The Sleep of Reason: Erotic Experience and Sexual Ethics in Ancient Greece and Rome Martha C. Nussbaum, Juha Sihvola Sex is beyond reason, and yet we constantly reason about it. So, too, did the peoples of ancient Greece and Rome. But until recently there has been little discussion of their views on erotic experience and sexual ethics. The Sleep of Reason brings together an international group of philosophers, philologists, literary critics, and historians to consider two questions normally kept separate: how is erotic experience understood in classical texts of various kinds, and what ethical judgments and philosophical arguments are made about sex? From same-sex desire to conjugal love, and from Plato and Aristotle to the Roman Stoic Musonius Rufus, the contributors demonstrate the complexity and diversity of classical sexuality. They also show that the ethics of eros, in both Greece and Rome, shared a number of commonalities: a focus not only on self-mastery, but also on reciprocity; a concern among men not just for penetration and display of their power, but also for being gentle and kind, and for being loved for themselves; and that women and even younger men felt not only gratitude and acceptance, but also joy and sexual desire. Contributors: * Eva Cantarella * Kenneth Dover * Chris Faraone * Simon Goldhill * Stephen Halliwell * David M. Halperin * J. Samuel Houser * Maarit Kaimio * David Konstan * David Leitao * Martha C. Nussbaum * A. W. Price * Juha Sihvola |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 1 |
FORGETTING FOUCAULT ACTS IDENTITIES AND THE HISTORY OF SEXUALITY | 21 |
EROS AND ETHICAL NORMS PHILOSOPHERS RESPOND TO A CULTURAL DILEMMA | 55 |
EROTIC EXPERIENCE IN THE CONJUGAL BED GOOD WIVES IN GREEK TRAGEDY | 95 |
ARISTOPHANIC SEX THE EROTICS OF SHAMELESSNESS | 120 |
THE LEGEND OF THE SACRED BAND | 143 |
PLATO ZENO AND THE OBJECT OF LOVE | 170 |
ARISTOTLE ON SEX AND LOVE | 200 |
MARRIAGE AND SEXUALITY IN REPUBLICAN ROME A ROMAN CONJUGAL LOVE STORY | 269 |
THE INCOMPLETE FEMINISM OF MUSONIUS RUFUS PLATONIST STOIC AND ROMAN | 283 |
EROS AND APHRODISIA IN THE WORDS OF DIO CHRYSOSTOM | 327 |
ENACTING EROS | 354 |
THE EROTIC EXPERIENCE OF LOOKING CULTURAL CONFLICT AND THE GAZE IN EMPIRE CULTURE | 374 |
AGENTS AND VICTIMS CONSTRUCTIONS OF GENDER AND DESIRE IN ANCIENT GREEK LOVE MAGIC | 400 |
MAJOR HISTORICAL FIGURES DISCUSSED | 427 |
CONTRIBUTORS | 431 |
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 | The Sleep of Reason: Erotic Experience and Sexual Ethics in Ancient Greece ... Martha C. Nussbaum,Juha Sihvola No preview available - 2002 |
Common terms and phrases
ancient Greek Aphrodite appears appetites argues argument Aristophanes Aristotle Aristotle's Athenian beauty behavior boys Brooten Callisthenes Cambridge Cato cinaedus claim classical Comedy context cultural Dio Chrysostom Dio's discussion Dover erastes erōmenos eros erotic ethical Euboean Discourse Euripides evidence example fact female Foucault friendship gender Halperin History of Sexuality homoeroticism Homosexuality human husband identity intercourse kinaidos Lesbian lovers and beloveds Lysias magic male male-male marriage masculine modern moral Musonius Rufus Musonius's nature norms Nussbaum partner passage passion Pausanias pederastic person Phaedrus philia philosophical Plato pleasure Plut Plutarch political prostitutes reference relationship role Roman Rome Sacred Band same-sex Schofield scholars sense sexual acts sexual desire sexual relations shame social Socrates sodomy spells Stoic suggests Symposium texts Theban theory things tion tradition tribade University Press virtue wife Winkler woman women words young youth Zeno Zeus καὶ
