Free Delivery Over $100
|
|
|||
|
||||
OverviewEros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality is a controversial book that lays bare the meanings Greeks gave to sex. Contrary to the romantic idealization of sex dominating our culture, the Greeks saw eros as a powerful force of nature, potentially dangerous, and in need of control by society: Eros the Destroyer, not Cupid the Insipid, fired the Greek imagination. The destructiveness of eros can be seen in Greek imagery and metaphor, and in the Greeks' attitudes toward women and homosexuals. Images of love as fire, disease, storms, insanity, and violence, Top 40 song cliches for us, locate eros among the unpredictable and deadly forces of nature. The beautiful Aphrodite embodies the alluring danger of sex, while femmes fatales like Pandora and Helen represent the risky charms of female sexuality. And homosexuality typifies for the Greeks the frightening power of an indiscriminate appetite that threatens the stability of culture itself. In Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality, Bruce Thornton offers a uniquely sweeping and comprehensive account of ancient sexuality free of currently fashionable theoretical jargon and pretentions. In its conclusions the book challenges the distortions of much recent scholarship on Greek sexuality. And throughout it links the wary attitudes of the Greeks to our present-day concerns about love, sex, and family. What we see, finally, are the origins of some of our own views as well as a vision of sexuality that is perhaps more honest and mature than our own dangerous illusions. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Bruce S ThorntonPublisher: Taylor & Francis Inc Imprint: Westview Press Inc Edition: New edition Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.80cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.430kg ISBN: 9780813332260ISBN 10: 0813332265 Pages: 300 Publication Date: 13 February 1998 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: To order  Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us. Table of ContentsPreface -- A Note on Translation -- Introduction: “Custom the King of All” -- The “Controlless Core” -- The “Tyrant of Gods and Men” -- The Golden Child of the Bloody Foam -- Pandora’s “Foul Tribe of Women” -- Monsters of Appetite -- The “Fancied Sway” -- Taming the Beasts -- Erotic Technology -- Wives and the Order of the House -- Eros the Pedagogue -- Conclusion: Dissing Eros and Aphrodite -- AbbreviationsReviewsA potentially interesting study of ancient Greek sexuality sinks in the rough seas of antifeminist diatribe. At first Thornton (Classics/Calif. State Univ., Fresno) is merely pedantic, offering a welter of examples to support his point that the Greeks believed eros, or sexual desire, was a powerful, dangerous force of nature. He becomes almost interesting in noting that our sentimental dead metaphors of love as fire, disease, and insanity originated in vivid Greek images (and fears) of the destructive power of eros. However, once Thornton starts trying to show that Greek hatred of women was an expression of a legitimate fear of eros, he reveals himself to be less an objective scholar than an apologist for Greek misogyny. He snipes at the cheap moral superiority of our smug twentieth century in refusing to recognize that the power of women was the power of eros. His arguments would be offensive were they not so silly: In proposing Marilyn Monroe as the image of the sexually powerful woman in opposition to the models in Victoria's Secret catalogs with their boyish hips, he seems to be elevating a personal preference into an intellectual analysis of sexual imagery in the late 20th century. After similarly confused explorations of Greek marriage, homosexuality, and philosophy, Thornton concludes that the Greeks were wiser than we in distrusting eros and trying to control it through such rational institutions as patriarchy. With a breathtaking lack of supporting material, he asserts that our deviation from their ideas about sex is responsible for contemporary illegitimacy . . . crime, random violence, poverty, and social barbarism. This book loses sight of its valid points in a fumbling attempt to imitate the contrarian Camille Paglia (whom Thornton cites as a model ). And when he fingers eros as the true culprit in Susan Smith's drowning of her two children, he leaves the reader wondering whether he, and his Greeks, are incapable of attributing to women other passions (e.g., maternal) than sexual ones. (Kirkus Reviews) Author InformationBruce S. Thornton is professor of classics and chairman of the Department of Foreign Languages at California State University at Fresno. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
||||
