How to Be Queer - (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers) (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In recent years, sexual fluidity has increasingly entered mainstream consciousness. However, the ancient Greeks got there long ago, and often with little angst and much wit, insight, and depth. Surviving texts from Archaic and Classical Greece offer glimpses of queer love and life in poetry, prose, and plays They also make evident a Greek willingness to countenance and experimentation with sexuality, gender, and the erotic. As classicist Sarah Nooter argues, we have quite literal guides among ancient poets and thinkers as we navigate the "new" forms of being that are finding their place in our society. This volume aims to appeal to readers interested in ancient conceptions of sexuality and in finding connections across time to their own identity. Like several recent contributions to the series, this volume will take an anthological approach, drawing on writers from the Archaic to the Hellenistic World including Homer, Sappho, Pindar, Plato, Aristophanes, Euripides, Theocritus, and Plutarch. Since much of the poetry in this volume derives from fragments of lyric poetry, many selections present short, interlacing narratives of same-sex and pansexual encounters and relationships, in addition to expressions of sexual longing and identification. A few examples give more detailed accounts of queer desire and devotion. The book also includes short excerpts from the stage that feature experimental takes on gender and longer passages from Plato and Xenophon's dialogues on the nature or eroticism"--

Book Synopsis

An irresistible anthology of ancient Greek writings that explore queer desire and love

Eros, limb-loosening, whirls me about again,
that bittersweet, implacable creature.
--Sappho

The idea of sexual fluidity may seem new, but it is at least as old as the ancient Greeks, who wrote about queer experiences with remarkable frankness, wit, and insight. How to Be Queer is an infatuating collection of these writings about desire, love, and lust between men, between women, and between humans and gods, in lucid and lively new translations. Filled with enthralling stories, this anthology invites readers of all sexualities and identities to explore writings that describe many kinds of erotic encounters and feelings, and that envision a playful and passionate approach to sexuality as part of a rich and fulfilling life.

How to Be Queer starts with Homer's Iliad and moves through lyric poetry, tragedy, comedy, philosophy, and biography, drawing on a wide range of authors, including Sappho, Plato, Anacreon, Pindar, Theognis, Aristophanes, and Xenophon. It features both beautiful poetry and thought-provoking prose, emotional outpourings and humorous anecdotes. From Homer's story of the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus, one of the most intense between men in world literature, to Sappho's lyrics on the pleasures and pains of loving women, these writings show the many meanings of what the Greeks called eros.

Complete with brief introductions to the selections, and with the original Greek on facing pages, How to Be Queer reveals what the Greeks knew long ago--that the erotic and queer are a source of life and a cause for celebration.

Review Quotes

"

How to be Queer is an elegantly presented book, evoking thoughtful consideration of queerness and sexuality. With a constant return to modernity . . . a simple point is enforced; we are not all that different from the ancient world . . . [it] makes for a delightful reading experience, and can be enjoyed by anybody, no matter their identity.

"---Jaiden Griffin, Redbrick

About the Author

Sarah Nooter is professor of classics and theater and performance studies at the University of Chicago. She is the author of Greek Poetry in the Age of Ephemerality, The Mortal Voice in the Tragedies of Aeschylus, and When Heroes Sing: Sophocles and the Shifting Soundscape of Tragedy.