Aphrodisia

Was Ovid a surprising champion of women's sexual pleasure? Or did he just want them to fake it? Where did the British Museum curators hide the most pornographic of frescoes? And what exactly was the phallic wooden object excavated in the 90's Northumberland?

In Aphrodisia, Dr Jean Menzies dives into the hidden history of women's sexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome. The classical world stretched across the Mediterranean for more than a millennium, with its people and cultures wide and varied, and its sexual proclivities equally so.

Yet so often when we read about sex in antiquity, it focuses predominantly on the men: which brothels they were visiting, how they balanced wives and lovers, and what they got up to in the gymnasium. Delving into the literature, art, and artefacts of the ancient world, from sex toys to seduction tips to kink, Dr Jean Menzies instead centres women and their desire.

In doing so, she uncovers the many faces of women's sexuality over the course of thousands of years, and poses intriguing and sometimes provocative questions about women, sex, and desire today.