The "fascinus," or phallus, was at the heart of classical Roman
art and life. No god was more represented in ancient Rome than the
phallic deity Priapus, and the "fescennine" verses, one of the
earliest forms of Roman poetry, accompanied the celebrations of
Priapus, the harvest, and fertility. But with this emphasis on
virility also came an emphasis on power and ideas of possession and
protection.
In "Sex and Terror," Pascal Quignard looks closely at this
delicate interplay of celebration and terror. In startling and
original readings of myths, satires, memoirs, and works of ancient
philosophy and visual art, Quignard locates moments of both
playful, aesthetic commemoration and outward cruelty. Through these
examples, he describes a colossal cultural shift within Western
civilization that occurred two millennia ago, as Augustus shaped
the Roman world into an empire and the joyous, precise eroticism of
the Greeks turned into a terror-stricken melancholy. The details of
this revolution in thinking are revealed through Quignard's astute
analysis of classical literary sources and Roman art.
This powerful transformation from celebration to fear is a
change whose consequences, Quignard argues, we are still dealing
with today, making "Sex and Terror" an intriguing reconsideration
of ancient Rome that transcends its history.
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