Ginnie's review of Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens
Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens by James Davidson
Buying books can sometimes be what my grandmother called buying a pig-in-a-poke and I have been surprised in opposing directions. I bought this after reading two lines in a mail order catalogue and it has delighted and instructed me every time I open it. Forget cakes and ale or loaves and fishes. It was courtesans and fishcakes that whetted the appetites of the Athenians. James Davidson takes an epicurean approach to the pleasures of the flesh (eating, drinking, sex) that were indulged in ancient Greece. These were the consuming passions, three varieties of bodily gratification to which the whole human race, according to Plato, was susceptible from birth. The material in this book is gleaned from the scraps that have fallen from the tables of ancient literature, snatches of conversation, anecdotes abruptly curtailed and stories that seem to make no sense: the philosopher Socrates visits a beautiful woman who lives in luxury with no visible means of support and refers obliquely t...more
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What a delectable review - I added this to my "to read" list and look forward to this feast. I am an incurable history/art history lover and this book just screams for a read. Thanks for the add so I could discover this book.
