Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality is a comprehensive survey of ancient Greek literature that lays bare the meanings the Greeks gave to sex. Unlike romantic moderns, the Greeks saw eros as a dangerous force of nature requiring cultural and social controls. Thornton documents the Greek view as manifested in attitudes toward women and passive homosexuals, and then describes the social institutions that attempted to harness and exploit that energy. What we see, finally, are the origins of some of our own attitudes as well as a vision of sexuality more honest and mature than our own dangerous illusions. } Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality is a controversial book that lays bare the meanings Greeks gave to sex. Contrary to the romantic idealization of sex dominating our culture, the Greeks saw eros as a powerful force of nature, potentially dangerous, and in need of control by society: Eros the Destroyer, not Cupid the Insipid, fired the Greek imagination. The destructiveness of eros can be seen in Greek imagery and metaphor, and in the Greeks attitudes toward women and homosexuals.
Images of love as fire, disease, storms, insanity, and violenceTop 40 song clichs for uslocate eros among the unpredictable and deadly forces of nature. The beautiful Aphrodite embodies the alluring danger of sex, while femmes fatales like Pandora and Helen represent the risky charms of female sexuality. And homosexuality typifies for the Greeks the frightening power of an indiscriminate appetite that threatens the stability of culture itself.In Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality, Bruce Thornton offers a uniquely sweeping and comprehensive account of ancient sexuality free of currently fashionable theoretical jargon and pretentions. In its conclusions the book challenges the distortions of much recent scholarship on Greek sexuality. And throughout it links the wary attitudes of the Greeks to our present-day concerns about love, sex, and family. What we see, finally, are the origins of some of our own views as well as a vision of sexuality that is perhaps more honest and mature than our own dangerous illusions. }
- ISBN10 0813332257
- ISBN13 9780813332253
- Publish Date 17 December 1996
- Publish Status Out of Stock
- Out of Print 25 May 2000
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Taylor & Francis Inc
- Imprint Westview Press Inc
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 304
- Language English