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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Body Behaviour and Identity Construction in Ancient Greek and Roman Literature

Body Behaviour and Identity Construction in Ancient Greek and Roman Literature

Serafim, Andreas

Paperback

Series: Routledge Monographs in Classical Studies

Literary CriticismAncient History General

ISBN10: 1032288639
ISBN13: 9781032288635
Publisher: Routledge
Published: Aug 27 2026
Pages: 252
Weight: 0.83
Height: 0.56 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English

This book offers the first systematic, up-to-date, cross-cultural, and detailed study of semi-volitional bodily behaviour (sneezing, spitting, coughing, burping, vomiting, defecating, etc.) in the classical world.

Examining verse and prose texts, fragments, and scholia from the age of Homer to the second century AD, the central argument put forward in this volume is that semi-volitional bodily acts have the potential to betray individual or collective (ethnic/civic and cultural) identities centred on a variety of different themes. Discussions specifically focus on the following five aspects of the interplay between semi-volitional body language and identity construction: sexuality and gender; the link between sexuality and socioeconomic identity of individuals or groups; the embodied markers of civic/ethnic and cultural collectives and the contrast between we-ness and otherness; ēthos and emotions; and how dietary habits and illnesses indicate the somo-psychosocial identity of individuals or groups. The book offers a comprehensive understanding of representations of the human body in ancient Greece and Rome, while reopening the complex and fascinating discussion about the relationship between intention, mind, body, and identity.

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