Aphrodisia

Offers fascinating insights into womens worlds and desires in Greco-Roman antiquity and beyond.
Emily Hauser, Sunday Times bestselling author of Mythica

A wonderfully witty and insightful look at attitudes towards female sexual pleasure in Ancient Greece and Rome... Truly fabulous.
Elodie Harper, Sunday Times bestselling author of the Wolf Den trilogy

An eye-opening and joyful read.
Jennifer Saint, Sunday Times bestselling author of Ariadne

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Was Ovid a surprising champion of womens sexual pleasure? Or did he just want them to fake it? Where did the British Museum curators hide the most pornographic of frescoes? And what exactly was the phallic wooden object excavated in 90s Northumberland?

In APHRODISIA, Dr Jean Menzies dives into the hidden history of womens sexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome. The classical world stretched across the Mediterranean for more than a millennium, its people and cultures wide and varied and its sexual proclivities equally so. Yet so often when we read about sex in antiquity it is about the men folk first and foremost: which brothels they were visiting, how they balanced wives and lovers, and what they got up to in the gymnasium. Delving into the literature, art and artefacts of the ancient world, from sex toys to seduction tips to kink, Dr Jean Menzies instead centres women and their desire. In doing so, she uncovers the many faces of womens sexuality over the course of thousands of years, and asks intriguing, and sometimes provocative questions about women, sex and desire today.

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Finally! An up close and personal look at ancient womens sex lives that doesnt treat them simply as a source of scurrilous gossip, but rather as a subject worthy of care and respect.
Dr Jane Draycott, author of Fulvia and Cleopatras Daughter

Aphrodisia is a magnanimous triumph for the study of women in antiquity; Jeans ability to communicate this information in a witty and down-to-earth way makes this a necessary read for all people interested in sexuality and desire.
Erica Stevenson, author of The Odyssey Effect