The erotics of domination
Subtitle: male desire and the mistress in Latin love poetry
By: Ellen Greene.
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Baltimore, Md
Language: eng
Number of pages: 142
Subjects: Ovid, 43 B.C.-17 or 18 A.D. -- Criticism and interpretation.; Catullus, Gaius Valerius -- Criticism and interpretation.; Propertius, Sextus.; Love poetry, Latin -- History and criticism.; Erotic poetry, Latin -- History and criticism.; Elegiac poetry, Latin -- History and criticism.; Man-woman relationships in literature.; Dominance (Psychology) in literature.; Women and literature -- Rome.; Masculinity in literature.; Violence in literature.; Desire in literature.; Mistresses -- Rome.; Sex in literature.; Rome -- In literature.
Description: The study of women in antiquity is a well-established area of research in the classics. In The Erotics of Domination, Ellen Greene re-examines long-held scholarly attitudes concerning the representation of male sexual desire and female subjection in the Latin love poetry of Catullus, Propertius, and Ovid.

Examining first-person poetic personae that have often been romanticized by critics, Greene finds that male sexuality is consistently threatened as moral resolve and social status are undermined by desires that render men passively "womanish": powerless and emotional.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-135) and index.