The ancient Athenians were "quarrelsome as friends, treacherous
as neighbors, brutal as masters, faithless as servants, shallow as
lovers--all of which was in part redeemed by their intelligence and
creativity." Thus writes Philip Slater in this classic work on
narcissism and family relationships in fifth-century Athenian
society. Exploring a rich corpus of Greek mythology and drama, he
argues that the personalities and social behavior of the gods were
neurotic, and that their neurotic conditions must have mirrored the
family life of the people who perpetuated their myths. The author
traces the issue of narcissism to mother-son relationships,
focusing primarily on the literary representation of Hera and the
male gods and showing how it related to devalued women raising boys
in an ambitious society dominated by men. "The role of
homosexuality in society, fatherless families, working mothers,
women's status, and violence, male pride, and male bonding--all
these find their place in Slater's analysis, so honestly and
carefully addressed that we see our own societal dilemmas reflected
in archaic mythic narratives all the more clearly."--Richard P.
Martin, Princeton University
Originally published in 1992.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand
technology to again make available previously out-of-print books
from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press.
These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these
important books while presenting them in durable paperback
editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly
increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the
thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since
its founding in 1905.
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