Extract

Performing the Kinaidos: Unmanly Men in Ancient Mediterranean Cultures is a rich and thorough examination into an important topic, and it cuts across genres and cultures in a way that is impressive indeed. It will be of interest to anyone wishing to gain a broader understanding of gender and sexuality in the ancient Mediterranean. As Tom Sapsford notes, his study depends on excavating “details that the ancient sources frequently either simply omit or refuse to describe, on the grounds of decency” (2). Sapsford meets this all-too-common challenge facing scholars of ancient sexuality by deftly weaving together sources from lyric poetry, philosophy, Attic comedy, oratory, law speeches, epigraphy, papyri, elegy, epigram, satire, and the novel, among many others. In so doing, he manages to illuminate the figure of the kinaidos/cinaedus, a figure often hidden in the shadows of our canonical sources. We see the influence of foundational gender studies scholarship, but his work is no less attentive to the history of scholarship within the field of classics, building on earlier studies while simultaneously reassessing the assumptions present in previous scholarship.

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