Eros: The Myth Of Ancient Greek Sexuality [Paperback]

Bruce S Thornton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0813332265 | ISBN-13: 978-0813332260 | Publication Date: February 13, 1998

Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality is a controversial book that lays bare the meanings Greeks gave to sex. Contrary to the romantic idealization of sex dominating our culture, the Greeks saw eros as a powerful force of nature, potentially dangerous, and in need of control by society: Eros the Destroyer, not Cupid the Insipid, fired the Greek imagination.The destructiveness of eros can be seen in Greek imagery and metaphor, and in the Greeks’ attitudes toward women and homosexuals. Images of love as fire, disease, storms, insanity, and violence—Top 40 song clichés for us—locate eros among the unpredictable and deadly forces of nature. The beautiful Aphrodite embodies the alluring danger of sex, while femmes fatales like Pandora and Helen represent the risky charms of female sexuality. And homosexuality typifies for the Greeks the frightening power of an indiscriminate appetite that threatens the stability of culture itself.In Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality, Bruce Thornton offers a uniquely sweeping and comprehensive account of ancient sexuality free of currently fashionable theoretical jargon and pretentions. In its conclusions the book challenges the distortions of much recent scholarship on Greek sexuality. And throughout it links the wary attitudes of the Greeks to our present-day concerns about love, sex, and family. What we see, finally, are the origins of some of our own views as well as a vision of sexuality that is perhaps more honest and mature than our own dangerous illusions.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

A potentially interesting study of ancient Greek sexuality sinks in the rough seas of antifeminist diatribe. At first Thornton (Classics/Calif. State Univ., Fresno) is merely pedantic, offering a welter of examples to support his point that the Greeks believed eros, or sexual desire, was a powerful, dangerous force of nature. He becomes almost interesting in noting that our sentimental ``dead metaphors'' of love as fire, disease, and insanity originated in vivid Greek images (and fears) of the destructive power of eros. However, once Thornton starts trying to show that Greek hatred of women was an expression of a legitimate fear of eros, he reveals himself to be less an objective scholar than an apologist for Greek misogyny. He snipes at the ``cheap moral superiority'' of ``our smug twentieth century'' in refusing to recognize that ``the power of women was the power of eros.'' His arguments would be offensive were they not so silly: In proposing Marilyn Monroe as the image of the ``sexually powerful woman'' in opposition to the models in Victoria's Secret catalogs with their ``boyish hips,'' he seems to be elevating a personal preference into an intellectual analysis of sexual imagery in the late 20th century. After similarly confused explorations of Greek marriage, homosexuality, and philosophy, Thornton concludes that the Greeks were wiser than we in distrusting eros and trying to control it through such rational institutions as patriarchy. With a breathtaking lack of supporting material, he asserts that our deviation from their ideas about sex is responsible for contemporary ``illegitimacy . . . crime, random violence, poverty, and social barbarism.'' This book loses sight of its valid points in a fumbling attempt to imitate the contrarian Camille Paglia (whom Thornton cites as a ``model''). And when he fingers eros as the true culprit in Susan Smith's drowning of her two children, he leaves the reader wondering whether he, and his Greeks, are incapable of attributing to women other passions (e.g., maternal) than sexual ones. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Bruce S. Thornton is professor of classics and chairman of the Department of Foreign Languages at California State University at Fresno.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press (February 13, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813332265
• ISBN-13: 978-0813332260
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,759,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sane and Much Needed Perspective, December 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Eros: The Myth Of Ancient Greek Sexuality (Paperback)

First of all, ignore the ridiculous Kirkus review of this book! Bruce Thorton's "Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality" is a badly needed voice of sanity on this subject. Indeed, as Thorton himself says, "Most of the writing on ancient sexuality these days grinds the evidence in the mill of an 'advocacy agenda' supported by some fashionable theory that says more about the crisis of Western rationalism than it does about ancient Greece." He could have been talking about the Kirkus review. By thoroughly examining the ancient sources themselves, Thornton reveals what the Greeks actually thought and said about sexual relationships.

The Greeks understood, perhaps, something we moderns do not; the Greeks understood the "inhuman chaos of nature" and perceived human order as the triumph of the mind and culture over the brute forces of nature. Eros, Thornton explains, is not "love" but "sexual desire." It is a representation of how sex attacks the mind and breaks man's will. Eros is a "disease of the soul." Consequently, sexual attraction as madness is a theme that recurs throughout Greek literature. The Greeks saw sex and violence as two sides of the same irrational coin.

To the Greek way of thinking, mind must control the irrational. Subjection to passion and appetite is a form of slavery. The Greeks understood that women possess "a power that speaks to the irrational in men." And ultimately, "what disturbs men about women is what disturbs men about themselves...." Unlike those who would like to portray women as powerless victims of a male patriarchy, Thorton shows how and why the Greeks saw female erotic power as dangerous; it intensifies the chaotic passion of all humans. Women in ancient Greece were not powerless; "one does not fear what one perceives to be powerless." As Thorton points out, "The modern reductive view of Greek women as oppressed victim tells us very little about antiquity yet quite a lot about the late-twentieth-century politics of victimhood...."

Thornton does discuss pederasty and the symposium in his book and places them in their proper context. The habitually passive homosexual was considered unnatural and an aberation in the Greek world. He goes on to explain why the family and the production of heirs and future citizens was so important; legitimacy was much more important for an ancient Greek than it is in our modern society. He explains why the Greek wife, unlike her depiction in so many recent works, was so crucial to the smooth functioning of the society. The quality most sought after in a wife was self-control as she was the person charged with the management of the household. The Greek household was not a simple home as we moderns recognize it. Household management was an important function that included the management of the slaves, raising the children, the spinning of wool, the weaving of cloth, and overseeing agriculture as well as a hundred other crucial tasks. Many Greek households were mini-factories or estates. Greek men and women formed a joint enterprise.

This is a work of sanity that returns to what the Greeks themselves actually said about sexual relations. It presents a more balanced picture of Greek sexuality than the many writings that depict the Greeks as some sort of aberrant culture in order to further a political agenda. Sure they were different than we are, but human nature has pretty much remained constant over the last several thousand years. Perhaps that is Thornton's greatest sin in the eyes of some; he dares to portray women in ancient Greece as not powerless victims, but partners in the joint management of Greek society. Read this book if you want a clearer picture of what the Greek world was all about.

26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb and daring, December 20, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Eros: The Myth Of Ancient Greek Sexuality (Paperback)

This is a superb treatment of Greek sexuality and culture in general, and anyone interested in a clear-eyed, unbiased look at ancient culture should buy it and read it carefully. Thornton presents a well-documented, convincing case that the Greeks viewed sexuality as enticing, necessary...and potentially very destructive. Thornton even dares to draw moral lessons for our own times from the thoughts and actions of the Greeks. The viciousness and malice of the Kirkus review presented above shows just how badly we academics need authors with Thornton's combination of courage and erudition. And it shows just how much truth can sting. Buy this book, but be careful when you start it--you won't be able to put it down till you're finished!

36 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Antidote to cant, August 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Eros: The Myth Of Ancient Greek Sexuality (Hardcover)

The Kirkus review of this book does indeed demonstrate the cheap moral superiority of our smug twentieth century.If you are tired of the feminist orthodoxy cant that passes for "thought," read this book.