Sex and Difference in Ancient Greece and Rome (Edinburgh Readings on the Ancient World)

This volume collects and introduces some of the best writing on sexual behaviour and gender differences in ancient Greece and Rome including four chapters newly translated from German and French. For centuries discussions of sexuality and gender in the ancient world, if they took place at all, focussed on how the roles and spheres of the sexes were divided. While men occupied the public sphere of the community, ranged through the Greek and Roman worlds and participated in politics, courts, theatre and sport, women kept to the home. Sex occupied a separate sphere, in scholarly terms restricted to specialists in ancient medicine. And then the subjects were transformed, first by Sir Kenneth Dover, then by Michel Foucault. This book charts and illustrates the extraordinary evolution of scholarly investigation of a once hidden aspect of the ancient world. In doing so it sheds light on fascinating and curious aspects of ancient lives and thought. -- Back cover.