The Joy of Sexus
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Speller, Elizabeth. Following Hadrian. (Oxford University Press, 2003.)
Stengers, Jean, and Anne Van Neck. Masturbation: The History of a Great Terror. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.)
Tannahill, Reay. Sex in History. (Stein and Day, 1980.)
Vivolo, F. Paolo. Pompeii’s Erotic Songbook. (Plurigraf, 2001.)
Walker, Barbara G. The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. (Castle Books, 1996.)
Zanker, P. The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus. (University of Michigan Press, 2001.)
Lastly, get yourself a superlative guide to place-names in the ancient world, from what they were called originally as well as what they’re called now: Webster’s New Geographical Dictionary (new or used).
Online Resources:
Fans of the ancient world, from beginner fanatics to serious long-term addicts, are in luck online. Here are some of my favorites: and these gloriously wide-ranging, well-researched websites on ancient Roman, Greek, and other cultures around or near the Mediterranean Sea truly deserve that much-abused adjective “awesome.”
William Thayer’s massive site, LacusCurtius. Besides excellent online translations of over forty Roman and Greek writers, Thayer includes detailed notes and subject matter indices. Other felicities: a Roman gazetteer, a treasure trove of public domain articles written by experts in prior centuries, detailed topographical data, and much of Smith’s Dictionary of Roman and Greek Antiquities.
Jona Lendering’s huge site, livius.org. This bonanza, accessible and well-written (most by Lendering) has over 3,600 pages and countless articles on ancient world figures, events, places, monuments, and more. Beautifully organized into geographic and topic subheads from Anatolia to the Great Flood.
Thayer and Lendering also write rambambashi.wordpress.org, a worthwhile blog with website updates plus unflinching reviews of everything from the Vatican “museum” to time-worn tour guide myths.
Andrew Smith’s attalus.org is a bright look at the ancient world, with an invaluable history overview, large sections on papyri and inscriptions, 25,000 links to relevant topics, and what must have been a labor of love: detailed timelines from the fourth century B.C. through the first century B.C.
For those seeking visual sources on the ancient world: Popular historical fiction author Steven Saylor has a fascinating section on his website, www.stevensaylor.com, that’s a detailed guide to all films, television programs, and TV series past and present on Greco-Roman and ancient world themes. Extremely useful, since Saylor gives direct links to acquire these visual delights. His recommended book list is also wonderful.
Romanmysteries.com is another winner, the brainchild of another prolific writer: Caroline Lawrence, author of the Roman Mysteries series for younger readers. On it, she provides a staggering array of links to the ancient world; I’m especially fond of her links to ancient Ostia—Pompeii’s often overlooked rival in terms of on-site interest.
If you enjoyed my entries on long-ago beliefs about wandering wombs and hysteria, be sure to see the 2012 Sony film Hysteria. In comic detail, it shows to what lengths women have gone through to get an orgasm—and how long those myths about female biology have persisted.
Acknowledgments & Dedication
This book is dedicated to my darling sister, Mary Davis; my treasured daughter, Valerie Conroy; and my mother, Carol, whose earthy humor and Zorba spirit I honor every day.
Special thanks to my agent, David Forrer, and to InkWell Management; and to my publisher, George Gibson, and Walker/Bloomsbury for their patience and support in helping to shape this book.
My gratitude also to the friends and writing colleagues who kept me motivated and satiated to the finish line, including hortator Bill Morem, William Henry Crew III, Jeri Remley, Jim Hayes, Maria Lorca, Wilma Smith, Elizabeth Spurr, and Sherry Shahan, Irene Hahn and the Roman history book group, and the talented members of my own Cambria Writers Workshop.
That number includes ace author-researcher Adrienne Mayor, whose groundbreaking book, The Poison King, was inspirational, and Caroline Lawrence, whose deeply researched books and literary output are equally inspiring.
I’m also grateful for the encouragement and generous hospitality given to me while researching by fellow writers Judith Harris, David Willey, Joyce Wyels, and Kate Hovey.
Thanks also to Alan Hirshfeld, Dan Krieger, and Alex Comfort, whose contributions sparked the Joy of Sexus title.
And lastly, a passionate thanks to Paul Ogren, whose loving interest, sense of fun, and thirst to learn more about the juice and joy of long-ago love and sexuality finally persuaded me to return from the never-never land of research rapture and bring this book to fruition.
Maps
Central Mediterranean: Greece, Macedonia, the Greek islands, and Asia Minor
Mediterranean: Asia Minor, the Middle East, and the Holy Land
Western Mediterranean: Italy, Carthage, and Provinces of the Roman Empire
Rome, capital of the Roman Empire
Southern Mediterranean: Egypt, North Africa, Arabia, and Mesopotamia
A Note on the Author
Vicki León calls the central coast of California home but returns often to her Mediterranean sources. Having honed her research skills by unearthing nine hundred achievers for her Uppity Women series, including her latest book, 4,000 Years of Uppity Women, she’s also delved deeper into the ancient world with Working IX to V and How to Mellify a Corpse.
Praise for How to Mellify a Corpse
“Vicki León’s How to Mellify a Corpse is a scintillating compendium of ancient beliefs and practices, from magical thinking to proto-scientific inklings.”
—ADRIENNE MAYOR, author of The Poison King and The First Fossil Hunters
“León returns with another volume of fascinating miscellany, this time about the thought-world of the Greeks and Romans. Her lively anecdotes range from Stoics to stargazers, from ceremonial scapegoats to (mostly pseudo) scientists. In a world still poised between superstition and reason, León shows us that the examples of the ancients are more pertinent than you might think.”
—STEVEN SAYLOR, author of Empire: The Novel of Imperial Rome
“Like a literary time machine, Vicki León’s book plunks readers into the sandals of antiquity’s greatest sages, soldiers, and kings. A captivating read from start to finish.”
—ALAN HIRSHFELD, astrophysicist and author of Eureka Man: The Life and Legacy of Archimedes
“Vicki León’s penetrating account of the Greco-Roman world ranges from forward-looking science, technology, and philosophy to mind-boggling superstition. All of it brought to life through a huge cast of real people, from the renowned to the deservedly obscure, and told with style, humor, and energy. It’s a perfect combination: the ancient world seen through perceptive modern eyes.”
—DR. STEPHEN MOORBATH, professor emeritus at the University of Oxford
“Vicki León has done it again, turning a litany of ancient names into warts-and-all portraits of real philosophers, early scientists, and architects. With acerbic wit, she makes accessible the complex teachings of our icons from the deep past.”
—DR. JACQUELINE WALDREN, Institute of Social and Cultural
Anthropology and International Gender Studies at the University of Oxford “An endlessly fascinating book, full of things that are shocking, unsettling, and, of course, just plain weird.”
—Booklist
Praise for Working IX to V
“Vicki León has the rare gift of being able to conjure sharp prose from serious study. Working IX to V is a delight: a richly entertaining romp through the everyday lives of people whose world was, in their own eyes, not ancient at all.”
—RUTH DOWNIE, author of Semper Fidelis: A Novel of the Roman Empire
“What I really like about Working IX to V are its fascinating portraits of a remarkable range of people in the ancient past. They are funny, they are outlandish, as people often are, but the portraits are authentic and they bring the pa
st to life. Beyond the belly laughs, Vicki León reveals herself as a researcher and writer of immense curiosity and considerable erudition whose enjoyment of the classical world is lovingly and wittily presented to her readers in this book.”
—MICHAEL HAAG, author of Alexandria: City of Memory
“Move over, Plato, Caesar, and Cicero! Make way for the down-and-dirty lifeblood of ancient Greece and Rome. The classical world has never been such a hoot as it is under the deft quill of Vicki León. One would expect an author of such impeccable scholarship to be dry as a bone. Instead she tickles our funny bone, finding a way to indelibly stamp the weird and fascinating details of ancient Greece and Rome into our brains.”
—ROBIN MAXWELL, author of Jane: The Woman Who Loved Tarzan and
The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn “Drawing on the same outrageous sense of humor that’s made her Uppity Women series so popular, León demonstrates how uncannily similar the workaday experiences of the ancient world are to ours.”
—Publishers Weekly
Copyright © 2013 by Vicki León
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First U.S. edition 2013
Electronic edition published in January 2013
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