The Joy of Sexus: Lust, Love, and Longing in the Ancient World by Vicki Leon

Author:Vicki Leon
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Ancient, General, Family & Relationships, Love & Romance, Social History, History
ISBN: 9780802719973
Publisher: Walker
Published: 2013-01-29T00:00:00+00:00

Abduction, Seduction, Rape:

Unwilling Partners

Our term “rape” looks as though it came from the Latin raptus but long ago the word meant kidnap, abduction, or even elopement. Greco-Roman mythology is rampant with raptus episodes, starting with that incessantly horny king of the gods, Zeus aka Jupiter. In addition, legends about early Roman history, such as the raptus of the Sabine women, generally signified the forceful takeover of one cultural group by another through mass comingling in marriage. (Elsewhere in this book, check out the entries on the Amazons and on marriage for other perspectives on raptus.)

Sometimes the assault on a woman, the violation of her sexual integrity, became a symbolic catalyst for social or political change. A classic example? The often-told tale of heroic Lucretia. She and her husband lived in Rome, in their day a small town ruled by a king and filled with Roman newcomers struggling to eliminate the original Etruscan inhabitants.

The wife of Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, Lucretia was a model spouse and mother. One afternoon, her husband and his pals, including an Etruscan guy named Sextus, son of the very last king of Rome, were having dinner together (no wives invited, of course). They began bragging along the lines of: “My sword’s bigger than yours! Well, mine’s sharper than yours!” When that debate got old, they began to boast about the virtue of their wives, with Lucius maintaining that nobody could measure up to his spouse.

Before the arguments got physical, the men agreed to go together unannounced to check on what their wives were doing. Off they galloped, making the rounds. At each house, they discovered their wives yakking it up, maybe sipping a little wine while the men were out.

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