While men occupied the public sphere of the community, ranged through the Greek and Roman worlds and participated in politics, courts, theatre and sport, women kept to the home. Sex occupied a separate sphere, in scholarly terms restricted to ... More
This book collects and introduces some of the writing on sexual behaviour and gender differences in ancient Greece and ancient Rome, including four chapters translated from German and French. For centuries, discussions of sexuality and gender in the ancient world, if they took place at all, focussed on how the roles and spheres of the sexes were divided. While men occupied the public sphere of the community, ranged through the Greek and Roman worlds and participated in politics, courts, theatre and sport, women kept to the home. Sex occupied a separate sphere, in scholarly terms restricted to specialists in ancient medicine. And then the subjects were transformed, first by Sir Kenneth Dover, then by Michel Foucault. The book charts and illustrates the evolution of scholarly investigation of a once-hidden aspect of the ancient world. In so doing, it sheds light on aspects of ancient lives and thought.
Keywords:
sexual behaviour,
gender differences,
ancient Greece,
ancient Rome,
sexuality,
gender,
ancient world,
public sphere,
community,
home
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2003 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780748613199 |
| Published to Edinburgh Scholarship Online: March 2012 |
DOI:10.3366/edinburgh/9780748613199.001.0001 |
