Among Women: From the Homosocial to the Homoerotic in the Ancient World

Rating:
Summary: overall, a pretty good beginning
Review: If we leave out the introduction, there are 9 essays in this book that attempts to discuss female-female relationships from Bronze Age Greece through Late Antiquity in Egypt. Of these 9, three are outstanding works of scholarly deduction and clear writing; another two are very good though they wander a bit or lack a clearly defined conclusion. The topics covered include visual representations on a variety of mediums, writing from women, drama and satire, and finally religious connections between "correct behavior" and control. This is not a book for anyone with a casual interest in gender and sexuality in antiquity -- the more you already know, the better your own Greek and Latin (at least), the more good you'll get from these studies.

Rating:
Summary: overall, a pretty good beginning
Review: If we leave out the introduction, there are 9 essays in this book that attempts to discuss female-female relationships from Bronze Age Greece through Late Antiquity in Egypt. Of these 9, three are outstanding works of scholarly deduction and clear writing; another two are very good though they wander a bit or lack a clearly defined conclusion. The topics covered include visual representations on a variety of mediums, writing from women, drama and satire, and finally religious connections between "correct behavior" and control. This is not a book for anyone with a casual interest in gender and sexuality in antiquity -- the more you already know, the better your own Greek and Latin (at least), the more good you'll get from these studies.