But if you have a couple of books or continuing ed course down already, give it a shot. Just be warned that he likes to write in omegas and taus and stuff.
If you can get through the first chapter on Greek attitudes towards food, especially bread, and gluttony without tossing this out a window, you are in for a real treat. The book brings a strange, foreign people to life. And somehow gives me hope for democracy.
Janna G. I read a review on Goodreads that called this book dull and densely written. Doubtless this person took the book's base subject matter of seafood and prostitutes at face value, expecting a cheeky popular history for the casual reader. That is not at all what this is. I'm so glad I didn't let myself be put off of it by that review, choosing to trust that my pre-existing knowledge of ancient Athenian customs, culture, and developmental history would carry me through.
This book was incredible, a truly breathtaking and thought-provoking work of scholarship on the Athenian psyche as relates to pleasure, indulgence, and its broader social impacts. Through examining the underlying anxiety constantly simmering below the surface of Athens' otherwise unapologetically pleasure-seeking society, Davidson draws an unwavering line from the obsession with eating fish all the way to the collapse of democracy—the inevitable outcome, in the eyes of the ancients, when men are unwilling or unable to temper their appetites for food, wine, women, boys, and power.
His illustration of this point through analysis of Aeschines's famous speech Against Timarchus was particularly compelling, as was his discussion on common prostitutes vs. A truly excellent read! Lepus Domesticus. I loved this book. I felt the final chapter wasn't quite as good as the rest, and a couple times in the conclusion I wanted to do a Wikipedia-style "citation needed" when Davidson made a statement about "our times" versus Classical Greece.
At first I really wasn't sure about the organization of the book--from tuna to tyranny! It is very difficult to organize a survey like this, and I found Davidson's solution both brilliant and persuasive. He presents a picture of a people filled with anxiety that they aren't as good or worthy as their forebears--particularly ironic, since by the European Renaissance, Westerners were looking to Classical Greece as a pinnacle in human social achievement.
He also puts in context the way their society and view of life differed from the later Christianized Europe, even as the reader sees striking similarities between their society and ours particularly in the realm of politics. He achieves some of his best writing, though, when he is confronting Queer Theory.
I find and I think Davidson would agree Queer Theory to have been extraordinarily valuable in sociological discourse, but it has one fatal flaw--ultimately Queer Theorists are interested in finding the Grand Unified Theory of Homophobia, and since homophobia is irrational, there is no one rationale behind it, therefore this search is futile and forcing evidence to fit it does a disservice to the unique aspects of the societies studied.
And yes, the ancient Greeks present an example of society that was deeply misogynistic, but not particularly homophobic, or at least not in the same way ours is or even ancient Rome was.
I found Davidson very convincing, despite having familiarity with the idea of Kyriarchy already, and its ultimately classical origins, and generally agreeing with it as a way of describing our own society. Some of this, of course, is an artifact not of Classical Greek culture itself, but of later European thinkers looking back at Greece and interpreting what they found there to fit their own values--with different interpreters coming up with very different interpretations.
Davidson's key chapter on this subject "Politics and Politicians" therefore felt like a stronger conclusion than the final chapter although the ideas in it were fascinating, and it's a shame they weren't developed quite as fully or as well as what went before. This final line: "It seems very obvious and it is amazing that so many have overlooked it, but the crucial point about prostitutes is not what they get up to in bed, for ultimately that is mere speculation; it is that they are for sale.
I also needed a map with the ancient names. Those were beyond the scope of this book. However, this book was missing some key information. I could have used a single sentence explaining the denominations of the money, especially since values seemed to change perhaps reflecting a real change that occurred over time?
I really needed a better explanation of what sykophants and parasites did and what, if any, difference there was between them. And I was left desperately involved in the saga of Timarchus the maybe-not-actually a common prostitute, and unsatisfied by where we left him. Did he get off? Er, pun not intended. Davidson's language was mostly accessible, minus a few typical academic tics "problematize" was the word of the day , and the annoying habit of randomly leaving a quote in French or German without rephrasing.
He did it more toward the end, so much so I was almost grateful he hadn't left the Greek quotes in Greek, which, as you probably can guess, is all Greek to me. Over all, though, it was sometimes amusing, very informative, and exactly the kind of resource that writers of fantasy and historical fiction alike eat like catnip.
I expect to refer to it often in the future. Instead I was left thinking the Roman stoic Seneca the Younger's instruction to Lucilius that he make friends with his slaves my previous exposure really to classical slavery even more extraordinary and naive than I had thought when I first read it!
One of my favourite non-fiction books ever! Utterly fascinating, at times hilarious, always entertaining, this book is not only perfect for the Classics lover, but for anyone who enjoys a good a meal. Displaying 1 - 10 of 59 reviews. Join the discussion. Greek civilisation centrally underpins our own, providing a basis of so much of the west's culture and philosophy, yet the Greeks were more tolerant of homosexuality than virtually any other culture, certainly than the western civilisations that followed.
The extent to which Greek attitudes to sexuality and in particular their privileging of 'Greek Love' were comparable and different to our own underlies the continuing debate over the formation of sexuality and the much wider question of the roles of nature and nurture in the formation of human behaviour and personality.
Author : Nigel Wilson Publisher: Routledge ISBN: Category: History Page: View: Read Now » Examining every aspect of the culture from antiquity to the founding of Constantinople in the early Byzantine era, this thoroughly cross-referenced and fully indexed work is written by an international group of scholars.
This Encyclopedia is derived from the more broadly focused Encyclopedia of Greece and the Hellenic Tradition, the highly praised two-volume work. Newly edited by Nigel Wilson, this single-volume reference provides a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the political, cultural, and social life of the people and to the places, ideas, periods, and events that defined ancient Greece. Author : Deborah Kamen Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: Category: History Page: View: Read Now » In the first comprehensive account of status in ancient democratic Athens, Kamen illuminates the complexity of Athenian social structure, uncovers tensions between democratic ideology and practice, and contributes to larger questions about the relationship between citizenship and democracy.
Author : Edward E. Following the author's earlier book on Athenian banking, this work analyzes erotic business at Athens in the context of the Athenian economy. For the Athenians, the social acceptability and moral standing of human labor was largely determined by the conditions under which work was performed.
Pursued in a context characteristic of servile endeavor, prostitution--like all forms of slave labor--was contemptible. Pursued under conditions appropriate to non-servile endeavor, prostitution--like all forms of free labor--was not violative of Athenian work ethics.
As a mercantile activity, however, prostitution was not untouched by Athenian antagonism toward commercial and manual pursuits; as the "business of sex," prostitution further evoked negativity from segments of Greek opinion uncomfortable with any form of carnality.
Yet ancient sources also adumbrate another view, in which the sale of sex, lawful and indeed pervasive at Athens, is presented alluringly. In a book that will be of interest to all students of sex and gender, to economic, legal and social historians, and to classicists, the author explores the high compensation earned by female sexual entrepreneurs who often controlled prostitutional businesses that were perpetuated from generation to generation on a matrilineal basis, and that benefitted from legislative restrictions on pimping.
The author juxtaposes the widespread practice of "prostitution pursuant to written contract" with legislation targeting male prostitutes functioning as governmental leaders, and explores the seemingly contradictory phenomena of extensive sexual exploitation of slave prostitutes male and female coexisting with Athenian society's pride in its legislative protection of slaves and minors against sexual outrage.
Author : Ryan K. Integrating ancient philosophy, poetry, and history, and drawing on modern political thought, the author demonstrates that the Athenian discourse on greed was an essential component of Greek social development and political history.
Over time, the Athenians developed sophisticated psychological and political accounts of acquisitiveness and a correspondingly rich vocabulary to describe and condemn it. Greed figures repeatedly as an object of criticism in authors as diverse as Solon, Thucydides, and Plato--all of whom addressed the social disruptions caused by it, as well as the inadequacy of lives focused on it. An intriguing title for a scholarly anaylsis of classical Athenian culture. This book, however, goes into the culinary pleasures of the ancients, a topic rarely treated in such detail by classicists and ancient historians.
I studied classic Latin and Greek language and history for 6 years, and whereas I could more or less understand the Romans, who were -as ancient people go- a pretty straightforward lot, I was always baffled by the Greeks. Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features: The writing aims to be more descriptive than analytical or philosophical. The author explores the roles of food, drink, and sex to provide social and political insights in ancient Greece.
He decided to shift the debate in a new direction: Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Chatty, seemed longer than it was, lots of sex and fish. Athens had no police force. Yes, there are men who are famous for dinners, but the gap of rich and poor was not that large.
The Epic of Gilgamesh. The author is faced with the incredibly difficult dilemma of determining the genuineness of courtesahs that represent sincerity or comic parody. When men were criticized for squandering their patrimony, they were said to spend it on hetaera and fishmongers. Davidson Limited preview — The Greeks were obsessed with fish eating. For more information, or to order this book, please visit https: An amazing work of linguistic, passions and literary analysis that gives incredible insights into classical Athens.
May 02, Megan Creel rated it it was amazing.
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