
Exploring Gender Diversity in the Ancient World
Edinburgh University Press
Published on 31. March 2020
Book
Hardback
280 pages
978-1-4744-4704-1 (ISBN)
Description
Explores how binary gender and behaviours of gender were actively challenged in classical antiquity
Provides a focus on gender on its own terms and outside the context of sex and sexuality Offers an interdisciplinary approach, appealing to Classicists, Ancient Historians, and Archaeologists, as well as audiences working outside the ancient world, in Gender Studies, Transgender Studies, LGBTQ+ Studies, Anthropology, and Women's StudiesCovers a broad time period (6th c. BCE - 3rd c. CE) and addresses both textual evidence and material culture (vases, sculpture, wall painting)Provides history of gender identities and behaviours previously ignored or suppressed by disciplinary practices
Gender identity and expression in ancient cultures are questioned in these 15 essays in light of our new understandings of sex and gender. Using contemporary theory and methodologies this book opens up a new history of gender diversity from the ancient world to our own, encouraging us to reconsider those very understandings of sex and gender identity.
New analyses of ancient Greek and Roman culture that reveal a history of gender diverse individuals that has not been recognised until recently.
Taking an interdisciplinary approach these essays will appeal to classicists, ancient historians, archaeologists as well as those working in gender studies, transgender studies, LGBTQ+ studies, anthropology and women's studies.
Provides a focus on gender on its own terms and outside the context of sex and sexuality Offers an interdisciplinary approach, appealing to Classicists, Ancient Historians, and Archaeologists, as well as audiences working outside the ancient world, in Gender Studies, Transgender Studies, LGBTQ+ Studies, Anthropology, and Women's StudiesCovers a broad time period (6th c. BCE - 3rd c. CE) and addresses both textual evidence and material culture (vases, sculpture, wall painting)Provides history of gender identities and behaviours previously ignored or suppressed by disciplinary practices
Gender identity and expression in ancient cultures are questioned in these 15 essays in light of our new understandings of sex and gender. Using contemporary theory and methodologies this book opens up a new history of gender diversity from the ancient world to our own, encouraging us to reconsider those very understandings of sex and gender identity.
New analyses of ancient Greek and Roman culture that reveal a history of gender diverse individuals that has not been recognised until recently.
Taking an interdisciplinary approach these essays will appeal to classicists, ancient historians, archaeologists as well as those working in gender studies, transgender studies, LGBTQ+ studies, anthropology and women's studies.
Reviews / Votes
This collection of essays on gender and sexual diversity in antiquity showcases a broad range of topics, approaches and time periods. The essays use philosophy, post-humanist theory, film reception, medicine, cross-cultural comparisons, intersectional theory, and rhetoric to tease out new and interesting ideas about sex and gender. Of great interest to anyone teaching a course on this topic. * Barbara Gold, Hamilton College *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
25 black and white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 241 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
553 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4744-4704-1 (9781474447041)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Allison Surtees | Jennifer Dyer
Exploring Gender Diversity in the Ancient World
E-Book
02/2020
1st Edition
Edinburgh University Press
€0.00
Available for download
Persons
Allison Surtees is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Winnipeg. Jennifer Dyer is Associate Professor in Gender Studies at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. She is the author of Serial Images: The Modern Art of Iteration (Lit Verlag, 2011).
Editor
Associate Professor of ClassicsUniversity of Winnipeg
Associate ProfessorMemorial University of Newfoundland
Content
Notes on ContributorsAcknowledgments
Introduction: Queering Classics - Allison Surtees and Jennifer Dyer
Gender Construction
1. Gender Diversity in Classical Greek Thought - Walter Penrose, Jr. (San Diego State University)
2. Blending Bodies in Classical Greek Medicine - Tyson Sukava (University of Delaware)
3. Birth by Hammer: Pandora and the construction of bodies - Anna Uhlig (University of California, Davis)
4. Life After Transition: Spontaneous Sex Change and Its Aftermath in Ancient Literature - K.E. Shannon-Henderson (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa)
Gender Fluidity
5. Neutrumque et Utrumque Videntur: Reappraising the gender-role(s) of Hermaphroditus in ancient art - Linnea Ashede (University of Gothenburg)
6. Intersex and Intertext: Ovid's Hermaphroditus and the Early Universe - Peter Kelly (University of Oregon)
7. Qu(e)r(y)ing Iphis' transformation in Ovid's Metamorphoses - Rebecca Begum-Lees (University of Cambridge)
8. Ruling in the purpleY and wearing make-up: Gendered Adventures of Emperor Elagabalus as seen by Cassius Dio and Herodian - Jussi Rantala (University of Tampere)
Transgender Identity
9. Allegorical Bodies: (trans)gendering Virtus in Statius' Thebaid 10 and Silius Italicus' Punica 15 - Dalida Agri (University of Manchester)
10. Performing Blurred Gender Lines: Revisiting Omphale and Hercules in Pompeian Dionysian Theatre Gardens - Lisa Hughes (University of Calgary)
11. The Politics of Transgender Representation in Apuleius' Golden Ass and Loukios, or the Ass - Evelyn Adkins (Case Western Reserve University)
12. Wit, Conventional Wisdom, and Willful Blindness: Intersections between Sex, Gender, Class, and Ethnicity in the Fifth of Lucian's Dialogues of the Courtesans - Rowan Emily Ash (University of Western Ontario)
Female Masculinity
13. Christianity Re-sexualised: Intertextuality and the Early Christian Novel - Brian Sowers (Brooklyn College) and Kimberly Passaro (University of Cincinnati)
14. Manly and Monstrous Women: (De-) Constructing Gender in Roman Oratory - Mary Deminion (University of Western Ontario)
15. The great escape: Reading Artemisia in Herodotus' Histories and 300: Rise of an Empire - Denise Eileen McCoskey (Miami University, Ohio)
Selected BibliographyIndex
Introduction: Queering Classics - Allison Surtees and Jennifer Dyer
Gender Construction
1. Gender Diversity in Classical Greek Thought - Walter Penrose, Jr. (San Diego State University)
2. Blending Bodies in Classical Greek Medicine - Tyson Sukava (University of Delaware)
3. Birth by Hammer: Pandora and the construction of bodies - Anna Uhlig (University of California, Davis)
4. Life After Transition: Spontaneous Sex Change and Its Aftermath in Ancient Literature - K.E. Shannon-Henderson (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa)
Gender Fluidity
5. Neutrumque et Utrumque Videntur: Reappraising the gender-role(s) of Hermaphroditus in ancient art - Linnea Ashede (University of Gothenburg)
6. Intersex and Intertext: Ovid's Hermaphroditus and the Early Universe - Peter Kelly (University of Oregon)
7. Qu(e)r(y)ing Iphis' transformation in Ovid's Metamorphoses - Rebecca Begum-Lees (University of Cambridge)
8. Ruling in the purpleY and wearing make-up: Gendered Adventures of Emperor Elagabalus as seen by Cassius Dio and Herodian - Jussi Rantala (University of Tampere)
Transgender Identity
9. Allegorical Bodies: (trans)gendering Virtus in Statius' Thebaid 10 and Silius Italicus' Punica 15 - Dalida Agri (University of Manchester)
10. Performing Blurred Gender Lines: Revisiting Omphale and Hercules in Pompeian Dionysian Theatre Gardens - Lisa Hughes (University of Calgary)
11. The Politics of Transgender Representation in Apuleius' Golden Ass and Loukios, or the Ass - Evelyn Adkins (Case Western Reserve University)
12. Wit, Conventional Wisdom, and Willful Blindness: Intersections between Sex, Gender, Class, and Ethnicity in the Fifth of Lucian's Dialogues of the Courtesans - Rowan Emily Ash (University of Western Ontario)
Female Masculinity
13. Christianity Re-sexualised: Intertextuality and the Early Christian Novel - Brian Sowers (Brooklyn College) and Kimberly Passaro (University of Cincinnati)
14. Manly and Monstrous Women: (De-) Constructing Gender in Roman Oratory - Mary Deminion (University of Western Ontario)
15. The great escape: Reading Artemisia in Herodotus' Histories and 300: Rise of an Empire - Denise Eileen McCoskey (Miami University, Ohio)
Selected BibliographyIndex