Sunday, March 14, 2010

Sexual Life in Ancient Greece

"The author of many books on the Greek classical age, Mr. Dover was known in particular for “Greek Homosexuality” (Duckworth, 1978). It was the first openly published scholarly work to talk about Greek male love in unfettered sexual terms. (A few earlier books on the subject had been privately published and were little known as a result.)" That is so wrong and inaccurate. The first real comprehensive study of sexual life in general in ancient Greece is the massive and impressive volume by Hans Licht (a pseudonym at the time due to the daring content) in 1930s titled Sexual Life in Ancient Greece. But then again, why do you expect what you read in the New York Times to be accurate?