Toxic Masculinity in the Ancient World
Edited by Melanie Racette-Campbell, Aven McMaster
- Covers both Greek and Roman societies, and a broad range of sources, such as curse tablets, history, philosophy, drama, poetry, and medical texts
- Connects the ancient and modern world to improve our understanding of both
- Addresses contemporary issues and events such as violence against women and online hate groups
- Provides a model for using anachronistic theoretical frameworks to understand the past
- Contributes to the field of masculinity studies by bringing together work on gender in ancient Greece, Rome, and contemporary Western societies
This book looks at a contemporary concept – toxic masculinity – and considers its usefulness for understanding the ancient Mediterranean world. By concentrating on the particular elements that make up this form of masculine behaviour and identity, briefly defined as a performance of masculinity that is harmful to people who should be protected, to one’s community, or to oneself, we illuminate tensions and contradictions within Greek and Roman conceptions of gender, while tracing some origins of modern gender roles. This book also highlights the ways that texts and events from the ancient world are invoked in the construction of toxic masculinity today. Covering Athenian oratory and drama, Roman poetry and history, curse tablets, early Christian writing, Italian cinema, US politics, and more, this collection brings together the ancient and modern to ask what shapes a culture’s understanding of masculinity and how to identify the aspects of that understanding that can cause harm.
AcknowledgementsNotes on ContributorsAbbreviations
Preface - Donna Zuckerberg
Introduction: Toxic Masculinity and Classics - Melanie Racette-Campbell and Aven McMaster
I: Violence against Others and Self
1. Plutarch and Punishment: Slavery and Toxic Masculinity in Aulus Gellius 1.26 - Tristan K. Husby
2. Attempted Rape as Rite of Passage: Constructing the Christian Feminine Ideal - Kim Passaro and Brian P. Sowers
3. Engendering Justice in a Gendered World: The Case of Thucydides’ Athenians - Jessica Penny Evans
4. Manliness as Motive for Action: A Discussion of (Toxic) Masculinity in the Antigone and the Lysistrata - Davide Morassi
5. Toxic Masculinity as a Lens for Middle Byzantium: The Case of Nikephoros II Phokas - Mark Masterson
6. Boy Toys: A Ciceronian Invective - Joanna Kenty
7. There’s No Crying in Government: Romulus, Brutus, and the Toxic Suppression of Grief - Jaclyn Neel
II: Ancient Critique
8. Toxic Masculinity in Petronius’ Satyrica - Jordan D. G. Mitchell
9. Real Roman Men and the Greeks Who Hate Them: Disciplina, Cato the Elder, and Plutarch - Elizabeth Manwell
10. (Toxic) Masculinity between Hegemony and Precariousness: Alternatives to Heteronormativity in Briseis’ Portrait of Achilles (Ov. Her. 3) - Simona Martorana
11. ‘Angry, Reckless, Savage’: Problematising the Hypermasculine Germani - Rhiannon Evans
12. Toxic Masculinity in Xenophon’s Account of the Trial of Sphodrias - Kendell Heydon
13. Criticism of Roman Men and the Conspicuously Moral Masculinity of Scipio Aemilianus - Charles Goldberg
III: Ancient Meets Modern
14. Scipio Africanus and the Construction of Fascist Italian Masculinities - Samuel Agbamu
15. Insult to Injury: Senecan Stoicism, Misogyny, and the Semantics of ‘Special Snowflake’ - Michael Goyette
16. Toxic Manhood Acts and the ‘Nice Guy’ Phenomenon in Ovid - Melissa Marturano
17. Violence, Victimhood, and the Rhetoric of Erotic Curses - Britta Ager
18. ‘Legitimate Rape’ and Toxic Masculinity from Todd Akin to Soranus - T.H.M. Gellar-Goad
19. Toxic Masculinity in the First-Year Classics Classroom - Jayne Knight and Jonathan Wallis
BibliographyIndex LocorumIndex
Through a creative use of the modern concept of ‘toxic masculinity’, this book explores ancient concepts and performances of the masculine. Its extensive range of studies shed light on the cultural specificity of both the ancient and modern ways in which masculinity can be abusive and hurtful to others and the self.
