The Reign of the Phallus: Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens

by Eva C. Keuls

Book Overview

At once daring and authoritative, this book offers a profusely illustrated history of sexual politics in ancient Athens.

The phallus was pictured everywhere in ancient Athens: painted on vases, sculpted in marble, held aloft in gigantic form in public processions, and shown in stage comedies. This obsession with the phallus dominated almost every aspect of public life, influencing law, myth, and customs, affecting family life, the status of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520079299
• ISBN13: 9780520079298
• Release Date: April 1993
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 477 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Ms. Keuls neither pulls nor withdraws her massive load of...

Eva Keuls neither pulls nor withdraws her massive load of...exhaustive resources, for depicting such a blatantly gutsy look at a slice of Greek history. As a fan of non-fiction, and also an aspiring author (am currently working with an editor with my first manuscript), I originally picked up Ms. Keuls comprehensive work for my own research into art history. I was pleasantly surprised by Ms. Keuls no-holds-barred honesty. Few scholarly works have ever stimulated my...mind, the way hers has. There were times that I actually had a sweaty forehead and palms, greedily looking forward to what she might expose in each respective chapter. Although I may not have agreed with all of Ms. Keuls' conclusions---particularly the extent of the beastliness of men, or the lopsided portrayal of the treatment of women of that era---her painstaking research has me wondering whether some of her critics have really read her book to...completion. Thanks again Ms. Keuls. Regardless of your motives, I am honored by the countless hours you toiled in order to bring readers and researchers such a fabulous work of art.

An interesting look at ancient Athens

Keuls' provocative take on, as the subtitle states, "Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens", is well worth reading, despite the sometimes overwhelming amount of information and graphics used to support her analysis. Dealing with the end of the Periclean age, specifically in and around 415 BCE, Keuls charts the 'phallocracy' underlying Athenian society. This phallocracy was responsible, in the author's mind, for the subjugation of women, institutionalized homosexuality (but only as a right of passage for young men, not as an adult lifestyle), the "detailed reinterpretation of Greek tragedy in this light" (13), the relationship between the private life of male Athenians and public affairs, and Keuls' idea of who mutilated the Hermes (phallic posts omnipresent in Athens) in 415 BCE. To support her points, Keuls uses vase painting (a lot of them) to literally illustrate the seemingly endless references to the phallus, rape, and sometimes graphic forms of sexuality in general, not to mention depicting the ideal image of 'good' women, constantly spinning thread or engaged in other respectable occupations. For me, this book reinforced other information I already knew, and provided another way to look at -- and teach -- this era in history. The volume of information is sometimes overwhelming, and I think it would take two readings to fully appreciate what the author has accomplished.

Worth reading for the vase paintings alone

Keuls's controversial contention that she's solved the mystery of who smashed the herms of Athens has overshadowed the real strength of this book, which is the documentation. She has amassed a wealth of vase paintings, as well as references to women in Athenian legal documents, that paint a clear picture of the reality of women's lives in ancient Athens. By the end of the book, she's proved her case that women's lives in the world's first democracy weren't that much different from modern women's lives in Saudi Arabia - except the slaves in general, and the slave prostitutes in particular, certainly had it worse. It's a must read for anyone who still believes all Athenian women were heroines like Antigone.

Sex and Art

Judging from Greek mythology and art, the Ancient Greek appear to be obsessed with sex - but why? The author does a good job of explaining this obsession in terms of literature, art, and history. By understanding the suppression of women in Greek culture, one is able to understand many taboo aspects of Greek culture. The author states that museum's have censored many works of art due to the pornographic themes, and as a result Modern society has been misguided. Although I did not agree with the authors interruption of every piece of art in the book, I did find the subject of female and male prostitution 'interesting'. It was also 'interesting' to learn what the Ancients Greeks considered beautiful in terms of male and female sexuality, and why the Greek's altered the size of certain body parts in art. Needless to say , I found this book interesting and very entertaining; however, I would only recommend it to a mature audience.