Sex is always paradoxical. On the one hand, it is one of the most natural activities in which human beings engage. Without sex, we wouldn't be here. We simply cannot live without it. On the other hand, sexuality has given rise to some of the most complex and taboo issues in the history of civilization. What counts as sex? Are same-sex relationships 'natural' or constructed? Why is sodomy considered a crime in one era and merely as a perversion or as titillating in the next? And what of pederasty? Why did the ancient Greeks socially and culturally sanction sexual activities that now seem to us to be abhorrent? Such critical questions lie at the heart of Daniel Orrells' bold and imaginative treatment of of ancient sexuality and its later reception. If the modern world is steeped in classical culture, says Orrells, it seems contrary to admire the intellectual and artistic heritage of ancient Greece while ignoring what now seem to us deeply problematic sexual practices. This divertingly readable book explores the contested relationships between ancient and modern ideas about sex and the erotic, encompassing homosexuality, paedophilia, auto-eroticism, cybersex and bestiality. Ranging from Sappho to Foucault, the author shows why the very definition of what sex is has changed radically between ancient and modern times.
About the Author
Daniel Orrells is Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick. He is the author of Classical Culture and Modern Masculinity (Oxford University Press, 2011).
Industry Reviews
It may seem that physical sex has no history. (The human race does it, and needs to do it, and has always done it.) But actually there is a real need to consider how the very conceptualization of sex itself has changed, with its different boundaries, constructions and anxieties. Daniel Orrells' intelligent, coherent and intellectually exciting book offers just such a consideration. He takes the somewhat stagnant debate about ancient sexuality in a wholly new and profitable direction, and in so doing gives the field a real shake-up. Orrells is an excellent scholar and writes with wit and verve. In placing the history of the sexual act alongside the ideology of the body, of the person and of agency, his important - but never self-important - book has the potential to break out to a very wide readership.' - Simon Goldhill, Professor of Greek Literature and Culture, University of Cambridge 'This is a spectacular book - learned, provocative, witty, highly readable and tightly argued. Daniel Orrells complicates and complements the arguments of Michel Foucault's History of Sexuality, showing that the sexual lives of the Greeks and Romans, however different from our own, are nonetheless central to modern notions of sexuality, sexual identity, and gender expression. Starting in the Renaissance, Orrells demonstrates that the reception of ancient Greek and Roman literature played a key role in the development of the psychoanalytic understanding of sexuality; that classical scholars, poets, and eventually nineteenth-century sexologists turned to "the classics" for vocabularies and methods of knowing about sex, and of thinking about sex as a form of knowing. This book is immensely informative and delightful to read, presenting complex debates in lucid, playful prose.' - Kirk Ormand, Professor of Classics, Oberlin College, author of Controlling Desires: Sexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome
