Love, Sex & Tragedy: How the Ancient World Shapes Our Lives

By Simon Goldhill

Book Overview

"If you do not know where you come from, you will always be a child." Cicero wasn't talking about being a child in the sense of enjoying life in a state of ignorant bliss. He was, rather, adamant that those who don't understand their origins are consigned to a life without power or authority, without the ability to act fully in the world. Love, Sex & Tragedy is acclaimed classicist Simon Goldhill's corrective to our state of ignorance. Lifting the veil on our inheritance of classical traditions, Goldhill offers a witty, engrossing survey of the Greek and Roman roots of everything from our overwhelming mania for "hard bodies" to our political systems.

Marx, Clark Gable, George W. Bush, Oscar Wilde, and Freud--Goldhill's range here is enormous, and he takes great delight in tracing both follies and fundamental philosophical questions through the centuries and continents to the birthplace of Western civilization as we know it. Underlying his brisk and learned excursions through history and art is the foundational belief, following Cicero, that learning about the classics makes a critical difference to our self-understanding. Whether we are considering the role of religion in contemporary society, our expectations about the boundaries between public and private life, or even how we spend our free time, recognizing the role of the classics is integral to our comprehension of modern life and our place in it.

When Goldhill asks "Who do you think you are?" he presents us with the rarest of opportunities: the chance to let him lead us, firmly but with a wink, back two thousand years to where we are.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226301176
• ISBN13: 9780226301174
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 335 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Wide array of interesting connections

The book treats the five questions (Who do you think you are? Where do you think you are going? What do you think should happen? What do you want to do? Where do you think you come from?) from the perspective of a contrast between Greek/Roman response and current "Western" attitudes, responses, cultural creations having to do with versions of the questions. Goldhill discusses attitudes towards the body (male body, female body in Greek and contemporary cultures), sex (Greek love, physical attraction of males towards males in Greece, love between men and women, love between women), religion, democracy, theater and gladiator games (entertainment and its role in culture), etc. What could be in the hands of other authors a potpourri of different topics is here unified by the constant contrast (reflection, opposition, emulation) between antiquity and contemporary culture. The author discusses all of those issues in a frank, direct tone - the images accompanying and underlining his assertions are chosen very well.

Bringing Ancient Greece Alive

A very few authors have the ability to make History live, and in this wonderful book the author achieves this. He demonstates how the teachings and the lives of the ancient Greeks permeate our lives, affecting our sexual mores, politics, social lives, entertainment, and how we feel about love and war, about ourselves and others. Indeed, it is difficult to think of some part of modern living not affected by these ancient people. His writing is replete with interesing examples and stories. The section on Greek Tragedy is worth the price of the book by itself. Having reread the discussion on the Tragedy of Oedipus several times, I find it both difficult and stimulating, getting me to haul out the old tomes I have from college days, particularly the plays of Sophocles (I have started on "Oedipus the King"}.One of the signs of a good book is that it makes you want to read others on the subject. I urge you to buy and read this book. You will find it very stimulating and enjoyable and will want to add it to your permanent library.

Greek Sex, I mean it's so interesting...

I bought this book because I like all things Greek - it really fascinates me. I study ancient Greek for the hey of it! This book begins great, too. It starts with the BODY. Anyone who is anyone has seen those sculptures, and maybe this comes from being a hetero female, but I am convinced as to the ideal male body being discovered back in the Greek days. Apparently they were too, since a woman was seen as "deformed." They preferred instead to have sex with "boys." And this book told me all the details. I can't help it, I like Greek tragedy and philosophy and the origins of democracy and all that, but I also like to hear about erect phalluses and how exactly this "Greek love" worked. I got it with this book (along with the other stuff). Check it out! Maybe you'll slow down a bit when he starts talking about early Christianity, but before that I swear you'll be riveted!

Democracy, art and love - the Greek was there first!

If you were in doubt before, you wont be after reading this book: The classical Greek and Roman world influences how we look upon almost everything today. So, if we want to understand modern life and our place in it, for real, we must study our Greek and Roman heritage. Goldhill does a wonderful job of making the connections from the classical world to our world. His insights does indeed help us tackle our often quite confusing contemporary world a little better. Historical knowledge is always useful! Here it is even entertaining! :-) -Simon

Clark Gable, Gladiator, and Cicero

Simon Goldhill has written a splendid and charming book about how ancient Greek and Roman cultures shape our lives, without us even knowing it. Much has been made in recent years of how politicians turn to ancient authorities for guidance and justification in making difficult decisions. Members of the Bush administration, for example, invoked Thucydides and Herodotus during the build up to our attack on Iraq. And, yet, as Goldhill so smartly explains, we need not view the ancients as distant mentors: they live and breathe within us, for better or worse--influencing everything from how we view sex and gender to what entertains us to how our government works. From sex symbols to sporting events, we are impacted by the cultures of our deep past. Amassing a dazzling array of examples, Goldhill is a wonderful synthesizer and storyteller. Highly entertaining, this book is recommended for any general reader, including young adults, interested in ancient history.