For doing good, Piers Plowman elevates sober, common labor over the Socratic intellectual practices of Plato’s Symposium and Xenophon’s Symposium. … Read the post Piers Plowman: sober, common labor over symposia of Plato & Xenophon
Common-sense understanding of penis, penetration, and pleasure has a relatively weak literary-figurative position. Thus the fallacious reign of phallus. … Read the post truthful, ancient rule of the phallus: penetration provides pleasure
Given his concern for verecundia (decorum) in the Saturnalia, Macrobius discussed gender under gynocentric society with jests in his Book 2. … Read the post Macrobius’s Saturnalia shows social constraints on men’s behavior
Ascalabus criticized the goddess Demeter’s drinking. Telesphorus criticized Arsinoe for boozing. As always, criticizing women is disastrous for men. … Read the post Telesphorus tortured & killed for witty criticism of Arsinoe
Al-Jahiz’s readers appreciated literary works like Athenaeus’ Learned Banqueters. Cultural heritage conflicted the Roman Empire like the Abbasid Caliphate. … Read the post al-Jahiz’s misers offer rich framework for reading Athenaeus’s banqueters