Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens [Paperback]

James Davidson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 7, 1999

Crammed with intriguing details, this illuminating appraisal of vice and excess in the cradle of democracy delivers a fascinating and engagingly written study of the hedonism that ruled Athens. of photos.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Desire is a dangerous thing, and the relationship between the citizens of ancient Athens and their desires was a complex and troubled one. James Davidson's Courtesans and Fishcakes is a brilliant and kaleidoscopic examination of daily life in classical Athens, and the life he reveals is simultaneously more alien and more familiar than we might have imagined. From fish-guzzling gourmands to the ambiguous eroticism of vase paintings, the cradle of Western culture is artfully, and frequently amusingly, anatomized. Davidson believes that many historians, under the influence of Foucault, are guilty of imposing modern views of desire, and particularly sexuality, on Greek culture, resulting in a simplistic interpretation of what was an extremely complicated issue. He refutes the prevailing opinion that sex in Athens was a simple binary opposition of penetrator and penetrated, drawing on a remarkable number of sources to show how sexuality was a slippery commodity rooted in intricate social negotiations, a characteristic shared with many other objects of desire, from eels to undiluted wine. Davidson sometimes assumes a little too much knowledge on the part of his audience--some basic information about the size of the Athenian population would have been helpful--but in spite of this Courtesans and Fishcakes is both accessible and provocative, offering a fascinating portrait of the private and public lives of ancient Athenians. --Simon Leake --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

British historian Davidson takes us inside classical Greece's brothels, bedrooms, drinking parties and banquets in this rarefied scholarly inquiry. His aim is not merely to depict Athenians as pleasure seekers but to overturn the current notion, purveyed by Michel Foucault and others, that Athens was a "phallocratic" society permeated with an ethos of penetration and domination, a homosexual-leaning culture polarized between adult male citizens and all others?slaves, women, boys, foreigners. He largely succeeds on all counts, bringing to convivial life a predominantly heterosexual society where classes mingled easily; cultured courtesans bedded leading figures like Pericles and Alcibiades; and wives participated fully in sexual pleasures. Drawing on ancient treatises, pamphlets, comic plays, poems and speeches, Davidson investigates the classical Greeks' indulgences, including their mania for eating fish?a luxury viewed as hedonistic?and their tolerance for booze and sex (though sex addicts were considered to have a lower capacity to resist the natural pleasures). His intriguing study serves up a banquet of arcane lore. Illustrations.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (July 7, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060977663
• ISBN-13: 978-0060977665
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #475,641 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best thing out of classical studies in a long time, October 19, 2001

By 

Richard R. Wilk (Bloomington, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens (Paperback)

This is about the best book I have ever read about classical antiquity. Davidson focusses on consumption habits, and the morality of eating, drinking, and sex. It is both very revealing about the lives of the Greeks, and an absolutely key step in understanding the origins of modern styles of consumer culture. This is by far the most theoretically sophisticated thing written about consumption in prehistory - Davidson brings some of the best of modern consumption theory to bear, but never in a pedantic way. The text remains lively, fun, and enlightening.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for classicists, April 16, 2003

By 

John F Gilks (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens (Hardcover)

While I would grant that this is a scholarly work by a serious historian I found it an engaging read and quite fascinating. It is one of the few books I have read that really helps one get into the mindset (mentalite) of another civilization, far distant in time and space. I don't think one needs an encyclopaedic knowledge of ancient Greece to appreciate this book but some exposure to other studies of mentalites might be helpful.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary!, April 10, 2005

By 

Andrew M. Klein (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens (Paperback)

A marvelously written, intricate weave from an incredible array of sources that illuminates the significance of Greek appetites (especially for fish -- yes, fish -- and for sex, in multiple forms and layers) and attitudes toward them, and thus, on the way, as it were, what was regarded as virtuous, that the author convincingly shows were central to social, philosophical and poltical life in classical Athens. An extraordinary book offering amazing insights. One awaits the next set of revelations, if there are more to be delivered to us, by Mr. Davidson, with something resembling opsophagia. A tour de force!