Here are some materials and video lectures to ground our discussion of intimacy in the ancient world. We will be looking at different cultures’ understanding of gender and the embodied experience, and how love – in all its forms – was expressed in literature, art and poetry.

Sappho’s poetry and some background info on her life.
Egyptian Love Poems
Chinese book of Songs
Ban Zhao, Lessons for Women – more about gender in Asia.
Shakuntala ( a love story from ancient India which endures in a theatrical production.
The Tewa (indigenous Southwest) story of the Laughing Warrior Girl
Bending the Bow, a collection of traditional love songs/poems from Africa, originating in ancient times.

Video Module: Gender and Sexuality in Ancient Greece (Dr. Sophie Mills) w/guide

Above, there is a small gallery of ways the human body has been regarded through ancient art.

Plato: Aristophanes Speech from the Symposium

Ancient Americas

The Tewa story of the Laughing Girl Warrior gives us a vision of the great possibilities that happen when a woman is allowed to identify with roles typically reserved for men. It also shows a community able to make space for such fluidity. What of other ancient indigenous cultures? Please note: this is research from Wikipedia to be used as a starting point for deeper exploration. It gives a basic overview of what gender and sexuality (two different things) may have looked like in the Ancient Americas based on later writing and research and oral tradition. Very little information about this comes to us from ancient times. Follow the references at the bottom of each Wikipedia article to delve deeper.
+ An overview of gender roles in various indigenous communities in the Americas.
+ An article on “two-spirited” people, a term that is even contentious for indigenous people, but was adopted in the 90s.