Customer Reviews

Sex or Symbol?: Erotic Images of Greece and Rome

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Catherine Johns begins her book by saying that there is a difference between the modern understanding of sex and the ancient one. Her thinking here is call into question our ideas of "obscene." After 150 pages Ms Johns has not developed her thinking beyond pointing out that sexual images were used in ancient times as symbols of fertility or symbols to ward off evil. It was not her intention to do so. She could have merely pointed out the difference in attitudes toward sex between a person who lived in a city and a person who lived on a farm.

Instead it was Ms Johns' intention to provide a pictorial survey of the variety of sexual symbols found in the Greco-Roman world and in this regard she makes her book outstanding. For example, on pages 72 and 73 she shows phallic symbols used as a pendant and as amulets. One amulet shows the combination of three symbols of luck: the phallus, the crescent, and the hand. Page 110 may show a political satire which pokes fun at Cleopatra. And page 82 shows a beautiful silver dish which depicts Pan dancing. There are 160 some odd illustrations in this book and it is the illustrations which make it worth reading.

My title is composed of the first four adjectives that came to my mind when I thought of this book. Not only is this a splendid resource about an until recently sadly neglected part of ancient studies, erotic artworks, but it is also a historical reference on Victorian scholarship, and a warning about the perils of putting modern culture and preconceptions ahead of the truth found in scientific and historical studies.

I could continue singing the praises of this book for several more screens of text. Instead, I will simply recommend that anyone reading this review go on to read this book.