Male Bodies, Male Gazes: Exploring Erôs in the Twelfth Book of the Greek Anthology
Male Bodies, Male Gazes: Exploring Erôs in the Twelfth Book of the Greek Anthology
This chapter explores perceptions and representations of erôs in the pederastic epigrams of the Greek Anthology’s twelfth book, which is known as Strato’s Musa Puerilis. In these epigrams youthful male bodies and voluptuous gazes of older men construct an imagery that enables the articulation of various patterns of thought and action centered upon pederastic relations and the emotional load surrounding them. It is maintained that the male pederastic gaze of these poems functions as an emotional and intellectual lens associated with the identities of viewer and viewed, the social power relations between them, as well as the type and manifestations of their emotions. It is also shown that the same lens affects the ways in which these representations are related to the cultural context of the Musa Puerilis and are turned into poetry.
Keywords: bodies, male pederastic gaze, pederastic epigrams, erôs, Musa Puerilis, Greek Anthology
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