A primary reading series developed with UCL Institute of Education to help children become confident, independent readers.
Was Ovid a surprising champion of women’s sexual pleasure? Or did he just want them to fake it? Where did the British Museum curators hide the most pornographic of frescoes? And what exactly was the phallic wooden object excavated in 90’s Northumberland?
In APHRODISIA, Dr Jean Menzies dives into the hidden history of women’s sexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome. The classical world stretched across the Mediterranean for more than a millennium, its people and cultures wide and varied and its sexual proclivities equally so. Yet so often when we read about sex in antiquity it is about the men folk first and foremost: which brothels they were visiting, how they balanced wives and lovers, and what they got up to in the gymnasium. Delving into the literature, art and artefacts of the ancient world, from sex toys to seduction tips to kink, Dr Jean Menzies instead centres women and their desire. In doing so, she uncovers the many faces of women’s sexuality over the course of thousands of years, and asks intriguing, and sometimes provocative questions about women, sex and desire today.
In APHRODISIA, Dr Jean Menzies dives into the hidden history of women’s sexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome. The classical world stretched across the Mediterranean for more than a millennium, its people and cultures wide and varied and its sexual proclivities equally so. Yet so often when we read about sex in antiquity it is about the men folk first and foremost: which brothels they were visiting, how they balanced wives and lovers, and what they got up to in the gymnasium. Delving into the literature, art and artefacts of the ancient world, from sex toys to seduction tips to kink, Dr Jean Menzies instead centres women and their desire. In doing so, she uncovers the many faces of women’s sexuality over the course of thousands of years, and asks intriguing, and sometimes provocative questions about women, sex and desire today.
Reviews
'Was sex always the same? Have women always expressed their desire in the same way? In Aphrodisia, Jean Menzies suggests that if history shows anything, it's that there is no one rule to women's desire, except that every woman deserves it. Written with a light touch yet traversing the histories, art and literature of Greece and Rome and unpacking the legacies (and lies) in the history of sex they left behind, Menzies' book offers fascinating insights into women's worlds and desires in Greco-Roman antiquity and beyond.'
-Emily Hauser, Sunday Times bestselling author of Mythica
'Aphrodisia by Jean Menzies is a wonderfully witty and insightful look at attitudes towards female sexual pleasure in Ancient Greece and Rome... Truly fabulous.'
-Elodie Harper, Sunday Times bestselling author of the Wolf Den trilogy