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LOVE IN ANCIENT GREECE, by Robert Flaceliere, translated from the French by James Cleugh, Crown Publishers, Inc., New York, 1962, pp. 224.

In these days when a newly accepted freedom in the discussion of sex matters permeates literature, moving pictures, and even ordinary conversation, it is indeed refreshing to encounter a book which, avoiding the extremes of prudery on the one hand and vulgarity on the other, presents the subject frankly and completely, but interestingly and in good taste. The author has apparently examined the whole range of Greek literature which he reads in the original and thus with a critical attitude toward word meanings. The chapters cover Homer's poetry as the basic source of Greek ideology, mythology as the Greek religion, homosexuality, marriage and family relations, courtesans, philosophers and their interpretations of love, romantic life, and some conclusions in a general view.

It is now a commonplace of social psychology that the basic problems of all biologic organisms are self-preservation of the individual, largely procurement of food, preservation of the species or reproduction, and finally avoidance and mastery of enemies. In

the pre-cultural stages of man's existence as described in Vardis Fisher's Darkness and the Deep, man did practically nothing else other than meet these needs. His equipment consisted mainly of the senses: sight, smell, hearing, touch, etc., and they were completely utilized by necessity. As culture developed, however, while the equipment declined but little, life became easier and the senses were only partially utilized. Thus it came about that man learned to enjoy the exercises of the senses for their own sake. Visual art came into existence wherein man looks at pictures which have no utility beyond the pleasure of viewing them; he listens to music solely for the pleasure of hearing it; and he has developed perfumery solely for the pleasure of smelling it. The avoidance and mastery of enemies and the procurement of food have led to the sports of hunting and fishing and even utilitarian agriculture has come to be supplemented by gardening and the cultivation of flowers for the sheer pleasure involved. That the reproductive processes can be carried on apart from utilitarian purposes has never been accepted theoretically as the other activities were, although over-population is now a recognized global social problem by the foremost scientists of the period. The overall concept of non-utilitarian activity has come to be the cultivation of beauty, the flower of cultural activity.

It is in Greece, as in no other country of the civilized world, that the cultivation of beauty has come to be a conscious and accepted aspect of life. No question or controversy arises concerning its legitimacy in the arts: sculpture, architecture, probably painting, drama, etc. But in the reproductive area which is called love, modern thinking has not been so ready to accept the Greek point of view. Thus both exaggeration and misrepresentation have been common. The present volume is a preeminently sane attempt

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