Greek Love: Unfair Criticism

G.W. Bowersock is not kind. The New York Review of Books has published recently his very negative review of The Greeks and Greek Love - A Bold New Exploration of the Ancient World (James Davidson, Random House, 2009, 789p). After praising Kenneth Dover's Greek Homosexuality (1978) he links Davidson's book to "the longer books that have been published on Greek homosexuality in the thirty years after Dover", none of which "comes close to his lucid, concise, and scholarly exposition."

But Bowersock's criticism goes too far. Davidson's emphasis on a "broader picture of affective relationships", instead of "what he considers an excessive emphasis on sexual penetration" is not an attempt to "diminish Dover's work" or to "undermine Dover's immense authority." At least that's not how I remember it. Bowersock also seems to imply that The Greeks and Greek Love is a "timely" apology of "pederasty under the guise of Greek love (...) at a moment when Western nations have been profoundly shaken by revelations of child abuse." This is unfair and inaccurate. I must say I have a much nicer recollection of Davidson's book which I mentioned last year in this blog.

At Galignani, the best (and oldest?) English bookstore in Paris, I came upon The Paris Letters of Thomas Eakins, edited by William Innes Homer (Princeton University Press, 2009, 392p), hot from the press, which seems to be worth reading.

2009.09.20