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5 - Discourses of Desire in Ancient Greece and Rome

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2024

By
Allison Glazebrook
Edited by
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks  and
Mathew Kuefler
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Mathew Kuefler
Affiliation:
San Diego State University
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Summary

This chapter presents an overview of key views on erotic desire and its management as well as common practices and norms in the Greek and Roman worlds from the seventh century BCE to the third century CE. No single canonical text or religious moral code existed that prescribed sexual relations. Instead, we rely on their rich textual and visual culture to reconstruct standards, attitudes, and practices. We know most about the sexuality of elite male citizens since most texts and visual objects were created by and for them. Gender and status were key components in any sexual relations, with the citizen male having the greatest access to partners: wives, sex labourers, other free men and boys, and enslaved people. Sexual virtue was expected of free citizen women and girls, but it may not have excluded sexual relations with other females, at least in the Greek world. The chapter surveys concepts of desire in literature (by genre) and sexual imagery in art (including male, female, and transgender bodies), and considers the everyday practices and experiences of sexuality for free, enslaved, elite, and non-elite. What emerges is a complex and even conflicting view of desire and sexual relations. Rather than a belief system, we more accurately talk about discourses of ancient sexualities.

Keywords

ancient GreeceRomenuditypederastyhomosexualitymarriagewomenintersexualityslaveryerotic art
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge World History of Sexualities , pp. 87 - 113
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Further Reading

Bing, Peter, and Cohen, Rip. Games of Venus: An Anthology of Greek and Roman Erotic Verse from Sappho to Ovid. New York: Routledge, 1991.Google Scholar
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