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. (Kirkus Reviews)
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, is what fired the Greek imagination. The destructiveness
of eros can be seen in Greek imagery and metaphor, and in their
attitudes toward women and homosexuals. Images of love as fire,
disease, storms, insanity, and violence-top 40 song cliches for
us-locate eros among the unpredictable and deadly forces of nature.
The beautiful Aphrodite embodies the alluring danger of sex, and
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
Seualily, Bruce Thornton offers a uniquely sweeping and
comprehensive account of ancient sexuality free of currently
fashionable theoretical jargon and pretensions. 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.
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