Sex, Gender, and Sexuality
Sex, Gender, and Sexuality
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性、性别和性倾向
DOI：
10.1002/9781118273289.ch26
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发表时间：
2013
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Timothy J. McNiven
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Timothy J. McNiven
With its beautiful, naked figures and the occasional explicit image of sexual activity, Greek art seems to be a clear and useful resource in the study of ancient Greek concepts of sex, gender, and sexuality. Looking more closely, it becomes clear that the artists were not as candid as first impressions have led us to believe: their images are carefully constructed to project the best qualities and aspirations of society. Some topics are avoided completely and others chosen to warn about the consequences of deviance. This reinforcement of community values about sex and gender in Greek art is the focus of this chapter, but it will take some dismantling of the rhetoric in order to get a sense of what the reality may have been like.The image inside a red-figured drinking cup from c. 500 BC (Figure 26.1) gives us a good example of the problems we may encounter in interpreting images. A young couple reclines on a symposion couch with their arms and legs wrapped around each other. He is nude, while she has a cloth covering her hips and a garland around her neck. We might interpret this as a tender image of intimate young love. However, an ancient Greek viewer would recognize immediately that the pair of pipes she holds indicate that she is a musician, hired to play for the male participants at the symposion, and available for sex afterwards. An ancient Greek male viewer’s attention might also be caught by the youth’s naked beauty, since his patchy sideburns indicate that he is at the peak of his homoerotic desirability. This particular cup was found in an Etruscan tomb at Vulci in Italy, so the ultimate buyer was not even Greek, and
