Ancient Sexualities

Catalog description

Examines the written and visual evidence for ancient sexual practices, as well as ancient attitudes towards these practices as found in ancient law, philosophy, love poetry, novels, and other texts. Our reading of primary sources will be informed by modern writings on gender and sexuality. We will also engage with recent debates about the ideologies reflected in ancient codes of sexual conduct. Through a close reading of a variety of ancient Greek and Roman texts and images, together with contemporary interpretive readings, we will attempt to reach not only a fuller understanding of some central features of the cultures of Greece and Rome, but also, by holding up the mirror of antiquity to our own beliefs and practices, to arrive at a more critical consideration of how we think about sex and gender today. Cross-listed with WGS.