A brief overview of Athenian sexuality

Monday, September 29, 2025 - 09:00 The Lesbian Historic Motif Project

Not much of interest here. Just more housecleaning of assorted articles, grouped thematically. (You might guess that I've been working through Classical Greece currently.)

Major category: LHMPTags: LHMP LHMP #512 Arkins 1994 Sexuality in Fifth Century Athens About LHMP Full citation: 

Arkins, Brian. 1994. “Sexuality in Fifth Century Athens” in Classics Ireland, Vol. 1: 18-34.

This article is not particularly relevant, as it presents an overview of the structure of sexual relations from an elite male point of view. There is discussion of the social construction of sexual systems, with some odd anecdotal parallels from more modern cultures. There is a brief discussion of how to understand Sappho’s biography and work within this context (including a perhaps unwarranted assumption that social structures in Lesbos were identical to those in Athens).

Time period: Classical EraPlace: GreeceEvent / person: Sappho View comments (0)