Daniel H. Garrison's Sexual Culture in Ancient Greece is an interesting discussion of various aspects of Ancient Greek sexual culture.
Much of the discussion revolves around sexual religious practice, sexual reference and innendo in poular media, like the plays and the written culture and art.
The transition to a more sexualized culture, and the various forms it took is well discussed. There are good discussion of homosexuality and the role it played in ancient Greek culture, and in the role it played in the patriarchial nature of the society. He also has interesting things to say about pederasty and the roles it played in initiating young males in to the Greek political and social culture. There is also a good discussion of the transition around the time of the rise of Christianity of a move away from a sexual culture, to a desexualized culture in Greece.
There is also some good stuff on the nude as an art form, and the role women played in the erotic structure.
The book has plenty of interesting pictures of pottery, sculptures and other ancient kncknacks that are very germane. If this sort of stuff is up your alley, this was not a bad book.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
You know, Shoah, anal isn't as bad as they say it is.
More over, it has been said that the male version of teh G-spot (the prostate gland) is best reached anally.
Unfortunately, a lot of straight men are uptight about anal play. That really needs to change, more for their sake than mine, of course.
At the same time, there are Human Sexuality classes and whoel Classics departments that deconstruct the history and culture of ancient Rome and Greece. a book such as teh one Karl describes might be part of teh required reading for such a class, especially considering how integral homosexuality was in Ancient Greek culture.
Post a Comment