Reviews for Sexual life in ancient Greece

The average rating for Sexual life in ancient Greece based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-07-23 00:00:00 Christopher J Mahan I used to work for the Ares Press and functioned as an editor of their vetted journal, The Ancient World. The company moved to Golden, Colorado, ending my connection with it, but has recently returned to the Chicago area. I have begun writing book reviews for the journal again. In preparation for this I've started reading books of ancient history again, starting with this one, Sexual Life in Ancient Greece, by "Hans Licht" (actually, Professor Paul Brandt). If you're looking for something salacious or arousing, this isn't it. Written in the early thirties, the author is careful about what he includes, occasionally switching into the Greek or Latin, even referring to medical texts for further information. Or, just perhaps, the ancient Greeks weren't to modern tastes. I certainly found nothing in this dry compendium erotically stimulating. The scope of the book is from Homer to the late Hellenistic with some Latin writers thrown in when the author thinks their testimony relevant. The area covered is not so much Greece as the Greek-speaking and -writing worlds of the period. Brandt knows his stuff. One gets the impression that he'd read all the classics (still a doable task--given a few years) and sat in a book-lined study, occasionally checking references, but mostly working from memory. The notes are good. There is an agenda here. Brandt wasn't too happy with the Christians, particularly his (probably fellow) Protestants, repressing the Greek aesthetic and pedagogical ideal. And that, like Jaeger's Paideia, is what his focus is--what we moderns refer to as Platonic love. There is actually very little about perversions in this book, the author asserting that the Greeks, comfortable with bisexuality in particular and with eroticism in general, didn't have cause to practice them to any appreciable extent. Finally, a caveat: This book is not only dry and scholarly, but it is basically just organized lists with (usually) short quotations. There is very little analysis or reflection. For a more sociological approach look into E. Canterella.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-12-29 00:00:00 Keith Shaw Using literary, historical and artistic evidence, Licht presents a detailed picture of sexual life in Ancient Greece. He reviews marriage and the life of women, the human figure, festivals, theatre, dances, games and meals, religion and the erotic, greek literature, prostitution and the services provided by the Hetairaea and the position of male homosexuality in Greek life.