Sexuality in Ancient Greece Lgbt Studies Reading List

1978 book by Kenneth Dover

Greek Homosexuality

Comprehend of the beginning edition
Author	Kenneth Dover
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject	Homosexuality in ancient Greece
Publisher	Harvard University Printing
Publication date	1978
Media type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages	244
ISBN	0674362616
OCLC	3088711
LC Class	HQ76.three.G8 D68 1978

Greek Homosexuality (1978; 2d edition 1989; third edition 2016) is a volume nearly homosexuality in ancient Greece past the classical scholar Kenneth Dover, in which the author uses archaic and classical archaeological and literary sources to talk over aboriginal Greek sexual beliefs and attitudes. He addresses the iconography of vase paintings, the speeches in the law courts, and the comedies of Aristophanes, also as the content of other literary and philosophical source texts.

The first modern scholarly piece of work on its topic, Greek Homosexuality received some negative reviews only was enormously influential, helping to shape the views of other classicists. Dover has been praised for discussion of sexual practices such equally intercrural copulation.

Summary [edit]

In this detail from an Attic black-figure cup (ca. 530–520 BCE), a man makes an "upwardly-and-down" gesture.

In the preface Dover writes that the aim of the work is: "To describe those phenomena of homosexual behaviour and sentiment which are to be found in Greek art and literature between the eighth and second centuries B.C., and so to provide a basis for more detailed and specialised exploration (which I go out to others) of the sexual aspects of Greek art, society and morality."^[one] In the Preface he furthermore argued that 'heterosexual' and 'homosexual' were not antithetical terms, only that homosexuality was a sub-segmentation of the 'quasi-sexual' or 'pseudo-sexual'.^[1]

The conclusions drawn are that the Greeks regarded homosexuality in general to be natural, normal, and salutary, and their actual practices were confining by cultural norms. In the case of the ancient Greeks – specifically the Athenians – the volume claims that the sexual roles of the lovers were sharply polarized.

Dover concludes that the Greeks conceived of same-sex relations primarily equally intergenerational and identifies the terms for the roles of the two male lovers, erastes, "the lover," that is, the older active partner, and eromenos, "the dearest", indicating the adolescent male honey. Basing himself on the piece of work of Sir John Beazley, Dover divides the evidence of surviving vase painting depicting these type of relationships into iii types. Some show the erastes offering a gift to the eromenos. Others depict the "up and down" gesture – the erastes attempting to fondle the eromenos while, with the other hand, he is turning his head to await into his eyes. The third group, unremarkably older black-figure vases, show the couple engaging in interfemoral intercourse or, in a couple of instances, anal intercourse. Traditionally, the young dearest, when he reached the historic period of manhood – indicated in the iconography by his growth of a beard – would switch roles and go a lover himself, seeking out a younger male person for a love relationship. Later in life he was expected to ally and produce new citizens for the state.

To fail to switch roles was considered unmanly and irresponsible, and Dover points out the mockery that Aristophanes (a very popular and successful Athenian comic playwright) inflicted in passing, in several plays, on a certain Athenian citizen who was notorious for his persistence in the office of beloved long after reaching his maturity.

With regard to the record of cases in the law courts, Dover concentrates primarily on a sure case initiated past the orator Demosthenes. Demosthenes had been in an embassy sent to the neighboring state of Macedonia which had non simply failed to achieve its mission, just was widely suspected of having accepted bribes from king Phillip to abandon their mission. Upon the render to Athens, Demosthenes initiated a prosecution of his fellow ambassadors for bribery in an attempt to avoid existence indicted himself. The defendants successfully had the charges dismissed on the grounds that ane of Demosthenes' co-plaintiffs, Timarchos, had been a boy prostitute and had thereby lost his rights as an Athenian citizen, condign ineligible to bring suit in Athenian courts.

Dover extensively quotes from the records of the trial to demonstrate, among other things, that while the Athenians attached no stigma to same sex activity relations per se, they did adhere to certain conventions; in this case, that no citizen could exist permitted to sell his sexual favors, which they regarded every bit the proper function of a slave, not a free man.

Reception [edit]

Greek Homosexuality received some negative reviews.^[2] However, the book had an enormous impact on the study of homosexuality in ancient Hellenic republic, partly considering of Dover'southward credentials as an historian and a philologist.^[three] It influenced scholars such as the philosopher Michel Foucault, and the classicists David M. Halperin, John J. Winkler, and Eva Cantarella.^[4] Eva C. Keuls praised Dover for giving explicit discussions of subjects such as anal sex and intercrural copulation.^[5] The historian Peter Gay commended Greek Homosexuality as a "model of scholarship".^[6] The philosopher Roger Scruton dismissed Greek Homosexuality equally "trivialising".^[vii] Dover afterwards granted that some of his claims in the first edition of Greek Homosexuality about the meaning of Greek words had been wrong.^[8] He also commented that while he understood what Scruton meant when he called his work "trivialising", he was not affrighted, since he attached importance to phenomena Scruton ignores.^[ix]

Halperin chosen the work "the first mod scholarly report" of its bailiwick and "a triumph of empirical research", and identified information technology as one of the key intellectual influences on his One Hundred Years of Homosexuality (1990). Halperin argued that the publication of the piece of work in 1978, together with the advent of the English translation of Foucault'southward The History of Sexuality, marked the first of a new era in the report of the history of sexuality.^[10] The critic Camille Paglia disputed Halperin's label of Greek Homosexuality, observing that while it was a valuable book on Greek pederasty, it was not an "intellectual" work and aside from Dover's discussion of intercrural copulation contained relatively little that was surprising.^[eleven] Cantarella has criticized some of Dover'southward conclusions, last that at that place was no restriction on anal intercourse in pederastic relationships, a claim rejected by the classicist Bruce Thornton. Critical discussions of Dover'south piece of work include those by David Cohen in Law, Sexuality and Society (1991) and Thornton in Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality (1997).^[4] The philosopher Martha Nussbaum described Greek Homosexuality as the "best historical account of Greek sexual customs".^[12]

Greek Homosexuality was republished in a third edition, containing a foreword past Mark Masterson and James Robson discussing the volume and its influence, in 2016.^[thirteen]

References [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b} Dover, Kenneth James; Dover, Vice-Chancellor K. J. (1989). Greek Homosexuality. ISBN9780674362703.
2. ^ Halperin, David M. (1990). One Hundred Years of Homosexuality: And Other Essays on Greek Love . New York: Routledge. p. 5. ISBN0-415-90097-2.
3. ^ Halperin, David One thousand. (1990). One Hundred Years of Homosexuality: And Other Essays on Greek Dear . New York: Routledge. p. four. ISBN0-415-90097-2.
4. ^ ^{a b} Thornton, Bruce South. (1997). Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality . Bedrock, Colorado: Westview Press. pp. 256–258, 264. ISBN0-8133-3226-5.
5. ^ Keuls, Eva C. (1985). The Reign of the Phallus: Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 274. ISBN0-520-07929-9.
6. ^ Gay, Peter (1986). The Bourgeois Experience Victoria to Freud. Volume II: The Tender Passion. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 446. ISBN0-19-503741-3.
7. ^ Scruton, Roger (1994). Sexual Desire: A Philosophical Investigation. London: Phoenix. p. 308. ISBN1-85799-100-ane.
8. ^ Dover, Kenneth (1989). Greek Homosexuality. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 204. ISBN0-674-36270-5.
9. ^ Dover, Kenneth (1995). Marginal Annotate: A Memoir. London: Duckworth. p. 115. ISBN0-7156-2630-2.
10. ^ Halperin, David M. (1990). Ane Hundred Years of Homosexuality: And Other Essays on Greek Honey . New York: Routledge. pp. x, 4, 5. ISBN0-415-90097-ii.
11. ^ Paglia, Camille (1992). Sex, Fine art, and American Civilization: Essays. New York: Penguin Books. pp. 172–173. ISBN0-xiv-017209-two.
12. ^ Nussbaum, Martha (1997). Estlund, David M.; Nussbaum, Martha C. (eds.). Sexual practice, Preference, and Family unit: Essays on Law and Nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 39. ISBN0-xix-509894-iii.
13. ^ "GREEK HOMOSEXUALITY - Classics for All". Archived from the original on 2016-12-24.

Bibliography [edit]

• Dover, K. J. (1989). Greek Homosexuality. Harvard Academy Press. ISBN978-0674362703.

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Homosexuality_%28book%29

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