Research Catalog

Title

Love between women : early Christian responses to female homoeroticism / Bernadette J. Brooten.

Author

Brooten, Bernadette J.

Publication

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1996.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xxii, 412 p., [10] p. of plates : ill.; 24 cm.

Summary

"Bernadette J. Brooten examines female homoeroticism and the role of women in the ancient Roman world. Employing an unparalleled range of cultural sources, from magical spells and medical texts to astrological horoscopes, Brooten finds evidence of marriages between women and discusses the surgical procedure of clitoridectomy as a method of controlling female homoeroticism. She incontrovertibly establishes the fact that condemnations of female homoerotic practices were based on widespread awareness of sexual love between women. Culling significant information from her sources to illuminate the lives and beliefs of myriad ancient Mediterranean peoples, she gives a tour, at once delightful and distressing, of Roman-world attitudes."--Jacket.

Series Statement

Chicago series on sexuality, history, and society

Uniform Title

Chicago series on sexuality, history, and society.

Subject

• Paulus <Apostel>
• Bible. > Criticism, interpretation, etc
• Bible. > Criticism, interpretation, etc. > History > Early church, approximately 30-600
• 30-600
• Lesbianism > Biblical teaching
• Lesbianism > Religious aspects > Christianity > History of doctrines > Early church, ca. 30-600
• Lesbianism > Rome
• Homosexuality, Female > history
• Christianity > viewpoint
• Homoeroticism

Genre/Form

• Comment
• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [363]-372) and indexes.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Context within Current Scholarship on Same-Sex Love in Antiquity -- This Study within the Context of Ancient Mediterranean Women's History -- This Study within the Context of Lesbian History -- Female Homoeroticism in the Roman World: The Cultural Context of Early Christianity -- Introduction: Of Sappho, Woman-Woman Marriage, and the Ways of the Egyptians -- Sappho of Lesbos -- Classical and Hellenistic Greek Literature -- Classical Latin Literature -- Greek Authors of the Roman Period -- Artistic Representations -- Postbiblical Judaism -- "Inflame Her Liver with Love": Greek Erotic Spells from Egypt -- The Female Homoerotic Binding Spells: Texts and Commentary -- Interpreting Cultural Ideology -- Reconstructing Women's History -- The Erotic Spells, Magic, and Religion -- The Spells and Early Christianity -- Predetermined Erotic Orientations: Astrological Texts -- Dorotheos of Sidon -- Manetho -- Ptolemy -- Vettius Valens -- Hermes Trismegistos -- Firmicus Maternus -- Hephaistion of Thebes -- Women with Masculine Desires: Medical Treatments -- Tribades as Mentally Ill -- Clitoridectomy for Women with Masculine Desires -- The Medical Heritage of Female Homoeroticism -- Unnatural Love: Classifying Dreams -- Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism -- Introduction: Of British Schoolteachers and Romans -- Paul's Letter to the Romans: Interpretive Frameworks and Female Homoeroticism -- Literary Approaches to Romans -- Interpretive Frameworks for Romans 1:18-32 -- Romans 1:18-32: A Commentary -- Commentary on Romans 1:16-32.

ISBN

0226075915 (alk. paper)

LCCN

^^^96004727^//r97

OCLC

• 34322848
• SCSB-10307459

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library