The Laws of Love

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2022

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La Corónica, 2020

Abstract: What are the limits of seduction, and when does it turn into sexual assault? This article explores these questions in the context of medieval Spanish literature, using feminist theory and a consent-oriented approach to analyze episodes of sexual violence in the Libro de buen amor. It analyzes four scenes of predatory sexual behavior and examines whether Venus’s ars amatoria facilitates and guides the Archpriest’s sexual assaults. This analysis highlights the challenges of distinguishing between aggressive seduction and predatory behavior, as well as how the representation of such acts in the Libro de buen amor resonates with contemporary discussions about consent, heterosexual interaction, and sexual assault.

Ancient Philosophy, 1991

This is an ample book, conceived on the scale of Fraenkel's Agamemnon or Brink's Ars Poetica. Brown situates Lucretius' treatment of sexual passion in its philosophical and cultural context, and documents poetic usage in detail. Lengthy prolegomena discuss the nature of the proems and finales to the six books of De rerum natura; relate the conclusion of the fourth book to books 3 and 4 as a whole; and review Lucretius' arguments concerning love, sex, and marriage in connection with Epicurus' own doctrines, prevailing attitudes at Rome, and classical literary genres from Platonic dialogue and epigram to satire and Latin love lyric. Brown has an exhaustive command of the relevant modern scholarship in these several departments, and is scrupulous in indicating his debts. Brown' s book is not just a compendium of information; it has a thesis. Brown argues that, according to Lucretius, 'the lover fixates upon a single object of desire' (74), and this fixation 'develops into an emotional obsession' (81). The reason is that 'love .. .is a kind of illusion', and hence a 'mental disorder' (85). Brown concludes: 'Though in full command of their senses, lovers allow their perception of reality to be distorted by inordinate desire, thence embroiling themselves in a frustrating quest for satisfaction owing to a false idea of their own needs and the uniqueness of the other person' (87). Erroneous opinion is certainly the cause of an inordinate and unfulfillable desire, but it is unclear how, on Epicurean principles, desire distorts perception, and why erotic desire should be different from other appetites in this respecL According to Brown, the reason why the lover never achieves satisfaction, even during an embrace, is 'a preoccupation with sensory images that interferes with his physical gratification' (74), but such a disruptive cinematic awareness in the act of sex goes beyond Lucretius' text. While Brown is right to stress the role of misapprehension as the source of passionate love, it is not likely, as he suggests, to be Lucretius' original contribution to the theory (122). The notion of empty opinions (KEvaL 86~aL) is central to Epicurus' analysis of irrational fears and desires, and he cannot have failed to perceive its application to the case of EpWS-. Brown argues that, taken together, books 3 and 4 'comprise a treatise on the composition and functioning of the human being' (19). The latter book, in particular, is organized around the themes of 'effluences and illusion' (20). The connection between error and passionate love represents the link with the 'theme of

in the wide catalogue of sexual crimes that suetonius levels at the emperors, and particularly to those not granted the epithet diuus, Galba has hitherto presented something of an enigma. moreover, little attention has been paid to the private proclivities of this ephemeral emperor, with a recent article on Galba's conduct providing negligible treatment of these matters ( 1 ). This article seeks to redress that imbalance. as is now widely recognized, the active partner in a same-sex relationship between men, provided that the passive partner was not a roman citizen puer, would not necessarily be censured for same-sex intercourse ( 2 ). despite this, a further nuance must be considered. even if always the active partner in such relationships, i.e., engaged in penetrative sexual activities, the roman citizen male, particularly if in a position of political and social eminence, such as an equestrian or senator, should not be constantly consumed with sexual desire (libido), for that in extremis was regarded as essentially emasculating ( 3 ). it is in this context that we look at Galba's somewhat puzzling sexual behav-(*) Journal abbreviations follow the 'Liste des périodiques' in L'Année philologique.

2014

On 8 December 1660, following a long history of the prohibition of actresses in England, a feminine presence took to the London stage and altered it. The addition of women to the professional stages of England led to changes in the way in which plays were written and presented. This piece explores the relationship between page and stage, looking at it as one that is mutually reflective but non-deterministic. This essay first contextualises the presence of the actress by looking at the sparsely documented contemporary theatre culture in Renaissance and Restoration England, while raising questions about the male narrative. Subsequently this piece uses a comparison of William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure with Sir William Davenant’s 1662 adaptation, titled The Law Against Lovers, to demonstrate that, at least in terms of adaptations, the feminine presence on the English stage may have resulted in a toning down of the more licentious and sexualised content in Shakespeare’s original.

Stanford Law Review, 1996

performed amazing feats of assisting research on this piece, but my secretary, Mary Sleichter, deserves more credit than I can ever give her. Finally I would like to thank the trustees of the Nellie Ball Trust Fund and the trustees and contributors of the Fund for Labor Relations Studies for their generous support of this research.

Public, 2008

M. Beck (ed.), A Companion to Plutarch (Wiley-Blackwell), 2014

Plutarch sees sexual behaviour as a manifestation of a man's character. For the tyrant or the violent man, sex is an arena for power and the domination of others. Theseus, Demetrius, Sulla, and subsidiary figures like Alexander of Pherae or [the Spartan king] Pausanias express and reveal their viciousness through sexual violence. The ideal statesman instead shows his self-control in the same arena, creating harmony in his household and in his city. So Philip Stadter (1995) concludes his survey of male sexual behavior in Plutarch's Parallel Lives, marking both ends of the behavioral spectrum. Stadter shows in the course of his survey that Plutarch describes certain types of both problematic and positive behavior in order to reveal the character of his biographical subjects, or of other figures in the Lives. Examples of problematic behavior fall into the categories of irrational excess, unseasonable lust (i.e. when a man past the age for marrying engages in a marital or sexual relationship), and sexual violence. Stadter also identifies three categories of positive behavior, although only one, rational self-control, is really a behavior. The other two, harmonious relationships and a stimulus to virtue, are really the result of a controlled response to sexual impulses. Self-control, in fact, is the central issue in the representation of sexual behavior in the Lives: irrational excess is one of Stadter's categories of problematic behavior, but this excess may also be seen as the reason behind unseasonable lust and violence, just as the practice of rational self-control leads to important positive benefits for the one who achieves it and for those around him. In the simplest terms, then, the sexual behavior of the ideal statesman is characterized by self-control, while the behavior of the tyrannical or violent man is characterized by the opposite.

The Journal of Ethics

American Journal of Philology, 2003