Pub Date : 2023-04-01DOI: 10.5325/mediterraneanstu.31.1.0121
Ifigeneia Giannadaki
There has been a growing interest in books about the sex trade and prostitution in recent years, including Edward Cohen’s Athenian Prostitution: The Business of Sex (2015) and Konstantinos Kapparis’s Prostitution in the Ancient Greek World (2018). Allison Glazebrook contributes to this subject, approaching sex trade from a different angle. Specifically, her focus is on the “type” of the “sex laborer” in forensic orations and how the “sex laborer” was “problematized in relation to gender, the body, sexuality, the family, urban space, and the polis” (p. 5). Glazebrook situates her current work in modern literature, which relies on the study of Athenian forensic oratory as an invaluable source for the reconstruction of aspects of Athenian attitudes, popular views, and social realities. She focuses on five “key speeches in full” (p. 4) in order to explore “sexual labor” in the Athenian courts (see her introduction). The aim of the book is the in-depth analysis of these key speeches centering on “sex laborers/labor” and exploration of the relationship between sex labor and Athenian society. Her research includes both male and female “sex laborers,” and in this respect she offers a balanced approach to her subject.The introduction concludes with “A Note on Terminology” (pp. 19–20), where Glazebrook explains convincingly her choice of “sexual labor/laborer” as against the terms “sex work/worker.” Yet the terms “sex labor/sexual laborer” are still too broad to capture the rhetorical use of specific terms related to sex trade in the orators. The terms can also blur the legal status of the individuals engaged in the sex trade. Notable examples are the terms pornos-e/-e, hetaira/hetairein and their cognates. But the author is aware of the potential issues arising from her choice of terminology (p. 20) and applying the concept of “sex labor” in action. Inescapably, the precise “prostitute” and “companion” find their place in translating and interpreting the Greek terms (pornos-/e and hetaira/hetairein and their various verbal forms) in Glazebrook’s analysis (e.g., pp. 117, 125 “sexual companion” [hetairekos] and “having prostituted himself” [peporneumenos])—terminology coexisting with the broader terminology of “sex laborer.”1The book is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 focuses on the study of the unnamed slave girl in Lysias 4, referred to as “female sex laborer” and “female sex slave” in Glazebrook’s analysis (pp. 22, 23) and as “enslaved sex laborer,”2 the subject of a dispute and violent encounter between the two joint owners of the woman. There is an eloquent analysis of the characteristics of the “laborer” in that she is presented as having some agency over the quarrel between the two men and as being manipulative, despite her legal status as a slave. Glazebrook analyzes in detail the strategy of exploiting common social anxieties around the influence of women in men’s affairs, particularly women as “sex laborers.” Chapter 2 focuses on Isaios 6. T
{"title":"Sexual Labor in the Athenian Courts","authors":"Ifigeneia Giannadaki","doi":"10.5325/mediterraneanstu.31.1.0121","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/mediterraneanstu.31.1.0121","url":null,"abstract":"There has been a growing interest in books about the sex trade and prostitution in recent years, including Edward Cohen’s Athenian Prostitution: The Business of Sex (2015) and Konstantinos Kapparis’s Prostitution in the Ancient Greek World (2018). Allison Glazebrook contributes to this subject, approaching sex trade from a different angle. Specifically, her focus is on the “type” of the “sex laborer” in forensic orations and how the “sex laborer” was “problematized in relation to gender, the body, sexuality, the family, urban space, and the polis” (p. 5). Glazebrook situates her current work in modern literature, which relies on the study of Athenian forensic oratory as an invaluable source for the reconstruction of aspects of Athenian attitudes, popular views, and social realities. She focuses on five “key speeches in full” (p. 4) in order to explore “sexual labor” in the Athenian courts (see her introduction). The aim of the book is the in-depth analysis of these key speeches centering on “sex laborers/labor” and exploration of the relationship between sex labor and Athenian society. Her research includes both male and female “sex laborers,” and in this respect she offers a balanced approach to her subject.The introduction concludes with “A Note on Terminology” (pp. 19–20), where Glazebrook explains convincingly her choice of “sexual labor/laborer” as against the terms “sex work/worker.” Yet the terms “sex labor/sexual laborer” are still too broad to capture the rhetorical use of specific terms related to sex trade in the orators. The terms can also blur the legal status of the individuals engaged in the sex trade. Notable examples are the terms pornos-e/-e, hetaira/hetairein and their cognates. But the author is aware of the potential issues arising from her choice of terminology (p. 20) and applying the concept of “sex labor” in action. Inescapably, the precise “prostitute” and “companion” find their place in translating and interpreting the Greek terms (pornos-/e and hetaira/hetairein and their various verbal forms) in Glazebrook’s analysis (e.g., pp. 117, 125 “sexual companion” [hetairekos] and “having prostituted himself” [peporneumenos])—terminology coexisting with the broader terminology of “sex laborer.”1The book is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 focuses on the study of the unnamed slave girl in Lysias 4, referred to as “female sex laborer” and “female sex slave” in Glazebrook’s analysis (pp. 22, 23) and as “enslaved sex laborer,”2 the subject of a dispute and violent encounter between the two joint owners of the woman. There is an eloquent analysis of the characteristics of the “laborer” in that she is presented as having some agency over the quarrel between the two men and as being manipulative, despite her legal status as a slave. Glazebrook analyzes in detail the strategy of exploiting common social anxieties around the influence of women in men’s affairs, particularly women as “sex laborers.” Chapter 2 focuses on Isaios 6. T","PeriodicalId":41352,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Studies","volume":"357 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134946485","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-12-06DOI: 10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.26.2.0145
Geraldo U. de Sousa
abstract:This article examines Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors from an oceanic perspective, and explores how the play juxtaposes and interrogates home and the sea. Such an oceanic perspective requires not only a critical reassessment but also new approaches. Shakespeare gives his Mediterranean Sea a contemporary feel and raises questions about the extent to which the sea erases boundaries and shapes or challenges our sense of identity. Syracuse and Ephesus, rival merchant city-states, retaliate against each other in the play, and attempt to demarcate boundaries of influence and control. The members of Egeon's family, separated and set adrift by shipwreck, become migrants and refugees in a hostile world. In its own way, the play raises the matter of human stewardship of and impact on a maritime environment. In contested space of the Mediterranean, Shakespeare interrogates the place of home and identity.
{"title":"Home and Abroad: Crossing the Mediterranean in Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors","authors":"Geraldo U. de Sousa","doi":"10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.26.2.0145","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/MEDITERRANEANSTU.26.2.0145","url":null,"abstract":"abstract:This article examines Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors from an oceanic perspective, and explores how the play juxtaposes and interrogates home and the sea. Such an oceanic perspective requires not only a critical reassessment but also new approaches. Shakespeare gives his Mediterranean Sea a contemporary feel and raises questions about the extent to which the sea erases boundaries and shapes or challenges our sense of identity. Syracuse and Ephesus, rival merchant city-states, retaliate against each other in the play, and attempt to demarcate boundaries of influence and control. The members of Egeon's family, separated and set adrift by shipwreck, become migrants and refugees in a hostile world. In its own way, the play raises the matter of human stewardship of and impact on a maritime environment. In contested space of the Mediterranean, Shakespeare interrogates the place of home and identity.","PeriodicalId":41352,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Studies","volume":"13 1","pages":"145 - 158"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89882679","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"History, genre and sexuality in the sixteenth century: the Zoppino dialogue attributed to Pietro Aretino.","authors":"D Salkeld","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41352,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Studies","volume":"10 ","pages":"49-116"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"29456026","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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