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The reign of the phallus : sexual politics in ancient Athens / Eva C. Keuls.

By: Keuls, Eva C [author.].
Material type: TextTextSeries: Perennial Library: 1129.Publisher: New York : Harper & Row Publishers, [1985]Copyright date: ©1985Edition: First edition.Description: vi, 452 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.Content type: text Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 0060153008; 9780060153007; 0060911298; 9780060911294.Subject(s): Women -- Greece -- History | Sex role -- Greece -- History | Sex customs -- Greece -- History | Sex symbolism -- History | Phallicism -- Greece -- History | Athens (Greece) -- Politics and government | Greece -- Civilization -- To 146 B.C | Femmes -- Grèce -- Histoire | Vie sexuelle -- Grèce -- Histoire | Symbolisme sexuel -- Histoire | Phallisme -- Grèce -- Histoire | Grèce -- Civilisation -- Jusqu'à 146 av. J.-C | Athènes (Grèce) -- Politique et gouvernement | Civilization | Phallicism | Politics and government | Sex customs | Sex role | Sex symbolism | Women | Greece | Greece -- Athens | Griekse oudheid | Seksualiteit | Politik | Sexualverhalten | Athen | Phallisme -- Grèce -- Histoire | Symbolisme sexuel -- Histoire | Athènes (Grèce) -- Politique et gouvernement | phallus -- Athènes (Grèce) -- 5e s. av. J.-C | sexisme -- Athènes (Grèce) -- 5e s. av. J.-C | sexualité -- Athènes (Grèce) -- 5e s. av. J.-C | femme -- Athènes (Grèce) -- 5e s. av. J.-C | Geschichte (480 v. Chr.-400 v. Chr.) | Geschichte (480 v. Chr.-430 v. Chr.) | Geschichte 480 v. Chr.-415 v. Chr | Geschichte Anfänge-500 | Athen | Femmes - Grèce - Histoire | Phallisme - Grèce - Histoire | Symbolisme sexuel - Histoire | Vie sexuelle - Grèce - Histoire | Athènes (Grèce) - Politique et gouvernement | Grèce - Civilisation - Jusqu'à 146 av. J.-C | To 146 B.C | Geschichte 480 v. Chr.-400 v. Chr | Geschichte 480 v. Chr.-415 v. Chr | Geschichte 480 v. Chr.-430 v. Chr | Geschichte Anfänge-500Genre/Form: History.Additional physical formats: Online version:: Reign of the phallus.DDC classification: 306.7/0938 Other classification: 15.51 | FB 4067 | NH 5412 | NH 6850 | NH 6880 | 6,12
Contents:
Military expeditions, protest, lament, and scandal -- Attic mythology : barren goddesses male wombs, and the cult of rape -- The phallus and the box : the world seen in the shapes of human genitals -- Bearing children, watching the house -- Brides of death, in more ways than one -- The Athenian prostitute : a good buy in the Agora -- The whore with the golden heart, the happy hooker, and other fictions -- Two kinds of women : the spitting image of the female psyche -- The sex appeal of female toil -- Easier to live with than a wife : the concubine -- The boy beautiful : replacing women or replacing a son? -- Learning to be a man ; learning to be a woman -- Sex among the barbarians -- Classical tragedy : weaving men's dreams of sexual strife -- Sex antagonism and women's rituals -- Love, not war : protest in the arts and on the streets.
Summary: "At once daring and authoritative, this book offers a profusely illustrated history of sexual politics in ancient Athens. This is the first book to draw together all the elements that made up the 'reign of the phallus'--the blatant claim by men to general dominance, its codification in law, the myths of rape and conquest of women, and the final result: reduction of sex to a game of dominance and submission, both of women by men and of men by men. In her elegant and lucid text Eva Keuls not only examines the ideology and practices that underlay this supremist social order but also uncovers an intense countermovement that found expression on the stage, in public debate, and in the streets."--Publisher description.
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Item type Current location Call number Status Date due Barcode
Book University of Texas At Tyler
Stacks - 3rd Floor 		HQ1134 .K48 1985 (Browse shelf) Available 0000002132363

Includes bibliographical references (pages 421-434) and index.

Military expeditions, protest, lament, and scandal -- Attic mythology : barren goddesses male wombs, and the cult of rape -- The phallus and the box : the world seen in the shapes of human genitals -- Bearing children, watching the house -- Brides of death, in more ways than one -- The Athenian prostitute : a good buy in the Agora -- The whore with the golden heart, the happy hooker, and other fictions -- Two kinds of women : the spitting image of the female psyche -- The sex appeal of female toil -- Easier to live with than a wife : the concubine -- The boy beautiful : replacing women or replacing a son? -- Learning to be a man ; learning to be a woman -- Sex among the barbarians -- Classical tragedy : weaving men's dreams of sexual strife -- Sex antagonism and women's rituals -- Love, not war : protest in the arts and on the streets.

"At once daring and authoritative, this book offers a profusely illustrated history of sexual politics in ancient Athens. This is the first book to draw together all the elements that made up the 'reign of the phallus'--the blatant claim by men to general dominance, its codification in law, the myths of rape and conquest of women, and the final result: reduction of sex to a game of dominance and submission, both of women by men and of men by men. In her elegant and lucid text Eva Keuls not only examines the ideology and practices that underlay this supremist social order but also uncovers an intense countermovement that found expression on the stage, in public debate, and in the streets."--Publisher description.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

At long last, a scholarly study about sex and sexual politics in fifth century BC Athens that deals with the issues clearly, thoroughly, and openly. Keuls analyzes the issue of male dominance in Athenian society in marked contrast to the oft male-dominated classical scholarship that has praised female subservience, the Athenian cult of the male, and elevated male homosexuality to a philosophical laudation of the Platonic eros. Firmly based upon classical literature and archaeological evidence (more than 345 illustrated examples), Keuls offers an important new and refreshing study on the ways that phallic power governed women's lives. From the dominant themes of rape, killing, or subduing the rebellious female, Keuls explores the intertwining of phallocratic motifs of slaughter, aggression, and rape within Athenian patriotic themes. The governing principle of phallocracy was that Athenian society was male dominated, the female being a mere adjunct unfortunately required for reproduction; the natural consequence was the elimination of the female from all social processes. Women were trained to define their merit in terms of male offspring, and to anticipate the considerable likelihood of death in childbirth as a glorious martyrdom. College, university, and public libraries.-J.M. Balcer, The Ohio State University

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