Homoeroticism in the Ancient World
Our presenter on August 28 will be Dr. Cecil Wooten of UNC-CH, who points out that basic assumptions about sexuality and the role of sexual activity were very different in the ancient world – both in Greece and in Rome – from what we find in modern times. Consequently, the models of intrapersonal relationships are also very different. Prof. Wooten will explore briefly the options that society afforded and the constraints it imposed on Greeks and Romans in working out their erotic and romantic relationships. He asks if the experience of the ancient world, a sophisticated society with suppositions very different from those of our own, can teach us anything about gender constructs in modern western societies.
Prof. Wooten grew up in Kinston, North Carolina. He was educated at Davidson College, the University of North Carolina, Middlebury College, and the University of Paris. He works primarily on ancient rhetoric and oratory but has always been interested in sexuality in the ancient world. He has taught at the College of William and Mary, Indiana University, Carleton College, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is now Chair of the Department of Classics.