H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by H-Women@h-net.msu.edu (May 2004)

Laura K. McClure, ed. _Sexuality and Gender in the Classical World_.
Interpreting Ancient History Series.  Oxford: Blackwell Publishers,
2002.
xiii + 318 pp. Preface, editor's introduction, illustrations, notes,
bibliography, index.  $70.95 (cloth), ISBN 0-631-22588-9; $31.95
(paper),
ISBN 0-631-22589-7.

Reviewed for H-Women by Thomas J. Sienkewicz <toms@monm.edu>, Department
of Classics, Monmouth College

Concepts of Sexuality and Gender in the Ancient World

_Sexuality and Gender in the Classical World_ is the first volume in a
new
and exciting series entitled Interpreting Ancient History, published by
Blackwell Publishers.  Two other volumes in this series have also been
published:  Craige B. Champion's _Roman Imperialism_ (2003) and Eric W.
Robinson's _Ancient Greek Democracy_ (2003).  In these books, intended
primarily as undergraduate textbooks, scholarly articles are combined
with
related primary source material to present ancient texts in the context
of
major issues and methodologies.

In an editor's introduction, McClure provides an excellent stand-alone
history and summary of scholarship on women in the ancient world and
gender studies.  Any scholar or student seeking a succinct overview of
the
historical progress and theoretical foundation of women's and gender
studies in the ancient word is highly advised to consult McClure's essay
first.  Also included in this introduction are the editor's own short
descriptions of the nine articles in this volume.  These articles are
grouped in three parts, with four articles on Greece, four on Rome, and
one
on the Classical Tradition.  For the most part, the focus of the authors
is on analysis of literary texts such as poems, plays, and philosophical
dialogues.  Even the historical material, including texts from Livy and
Cicero, is approached more from a literary than an historical point of
view.  The emphasis is less on topics like sexual habits, gender
preference and the lives of women in ancient Greece and Rome, and more
on
literary descriptions of these topics by ancient authors.  Each article
is
accompanied by an appropriate reading from an ancient source, translated
by the editor, and a black-and-white illustration of the topic in art,
usually ancient.

The first essay, "Classical Greek Attitudes to Sexual Behaviour" by K.
J.
Dover, originally appeared in _Women in the Ancient World: The Arethusa
Papers_ (1984), edited by John Peradotto and J. P. Sullivan.  In this
article, Dover, who is the author of a major study of Greek
homosexuality
(_Greek Homosexuality_, 1989), surveys Greek sexuality vocabulary and
assumptions, cultural inhibitions toward sex, segregation of the sexes,
attitudes towards adultery, commercial sexual practices, evidence for
chastity and repression of sexual desire, homosexuality, the effect of
social class and status on sexual activity, and statements about sex by
Greek philosophers and writers of comedy.  This essay is accompanied by
an
excerpt from Plato's _Symposium_, in which Aristophanes offers a
mythological account of the origin of the sexes.  McClure includes with
this essay a representation of the god Zeus and his male lover Ganymede
from an Attic red figure _kylix_ of c. 455 B.C.E.

The second essay, "Double Consciousness in Sappho's Lyrics," is an
excerpt
from J. J. Winkler's _The Constraints of Desire: The Anthropology of Sex
and Gender in Ancient Greece_ (1990).  Winkler examines the
sixth-century
B.C.E. and Sappho's consciousness as woman and poet in the context of
the
masculine world of Homeric epic which she appropriates in her poetry.
McClure appropriately accompanies this essay with a representation of
Sappho on an Attic red figure _kalanthos_ attributed to the Brygos
Painter, c. 470 B.C.E.  She follows the essay with translations of two
poems of Sappho (numbers 1 and 31)  and two passages from Homer (_Iliad_
5.114-132 and _Odyssey_ 6.139-185) to which Winkler makes significant
reference in his essay.

H. King's "Bound to Bleed: Artemis and Greek Women" first appeared in A.

Cameron and A. Kuhrt's collection of essays entitled _Reflections of
Women
in Antiquity_ (1983).  King considers fifth-century Greek mythology and
medical theory in the context of the role of Artemis as goddess of the
female life cycle and, especially, of menstruation.  King argues that
the
Greeks had two contrasting views of "woman," the _parthenon_ or
"unmarried
woman, virgin" whose lack of discipline was a threat to society and
_gyne_
or "woman" who represented controlled reproduction.  The menstrual
process
marked the transition from the former to the latter.  McClure follows
King's essay with a translation of two fifth-century B.C.E. texts:
Hippocrates' treatise "On Unmarried Girls" and lines 59-105 of
Euripides'
_Hippolytus_ (which describes the worship of Artemis). McClure
illustrates
this essay with a scene of Artemis propitiating a swan on a white ground
_lekythos_ attributed to the Pan Painter c. 490 B.C.E.

The last of the four essays devoted to Greek material is "Playing the
Other:  Theater, Theatricality, and the Feminine in Greek Drama" by F.
I.
Zeitlin, which originally appeared in _Representations_ 11 (1985).
Zeitlin
uses a structural and psychoanalytic approach to the representations of
male and female in fifth-century Athenian tragedy and comedy, with
special
attention to theatrical space, plot, references to the human body, and
the
Aristotelian concept of mimesis.  Her particular focus is the death of
Heracles at the hands of his wife Deineira in Sophocles' _Women of
Trachis_.  Zeitlin concludes by suggesting that Plato's distaste for
tragedy is embedded in a view of the genre as essentially an imitation
of
the feminine.  Accompanying this essay are McClure's translations of
Sophocles' _Women of Trachis_ 531-587 and 1046-1084, and of
Euripides'_Bacchae_ 912-944, passages which Zeitlin uses especially in
her
examination of references to male and female bodies in Athenian theater.
Heracles and Deineira are depicted for this essay on an Attic red figure
_pelike_ in the manner of the Washing Painter c.440-430 B.C.E.

Introducing the Roman material is M. I. Finley's "The Silent Women of
Rome,"  published previously in his _Discoveries and Controversies_
(1968).  In this important essay, Finley describes some of the
challenges
faced by historians studying the social history of women in ancient
Rome,
where respectable women were expected to remain outside the public eye.
Since Finley focused this essay around a funerary inscription for a
woman
named Claudia, McClure chose as accompanying primary sources not only
translations of Cornelia's inscription but also those of five other
Roman
women.  She also provides an illustration of a grave relief for a Greek
woman named Lysandra.

S. R. Joshel's "The Body Female and the Body Politic: Livy's Lucretia
and
Verginia" moves the reader from the evidence of Roman inscriptions to
myth
representations of violence against women in Livy's _Histories_.  In
this
essay, which first appeared in A. Richlin's _Pornography and
Representation in Greece and Rome_ (1992), Joshel observes how the women
of Rome were raped, enslaved and killed in order to make the Roman men
and
their empire come alive.  Although Joshel focuses on two texts of Livy,
McClure offers translations of only one of them, the rape of Lucretia
(I.57.6-I.59.6);  i.e., Livy's story of Verginia is not included.  The
Lucretia myth is also illustrated in a painting by Titian, c. 1568-71.

Joshel's article is followed by M. Wyke's "Mistress and Metaphor in
Augustan Elegy," published previously in _Helios_ 16 (1989).  Wyke
considers the degree to which the portrait of women in Latin love
elegiac
poetry reflects the social reality of women's lives in Augustan Rome
(late
first century B.C.E.).  Focusing on the portrayal of Cynthia in the
poetry
of Propertius, Wyke concludes that poetic conventions are more important
than biography and authenticity in this poetry and that these poetic
conventions are determined by the cultural discourses about women in the
Augustan Age, such as the portrayal of Clodia by Cicero in _Pro Caelio_.

For this essay McClure translates three poems of Propertius (1.8a, 1.8b
and 2.5) as well as an excerpt from the _Pro Caelio_.  She also provides
a
scene of a couple at a Roman banquet from a wall painting from
Herculaneum, c. 70 C.E.

The final essay in the Roman section of the volume is A. Richlin's
"Pliny's Brassiere," originally published in J. Hallet and M. Skinner's
_Roman Sexualities_ (1997).  Unlike the other essays in _Sexuality and
Gender in the Ancient World_, this essay deals not with literary
material
but with a technical passage from Pliny the Elder (first century C.E.)
on
breast milk and menstrual fluid.  Richlin uses this passage to discuss
Roman attitudes towards reproduction and the female body.  She also uses
the passage as evidence for folk medicinal practices actually used by
Roman women for menstruation and other health conditions.  McClure
provides a translation of the passage from Pliny's _Natural History_
28.70-82 on which Richlin's essay is based.  Accompanying this essay is
an
illustration of the "Bikini Girls"  from a mosaic at the villa at Piazza
Armerina in Sicily, c. 350 C.E.

The only essay in part 3, Classical Tradition, is P. K. Joplin's "The
Voice of the Shuttle is Ours," from _Stanford Literature Review_ 1
(1984).[1] Joplin uses the myth of Procne and Philomela from Ovid's
_Metamorphoses_ (6.424-623) to discuss ways that this myth of rape and
female mutilation has been interpreted by feminist scholars.  In her
essay, Joplin shows how Philomela's tapestry serves as an act of
remembering and healing and obviates the male violence to which it
responds.  Following the essay is McClure's translation of the Procne
and
Philomela passage from Ovid.  McClure also provides an illustration of
Procne and Philomela from an Attic red figure _kylix_, c. 490 B.C.E.

Undergraduate users will appreciate McClure's short but useful
introductions which precede the ancient sources and her introductions to
the essays in the editor's introduction.  Many of the same
undergraduates,
however, would benefit from additional introductory material before each
of the essays.  Where summaries and conclusions are not provided by the
authors themselves, the editor should have.  Some basic biographical
information about the authors and the context in which they wrote is
also
essential for undergraduate readers, few of whom will know, without some
guidance, who Moses Finley is or appreciate his place in classical
scholarship.  These students further need to know that Dover is also the
author of a major study of ancient Greek homosexuality (_Greek
Homosexuality_, 1989) and that Zeitlin is the author of a number of
important studies on Greek tragedy, and, especially, on the portrayal of
women in tragedy (e.g., Winkler and Zeitlin's _Nothing to Do With
Dionysus_, 1992).  While bibliographic information about the original
publication of the articles does appear in the acknowledgements at the
front of the book, an undergraduate user will not look for it there and
this information should appear at the bottom of the first page of the
reprinted article.  Also useful for the undergraduate users are study
questions based upon the article and questions on the source readings.

Undergraduate users may also be challenged by the use of multiple
translations of the same primary text.  While McClure herself has
translated all the primary texts which accompany the articles, the
authors
use translations from a variety of sources in the articles.  This
occasionally makes for awkwardness of juxtaposition and phraseology.
For
example, McClure translates as "woman's breast-band" (pg. 254) the
phrase
which is translated as "brassiere" in the title of Richlin's article,
"Pliny's Brassiere."

Many undergraduates will find it difficult to recognize and process
passages translated in radically different ways. In her exegesis of
Ovid's
story of Procne and Philomela, Joplin, for example, uses Rolfe
Humphries's
translation of the Metamorphoses.  Joplin quotes the following seven
lines
of Humphries translation:

"What punishment you will pay me, late or soon! / Now that I have no
shame, I will proclaim it. / Given the chance, I will go where people
are,
/ Tell everybody; if you shut me here, / I will move the very woods and
rocks to pity. / The air of Heaven will hear, and any god, / If there is
any god in Heaven, will hear me (p 261).

Later, McClure translates these same lines (i.e., _Metamorphoses_
VI.542-548) as:

"But if the gods see these things, indeed, if there are gods at all, /
if
all things have not perished with me, someday you will pay for this. / I
will broadcast your crime, setting aside my shame. / If there is an
opportunity, I will go to the people; if I am kept / imprisoned in this
forest, I will fill the woods with my story / and I will move the stones
to witness" (p. 290).

McClure could have eased the process of comparing such translations by
numbering her lines with the same numeration used in the ancient text
and,
perhaps, by using footnotes to her translations to indicate where the
same
passage is used in the accompanying article.

McClure provides her own translation of Sappho I, often called the
"Prayer to Aphrodite," which is also translated by Winkler in his essay.

In this case, not only does one wonder why McClure did not explain to
her
undergraduate audience that these were translations of the same poem,
but
one also wonders why she felt it necessary to add her translation to
Winkler's at all.  The space could have been used to provide a
translation
of additional material from Homer (to which Winkler refers but does not
translate).  The same observations could be made in the Finley essay
about
the Claudia inscription, which is translated by both Finley and McClure.


Some comments are also warranted about the bibliographies in this book.
In addition to the bibliographies provided by the authors of some of the
essays, McClure provides a short bibliography of sources for future
reference following the editor's introduction and a lengthy bibliography
at the end of the volume.  The purpose and scope of this final
bibliography is unclear.  It is neither a comprehensive bibliography on
the topic nor a list of major works for future reference by
undergraduates.  Too many major works fitting one description or the
other
are missing to serve either purpose.  Rather the bibliography appears to
be not much more than a composite of all the other bibliographies in the
book.  This bibliography also has anomlies such as an incomplete
reference
to a 1997 article by Richlin and the absence of significant works by
authors such as Zeitlin and Finley.  The space used by this bibliography
could have been used for another article, or, even better, for a
bibliography of selected, important works with annotations geared to
undergraduate users.

While this collection of essays cannot be used unaided by the average
undergraduate, it can still serve as an excellent supplementary textbook
in advanced college courses on gender and women's studies.

Note

[1].  The journal is inaccurately identified as the _Standford
Literature
Review_ in the acknowledgements.

Joplin's essay has since been published, under the author's birth name,
Patricia Klindienst, on the internet at
http://www.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ayliu/research/klindienst.html along
with an epilogue
http://www.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ayliu/research/klindienst2.html.


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