Bisexuality in the Ancient World - Hardcover

Cantarella, Eva

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300048440 ISBN 13: 9780300048445

Publisher: Yale University Press, 1992

Synopsis

Bisexuality was intrinsic to the cultures of the ancient world. In both Greece and Rome, same gender sexual relationships were acknowledged, and those between men were not only tolerated but widely celebrated in literature and art. Nor for Greeks and Romans was homosexuality an exclusive choice, but alternative to and sometimes concurrent with the love of the opposite sex.
Whilst exploring aspects of the female condition in Classical antiquity, Eva Cantarella came to understand that the sheer ubiquity of male homosexuality had a fundamental impact on relationships between men and women. Drawing on the full range of surviving sources - legal texts, inscriptions, medical documents, poetry and philosophical literature - she now reconstructs the homosexual cultures of Greece and Rome and provides a full, readable and thought-provoking history of bisexuality in the Classical age.
Cantarella explores the psychological, social and cultural mechanisms that determined sexual choice and consider: the extent to which that choice was free, directed or coerced in each civilization. In Greece the relationship between adults and youngs[sic] boys was deemed the noblest of associations, a means of education and spiritual exhaltation[sic]. Cantarella reveals that such relationships, though highly regulated and never left to individual spontaneity, were more than pedagogic and platonic: they were fully carnal. In Imperial Rome, however, the sexual ethic mirrored the political and males were cruelly domineering in love as in war. The critical sexual distinction was that between active and passive, the victims commonly being slaves or defeated enemies, rather than young Roman freemen.
In terms of female bisexuality, accounts of love between Roman women were transmitted exclusively by men. In Greece, however, women had Sappho to give them voice. Cantarella examines the activities of the thiasoi - Greek communities of women - and reveals that their ritual ceremonies also embraced passionate love.
Cantarella explains how the etiquette of bisexuality was corrupted over time and how, influenced by pagan and Judeo-Christian traditions, homosexuality came to be regarded as an unnatural act. Her interpretation goes further than any previous study, claiming not only that homosexuality was common, but that for Greeks of both genders it constituted true love.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"Cantarella presents the ancient evidence in a straightforward fashion, draws insightful comparisons between heterosexuality and homosexuality, and elucidates the larger cultural context of erotic experience. With its wide scope the book speaks to the classicist, the layman with an interest in antiquity, the student of sexuality, and even the unabashed seeker of piquant anecdotes." —John F. Makowski, Classical Journal "An important study that is destined to take its place next to the classic works of Foucault and Pomeroy."— Alan Mendelson, History: Reviews of New Books "Offers a valuable, close-in reassessment of intricate evidence, freshly researched, readable, and open- minded."—Alan Sinfield, Gay Times "This is a book I recommend for all students of sexology."—Milton Diamond, Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality "Easily the best book on the topic."—John Buckler, Historian "A valuable contribution to scholarship about sexual orientation."—Richard C. Friedman, Psychoanalytic Quarterly "A sexological tour de force. . . . Among students and professionals with even a minimum of sexological curiosity, it will strike a new spark of enlightenment."—John Money, Ph.D., Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease "Cantarella's work, based on classical sources, points up the multiplicity of possible social and cultural solutions to the underlying problem of bisexual trends in men. . . . [It] shows us that every society struggles to formulate ways in which order and complexity of human sexuality and thus places our current American efforts within a far larger perspective of human history."—Jessica P. Byrne, M.D., Psychoanalytic Books: A Quarterly Journal of Reviews "Eva Cantarella's cultural history of bisexuality in the ancient world . . . is an intriguing and accessible study that draws upon a wide range of primary texts and sources. . . . A fascinating account of the multi- layered nature of bisexuality in ancient times."—Paul Johnson, Pink Paper "Ambitious, learned, and thought-provoking. . . . The author displays an impressive command of a wide range of primary and secondary sources, and writes with blessed clarity."—Charles C. Chiasson, Southern Humanities Review

About the Author

Eva Cantarella is professor in the Institute of Roman Law at the University of Milan. Cormac O’Cuilleanain is lecturer in Italian at Trinity College, Dublin.

Edition details

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0300048440
• ISBN 13: 9780300048445
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 296