The Pregnant Male as Myth and Metaphor in Classical Greek Literature (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781107017283)

This book traces the image of the pregnant male in Greek literature as it evolves over the course of the classical period. The image - as deployed in myth and in metaphor - originates as a representation of paternity and, by extension, "authorship" of ideas, works of art, legislation, and the like. Only later, with its reception in philosophy in the early fourth century, does it also become a way to figure and negotiate the boundary between the sexes. The book considers a number of important moments in the evolution of the image: the masculinist embryological theory of Anaxagoras of Clazomenae and other fifth century pre-Socratics; literary representations of the birth of Dionysus; the origin and functions of pregnancy as a metaphor in tragedy, comedy, and works of some Sophists; and finally the redeployment of some of these myths and metaphors in Aristophanes' Assemblywomen and in Plato's Symposium and Theaetetus..

Author: David D. Leitao
ISBN-10: 1107017289
ISBN-13: 9781107017283
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 04/30/2012
Pages: 328
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.00h x 5.80w x 1.10d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 01/01/2013