Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #322912 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 656 pages

QX INTERNATIONAL
'provocative and enthralling... fascinating and perplexing.'

Review
'This is an excellent book on an important subject.' (Oswyn Murray LITERARY REVIEW )

'a picture of sexuality among the ancient Greeks which is both familiar in some respects and radically new... with witty diversions... quite an achievement' (Joan Smith THE INDEPENDENT )

'an impressive study stuffed with juicy tidbits and meaty detail' (BOYZ )

'a long haul over strange terrain, spiky with fragments and pulsating with beautiful ghosts... massive work of research, reflection and surprise' (DAILY TELEGRAPH )

'a highly erudite work of social and cultural history, astonishingly wide-ranging... an extraordinary achievement, ranging far and wide... unpredictable and lateral-thinking... superb...' (Oliver Taplin THE GUARDIAN )

'Massively informed and informative ... vital and outstanding study.' (THE SPECTATOR )

'James Davidson's revisionist account emerges with winning charm from the bloodshed... a landmark in gay studies' (Tom Cameron TIME OUT )

'will be read by many people, and I predict a riot... real brilliance, and it is written throughout with flair and passion' (Simon Goldhill THES )

'fascinating, funny, decidedly comprehensive... entertaining and discursive' (GAY COMMUNITY NEWS )

'By turns lyrical, analytic and militant, this is a magnificently personal and self-reflexive book...' (Catharine Edwards TLS )

'Davidson, with his wit, range and learning is able to admit honestly the limitations of historical understanding, while never being less than fascinating.' (Christopher Hart THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )

'provocative and enthralling... fascinating and perplexing.' (QX INTERNATIONAL )

BOYZ
'an impressive study stuffed with juicy tidbits and meaty detail'

Customer Reviews

Great book
Definitive study of homosexuality in Ancient Greece, written beautifully by an academic who really knows his stuff but is able to communicate it clearly to the world at large. Fluid prose with a witty edge.

Too much personal investment?
James Davidson is a renowned classicist but sadly I feel that too much personal emotional investment in this topic has rather stilted or skewed his usual insightful readings. Romanticising the Greek ideal of elite masculine 'homosexuality' is not so much a reappraissal, I fear, as a throw-back to a more C19th view of the Greeks a la E.M.Forster et al who found a legitimisation of their own feelings.

I don't find the idea of male/male sex at all problematic but I don't feel that Davidson has added anything to the exemplary work already done (Winkler, Richlin etc)and elides too much of the politics of sex which is what makes classicial civilisation, Roman as well as Greek, both so fascinating and 'so good to think with'.

Always an erudite, witty and engaging writer, too much of this book was way too 'out there' (e.g. some of the readings of myth, Homer etc).

So overall I think this is an interesting book for the classical scholar aware of the debates and problems of uncovering ancient sexuality, but it is perhaps too misleading in its conclusions to the average interested reader.

confusing and far too long
Davidson's previous book (Fishcakes and Courtesans) was one of the best things ever written on the Ancient World. By contrast, this one should have had the serious attentions of an editor, who would, first of all, have reduced its length by at least half. And then controlled Davidson's runaway propensity for slang terms, neologisms and typographical innovations, all of which are confusing and irritating. I do now believe I have read the whole book (to do so from cover to cover in the order it is written is impossible) but I am still not clear what he is trying to say: was homosexuality the accepted norm in ancient Greece or not? It seems, reading between the lines, that Davidson thinks it wasn't (in the earlier book, he says so more clearly), but then, what is he trying to say? As far as I can see, only that certain sorts of male-male relationships (not necessarily physical) were ritualized, in different ways in different places (big deal), and that some cities even had to pass legislation fobidding the condemnation of homosexuality (a gay lobby at work, even then).
The first one-third of the book is an entertaining read. After that, it's something for professional classicists only.