Kenneth J. Dover

Hailed as magisterial when it first appeared, Greek Homosexuality remains an academic milestone and continues to be of major importance for students and scholars of gender studies. Kenneth Dover explores the understanding of homosexuality in ancient Greece, examining a vast array of material and textual evidence that leads him to provocative conclusions. This new release of the 1989 second edition, for which Dover wrote an epilogue reflecting on the impact of his book, includes two specially commissioned forewords assessing the author's legacy and the place of his text within modern studies of gender in the ancient world

"This book is concerned with the predominant moral concepts and attitudes expressed or implied in non-philosophical literature written during the time of Plato and Aristotle. Oratory and comedy are treated as the primary evidence, but reference is also made to Sophocles, Euripides, Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon and other earlier and later sources. The topics discussed are those suggested not by the framework of ancient concepts or ancient terminology, but by modern attitudes to morality. This consideration has also determined the development of the discussion; and the author sometimes draws contrasts and comparisons with modern religious, social or legal principles. This approach -- together with the fact that no knowledge of Greek is presupposed on the reader's part -- ensures the appeal of this volume not only to the academic but also to the more general reader." -- Provided by publisher

Introduction -- Homer and Hesiod -- Early elegiac and lyric poetry -- Attic tragedy -- The development of history -- Old and new comedy -- Plato and Aristotle -- The orators -- Alexandria and after.

"The Greeks were the inventors of history as we understand it. Yet their historiography remained rooted in myth, and the social context of the inventions for which we rightly treasure their achievements - democracy, philosophy, theatre - was often deeply alien to our own way of thinking and acting. The aim of this book is to explore that achievement. Paul Cartledge does so by presenting a fascinating portrait of the Greeks in terms of their own self-image, and explores how the dominant Greeks - adult, male, citizens - sought, with limited success, to define themselves in polar opposition to non-Greeks, women, non-citizens, slaves, and gods."--BOOK JACKET.