GENDER & SEXUALITY: ANCIENT & MODERN

CLSX 350/ HWC 380

TR 2:30 - 3:50 PM, Blake 203

John G. Younger
Wescoe 2110
Office Hours: M & W 1:00-3:00 and by appointment
864-3263
email: jyounger@ku.edu

last update: 25 April 2003

Textbooks

• Laura Mcclure, Sexuality and Gender in the Classical World. Oxford: Blackwells 2002. ISBN: 063122589
• John R. Clarke, Looking at Lovemaking. Berkeley: University of California Press 1998. ISBN 0520229045
• Keuls, The Reign of the Phallus -- read continuously throughout the semester
• Aristophanes, "Lysistrata"

In addition, I have placed the required readings of journal articles on e-reserves.

And I have placed a few books on Watson Reserve for consultation.

Click & hold to open in a new window here for help with citations of articles, books, etc.

Click & hold to open in a new window here for information about plagiarism and how to avoid it.

This course uses gender and sexuality to sketch out a picture of ancient Greek and Roman societies against which we will also examine our own society. After a short introduction to the major concepts, there will be lectures (some slide lectures) and class discussions on topics like the following: age grades & rites of passage; childhood & adulthood; marriage; conception, birth, infanticide; the family; love; male homosexuality; female sexuality & the extant women poets; women & property; and sex & politics.

Since I am writing a book for Routledge Press, Encyclopedia of Sexuality in the Ancient World, I shall need help, especially with Roman topics.

Consequently, I shall want from each student a set of encyclopedia-style (brief and factual) entries (no more than 1 or 1 and a half pages each) on topics either drawn from a list of suggestions or relevant to the student's own interests.

Each student will present a report on these topics in class (8 (T) & 10 (Th) & 15 (T) Apr), as well as in electronic form (email submission, diskette) by the date of the Final Exam (14 May [W], 1:30-4:00).

There will also be a Midterm (27 February) and a Final Exam (optional: 14 May [W], 1:30-4:00).

For a chronological outline of Greek History, click & hold to open in a new window.

For a chronological outline of Greek Art & Archaeology, click & hold to open in a new window.

LECTURE TOPICS & READINGS

JANUARY

16 Jan (Th): Introduction to the course: requirements, overview of the topics

Readings for the NEXT topic ("terminology & theory")

Required Readings

Textbooks

McClure, Introduction, pp. 1-15.

Clarke, chap. 1 ("Cultural Construction of Sexuality")

E-Reserves (Read Ortner & Rich, and read 1 in the next section)

Ortner, Sherry B, "Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?" Feminist Studies 1 (1972) 5-21

Rich, Adrienne, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence," Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 5.4 (Summer 1980) 631-660

Bamberger, Joan, "The Myth of Matriarchy: Why Men Rule in Primitive Society" in Rosaldo & Lamphere, Women, Culture and Society (Stanford, 1974) 263-280

Scott, J, "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis," American Historical Review 91 (1986) 1053-1075

Younger, John G. 1997. "Gender and Sexuality in the Parthenon Frieze." In: C. Lyons and A. Koloski-Ostrow eds., Naked Truths. Women, Sexuality, and Gender in Classical Art and Archaeology (Routledge, London 1997) 120-53

Younger, John G. 2001 (2001). "Waist Compression in the Preclassical Aegean," Archaeological News 23 (1998-2000) 1-9

Books on Perkins Reserve (for consultation)

Posner, Richard A., Sex and Reason, esp. chaps. 1, 2, 5, 11.

Nussbaum, Martha, "Essay: Platonic Love and Colorado Law: The Relevance of Ancient Greek Norms to modern Sexual Controversies," Virginia Law Review 80 (1994) 1515-1651.

21 Jan (T): Terminology ("sex" & "gender"), Theory

Readings for the NEXT topic ("social relationships")

Required Readings

Textbooks

Clarke, chap. 5 ("Sex and the Body of the Other")

Clarke, chaps. 6 & 7 ("Display of Erotica in Houses, in Public Bldgs")

Keuls, chap. 8, "Two Kinds of Women"

E-Reserves (Read Frontisi-Ducroux & Gould)

Frontisi-Ducroux, Françoise. 1996. "Eros, Desire, and the Gaze," in: Kampen, Natalie B. ed. 1996. Sexuality in Ancient Art (Cambridge 1996): 81-100

Gould, J, "Law, Custom and Myth: Aspects of the Social Position of Women in Classical Athens," Journal of Hellenic Studies 100 (1980) 38-59

Recommended Readings

Golden, Mark, "Slavery and Homosexuality at Athens," Phoenix 38 (1984) 308-324

Littman, R.J., "Kinship in Athens," Ancient Society 10 (1979) 5-31

Keuls, "Two Kinds of Women" (on E-Reserves)

Books on Perkins Reserve (for consultation)

23 Jan (Th): Social Relationships among the Sexes

Readings for the NEXT topic ("sex & sexual activities")

Required Readings

Textbooks

McClure, chap. 1 (Dover, Kenneth J., "Classical Greek Attitudes to Sexual Behavior," Arethusa 6, 1973, 59-83, and selections from Plato's Symposion)

Clarke, chaps. 2, 4, 8 ("Grk & Hell. Constructions of Lovemaking;" "Reps of Male-to-Female Lovemaking;" "Spread of Sexual Imagery")

Blackboard Documents

Younger, John G. "Sexual Activities," from Sexuality A-Z: an Encyclopedia in prepartion for Routledge.

E-Reserves

Aristotle, "Problems" book

28 (T) Jan: Sex and Sexual Activities

Readings for the NEXT topic ("male homosexuality")

Required Readings

Textbooks

Clarke, chap. 3 ("Reps of Male-to-Male Lovemaking")

Blackboard, "Course Documents"

JG Younger, "An Outline of Ancient Greek Homoeroticism"

E-Reserves (Read 1 from Each Colored Section)

Bremmer, Jan, "Greek Pederasty and Modern Homosexuality," From Sappho to de Sade. Moments in the History of Sexuality, edited by Jan Bremmer (London: Routledge 1989) 1-14

Dover, Kenneth J., "Greek Homosexuality and Initiation." In: KJ Dover ed., The Greeks and their Legacy: Collected Papers, vol. 2: Prose Literature, History, Society, Transmission, Influence (Oxford University Press, Oxford 1988) 115-134

Bremmer, Jan, "An Enigmatic Indo-European Rite: Paederasty," Arethusa 13 (1980), 279-98.

Halperin, D.M., "Sex Before Sexuality: Pederasty, Politics, and Power in Classical Athens" in M. Duberman, et al., eds., Hidden from History (Meridian 1989) 37-53

Cartledge, P., "The Politics of Spartan Pederasty," Cambridge Philological Society, Proceedings 27 (1981) 17-36

MacMullen, "Roman Attitudes to Greek Love," Historia 31 (1982) 484-502.

Veyne, Paul. "Homosexuality in Ancient Rome," Western Sexuality: Practice and Precept in Past and Present Times, edited by Philippe Ariès and André Béjin (trans.; Blackwell, Oxford 1985) 26-35.

30 (Th) Jan & 4 (T) Feb: Male Homosexuality: "paiderasteia"

Readings for the NEXT topic ("male nudity & athletics")

Required Readings

E-Reserves (Read McDonnell & Winkler, and read 1 from each of the 2 colored sections)

McDonnell, M., "The Introduction of Athletic Nudity: Thucydides, Plato, and the Vases," Journal of Hellenic Studies 102 (1992) 182-193

Winkler, John J., "Laying Down the Law: The Oversight of Men's Sexual Behavior in Classical Athens", in: Winkler, John J., The Constraints of Desire: The Antropology of Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece (Routledge, New York 1990): 45-70

Osborne, Robin, "Men Without Clothes: Heroic Nakedness and Greek Art," Gender and History 9.3 (November 1997) 504-28.

Crowther, N.B., "Male 'Beauty' Contests. The Euandria and Euaxia," L'Antiquité Classique 54 (1985) 285-91.

Walters, Jonathan. "Invading the Roman Body: Manliness and Impenetrability in Roman Thought," Roman Sexualities, edited by Hallett and Skinner (1997), 29-43.

Crowther, N.B., "Nudity and Morality. Athletics in Italy," Classical Journal 76 (1980-1) 119-23

FEBRUARY

6 (Th) Feb: Male Nudity & Athletics

Readings for the NEXT topic ("women, women's bodies, prostitution")

Required Readings

Textbooks

McClure, chap. 3 (King, Helen, "Bound to Bleed: Artemis and Greek Women," in: Cameron, Averil, and Amelie Kuhrt, A, eds., Images of Women in Antiquity (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1983): 109-27, and selections from the Hippocratic corpus, and Euripides)

McClure, chap. 6 (Joshel, S.R., "The Body Female and the Body Politic")

On-line: Homeric Hymn to Demeter

E-Reserves (Read at least 3 articles, each one from a different colored section)

Dean-Jones, Lesley Ann, "The Cultural Construct of the Female Body in Classical Greek Science," in S.B. Pomeroy ed., Women's History and Ancient History (Chapel Hill: UNC Press 1991) 111-31

Lange, L, "Woman is Not a Rational Animal: On Aristotle's Biology of Reproduction" in S. Harding & MB Hintikka, eds., Discovering Reality: Feminist Perspectives on Epistemology, Metaphysics, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science (Dordrecht, Amsterdam 1983) 1-15

Lissarrague, François, "Women, Boxes, Containers: Some Signs and Metaphors," in: Reeder, Ellen D. ed., Pandora. Women in Classical Greece (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1995): 91-101

Reeder, E.D., "Women as Containers," in: Reeder, Ellen D. ed., Pandora. Women in Classical Greece (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1995): 195-99.

Kurke, Leslie. 1997. "Inventing the Hetaira: Sex, Politics, and Discursive Conflict in Archaic Greece," Classical Antiquity 16 (1997): 106-50.

McGarry, Jane, "The Athenian Prostitute," Pegasus (University of Exeter Classical Society Magazine) 32 (1989) 21-7

Bonfante, Larisa, "Excursus: Etruscan Women," in: Fantham, Elaine, Helene Peet Foley, Natalie Boymel Kampen, Sarah B. Pomeroy, and H.A. Shapiro. 1994. Women in the Classical World. Image and Text (New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994): 243-259

Cartledge, P., "Spartan Wives: Liberation or License?" Classical Quarterly 31 (1981) 84-105

D'Ambra, Eve. 1996. "The Calculus of Venus: Nude Portraits of Roman Matrons," in: Kampen, Natalie B. ed. 1996. Sexuality in Ancient Art (Cambridge 1996): 219-32

Stewart, Andrew, F. 1996. "Reflections," in Natalie Kampen, ed., Sexuality in Ancient Art (Cambrdige: Cambridge University Press 1996) 136-54.

Wiltshire, D.C.S., "Roman Aids to Beauty," History Today 29 (1979) 332-35

Wyke, Maria. 1994. "Woman in the Mirror: The Rhetoric of Adornment in the Roman World," Women in Ancient Societies: An Illusion of the Night, edited by Léonie J. Archer, Susan Fischler, and Maria Wyke (New York: Routledge 1994): 134-51.

11 (T), 13 (Th) & 18 (T) Feb: Women, Women's Bodies, Prostitution

Readings for the NEXT topic ("female homosexuality")

Required Readings

Textbooks

McClure, chap. 2 (Winkler, John J., "Double Consciousness in Sappho's Lyrics", in: Winkler, John J., The Constraints of Desire (Routledge, New York 1990): 4162-87, and 2 poems from Sappho, passages from Iliad and Odyssey)

McClure, chap. 4 (Zeitlin, Froma I., "Playing the Other")

McClure, chap. 9 (Joplin, P.K., "The Voice of the Shuttle is Ours")

E-Reserves (Read the poems and 1 article in the brown section)

Younger, John G. Select poems by Sappho and Nossis

Younger, John G. 2001. "Women in Relief: 'Double Consciousness' in Classical Tombstones." In: Nancy S. Rabinowitz and Lisa Auanger eds., From the Homosocial to the Homoerotic: Women's Relations to Women in Antiquity (University of Texas Press, Austin 2001) 167-210

Lardinois, Andre, "Lesbian Sappho and Sappho of Lesbos" in Jan Bremmer, From Sappho to de Sade: Moments in the History of Sexuality (Routledge, New York 1989) 15-35

Chauncey, George, "From Sexual Inversion to Homosexuality: Medicine and the Changing Conceptualization of Female Deviance," Salmagundi 58-59 (1982-3) 134

Hallett, Judith, "Female Homoeroticism and the Denial of Roman Reality in Latin Literature," Yale Journal of Criticism 3 (1989) 209-27

Recommended Readings

Castelli, Elizabeth A., David Halperin, Ann Pellegrini, Ken Stone, Deirdre Good, and Natalie Boymel Kampen. "Lesbian Historiography before the Name?" GLQ: Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 4 (1998) 557-630.

Williams, Hector, "Secret Rites of Lesbos," Archaeology 47 (1994) 34-40

20 (Th), 25 (T) Feb: Female Homosexuality: "tribades," the Extant Women Poets

Readings for the NEXT topic ("rape to divorce")

Required Readings

E-Reserves (Read Sutton, and 2 articles from the brown section)

Sutton, Robert F., "On the Classical Athenian Wedding," Daidalikon: Studies in Memory of Raymond V. Schoder, edited by R.F. Sutton (Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci 1989): pp-pp

Cary, Christopher, "Rape and Adultery in Athenian Law," Classical Quarterly 45 (1995) 407-417

Brown, P.G., "Love and Marriage in Greek New Comedy," Classical Quarterly 43 (1993) 184-205

Walcott, P., "Romantic Love and True Love: Greek Attitudes to Marriage," Ancient Society 18 (1987) 5-33

Patterson, C.B., "Marriage and the Married Woman in Athenian Law," in S.B. Pomeroy, ed., Women's History, and Ancient History (1991), 48-72

Treggiari, Susan, "Digna condicio. Betrothals in the Roman Upper Class," Echos du Monde Classiqe 38 (1984) 419-51

Treggiari. 1994. "Putting the Bride to Bed," Echos du Monde Classique/Classical Views 13: 311-31.

27 (Th) Feb: Midterm

MARCH

4 (T) & 6 (Th) Mar: Rape, Marriage, Love, Adultery, Divorce

Readings for the NEXT topic ("birth to death")

Required Readings

Textbooks

McClure, chap. 5, Finley, M.I., "The Silent Women of Rome"

E-Reserves (Read Hansen & Laale, and 2 more articles, each from a different colored section)

Hanson, A.E. , "Conception, Gestation, and the Origin of Female Nature in the Corpus Hippocraticum," Helios 19, 1992, 31-71

Laale, H. W., "Abortion in Greek Antiquity: Solon to Aristotle," Classical & Modern Literature 13 (1992-3) 157-66 & 191-202, and "Abortion in Roman Antiquity: Monarchy to Early Empire," Classical & Modern Literature 13 (1992-3) 297-308, and "Abortion in Roman Antiquity: The Later Empire," Classical & Modern Literature 14.1 (1992-3) ??

Engels, D., "The Problem of Female Infanticide in the Greco-Roman World," Classical Philology 75 (1980) 112-20

Pomeroy, Sarah B., "Infanticide in Hellenistic Greece," in: Cameron, Averil, and Amelie Kuhrt, A, eds., Images of Women in Antiquity (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1983): 207-221

Patterson, Cynthia, "'Not Worth the Rearing': The Causes of Infant Exposure in Ancient Greece," Transactions of the American Philological Association 115 (1985) 103-123

Cohn-Haft, Louis, "Divorce in Classical Athens," Journal of Hellenic Studies 115 (1995) 1-14

Treggiari, Susan. 1991. "Divorce Roman Style: How Easy and How Frequent Was It?," in Marriage, Divorce, and Children in Ancient Rome, edited by B. Rawson, Oxford (1991) 31-46

Hunter, Virginia. 1989. "The Athenian Widow and Her Kin," Journal of Family History 14.4: 291-311.

Bremmer, Jan, "The Old Women of Ancient Greece," Sexual Asymmetry: Studies in Ancient Society, edited by J. Blok and P. Mason (Amsterdam: Gieben 1987): 191-215

Finley, M.I., "The Elderly in Classical Antiquity," Greece & Rome 28 (1981) 156-71

Houdijk, Luc, and Paul Vanderbroeck, "Old Age and Sex in the Ancient Greek World," Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Wilhelm-Pieck-Universität 36 (1987) 57-61

Shapiro, H.A., "The Iconography of Mourning in Athenian Art," American Journal of Archaeology 95.4 (1991) 629-656

Stears, Karen. 1995. "Dead Women's Society: Constructing Female Gender in Classical Athenian Funeral Sculpture," Time, Tradition and Society in Greek Archaeology, edited by Nigel Spencer (London and New York: Routledge, 1995): 109-31.

Books on Perkins Reserve (for consultation)

Harrison, W, Law of Athens (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1968-71), esp. part I, chaps 1 & 2, "Marriage," and "Children"

11 (T) & 13 (Th) Mar: Birth, Conception, Contraception, Abortion, Death

Readings for the NEXT topic ("children & adolescents")

Required Readings

E-Reserves (Read all)

Beck, F.A., "The Schooling of Girls in Ancient Greece," Classicum. Joint Bulletin of the Classical Association of New South Wales and of the Latin Teachers Association of New South Wales 9 (April 1978) 1-9

Booth, A.D., "Douris' Cup and the Stages of Schooling in Classical Athens," Echos du Monde Classique 29 (1985) 274-80

Booth, A.D., "Elementary and Secondary Education in the Roman Empire," Florilegium 1 (1979) 1-14.

Amundsen, S.W., and C.J. Diers. "The Age of Menarche in Classical Greece and Rome," Human Biology 41 (1969) 124-32

Cole, Susan G, "The Social Function of Rituals of Maturation: the Koureion and the Arkteia," Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 22 (1984) 233-244

E. Eyben, "Family Planning in Graeco-Roman Antiquity," Ancient Society 11/12 (1980/1) 5-82