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Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens
 
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Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens [Paperback]

James Davidson
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
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Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens + Goddesses, Whores, Wives And Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity + Women's Life in Greece and Rome
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Product details

  • Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Fontana Press; New Ed edition (1 Jun 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0006863434
  • ISBN-13: 978-0006863434
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.2 x 2.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 242,132 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James N. Davidson
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Product Description

Review

‘Davidson is the best thing to happen to ancient history writing for decades’
Andrew Roberts, Mail on Sunday

‘There are pleasures and authors who lie dormant for a century or more until a new kind of vividness, a super-freshness descends on them. James Davidson has that skill.’
Spectator

‘If little boys are still being made to learn dead languages, and expected to enjoy them, I hope their Greek master reads Davidson’s fascinating and witty book, and tells them the best stories from it. This certainly ought to wake them up at the back of the class.’
Sunday Times

Product Description

A brilliantly entertaining and innovative history of the ancient Athenians’ consuming passions for food, wine and sex.

Sex, shopping and fish-madness, Athenian style.

This fascinating book reveals that the ancient Athenians were supreme hedonists. Their society was driven by an insatiable lust for culinary delights – especially fish – fine wine and pleasures of the flesh. Indeed, great fortunes were squandered and politicians’ careers ruined through ritual drinking at the symposium, or the wooing of highly-coveted, costly prostitutes.

James Davidson brings an incisive eye and an urbane wit to this refreshingly accessible and different history of the people who invented Europe, democracy and art.


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Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As a classics undergraduate, I understand the importance of a classics book which grabs and maintains interest from the beginning. The author, James Davidson, appears to have the ability to write such a book as this in spades. Admittedly, Davidson is not hindered by the subject matter, which mainly centres upon sex and alcohol, as well as other forms of depravity. However, this is not to say that it is as easy to read as a bodice-ripper. Although it is very entertaining, this is not an easy read and a good deal of concentration has to be dedicated to it. If you have any interest in classics or ancient history, then this book is a must.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Stromata VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
Erudite, well written and shockingly funny, James Davidson's book on ancient Greek consumption is a joy to read. This is, I feel, a much better work than his latest offering 'The Greeks and Greek Love: A Radical Reapprasial of homosexuality in Ancient Greece'. which I found rather hard going.

'Courtesans and Fishcakes' would interest a lot of readers, regardless of any previous knowledge of the period.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Roman Clodia TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Davidson, in this fascinating, elegantly written, amusing and yet academically-rigorous book, gives the perfect object lesson in how to write for both the professional classicist and the amateur historian without ever losing credibility or talking down to his audience. Whatever your interest, he surveys fifth century Athens and takes you from the aristocratic male environment of the symposium, to the back lanes of the city via pottery shops, food stalls and brothels. Exposing the Athenian discourse on appetite in all its variety, he tackles the perennially- fascinating subjects of food, drink and sex - and succeeds in making us feel that the classical Athenians are both just like us and yet simultaneously utterly alien.

Forget Rubicon, Persian Fire and all the other 'pseudo-history books' - this is the real thing and an excellent read.
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