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Images of Ancient Greek Pederasty; 'Boys were their Gods' | 
 enlarge | Authors: Andrew Lear, Eva Cantarella
Publisher: Routledge
Category: Book
List Price: £65.00
Buy New: £61.49
You Save: £3.51 (5%)
New (4) Used (5) from £61.43
Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 131287
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 0415223679
Dewey Decimal Number: 738.3820938
EAN: 9780415223676
ASIN: 0415223679
Publication Date: June 1, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New Item. Direct Delivery from UK in 2 - 3 working days.
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| Customer Reviews:
Fascinating Study of an Important and Misunderstood Subject June 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Lear and Cantarella have produced a great cross-over volume. They
make a serious contribution to the scholarship on gender and sexuality
in the ancient world; at the same time, their book is accessible to
the general reader curious about sex and gender or ancient Greek
culture and art. The study of same-sex love in the ancient Greek
world was fundamental to the birth of modern gender studies, and from
the beginning scholars have acknowledged that artistic evidence is as
important to this area as literary evidence; the scenes on painted
vases have always been considered particularly important. Most
scholarship in the area has, however, focused on literary sources
(Plato, Aristophanes, etc.), and even when visual evidence has been
used, it has generally been interpreted simplistically, as if art
portrayed social reality directly. This richly illustrated volume is
the first general introduction to scenes of same-sex love in
vase-painting. It gathers all the different types of scenes and
explains how this artistic genre portrays same-sex love through its
own language of repeated elements. It argues (quietly) that
vase-painting portrays pederasty (the erotic relations between adult
men and adolescent youths that were customary in the Greek world) as a
central part of the life of ideal elite males; other types of
male-male love, when they appear, are portrayed, by contrast, as comic
and ugly.
The book rarely engages explicitly in scholarly debate, though it does
so occasionally, as when Lear briefly disproves the common idea that
vase-painting portrays pederastic courtship, metaphorically, as a kind
of hunt. Instead it responds to other scholars in a subtler way, for
instance by focusing less on the relatively rare scenes of consummated
sex that dominate scholarly discussion and more on the much more
common scenes of courtship. The result is a book that provides the
average, interested reader with a fascinating introduction both to
Greek pederasty and to the interpretation of the scenes on the painted
vases that fill the Classical rooms in every art museum. I have only
a few complaints. Although scenes of female same-sex love are
extremely rare in vase-painting, it might be nice if the authors at
least discussed them briefly: the Greeks many not have seen any
connection between female-female love and pederasty, but for a modern
reader, they are part of the same phenomenon. Also, it will be a pity
if this book does not come out in paperback. It could interest a
large market, but at the hardcover price many of us will have to read
it in the library.
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