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A review by shrrawat
300,000 Kisses: Tales of Queer Love from the Ancient World by Seán Hewitt, Luke Edward Hall
informative
medium-paced
3.0
I feel that the title of this book "Tales of Queer Love from the Ancient World" is a bit misleading. A better description would be "Poems, Excerpts and Tales from the Ancient World." Out of the over forty chapters, only 4-5 could be classified as actual stories, while the rest were just little snippets of various authors that either touched on or described the author's own experiences with queer love.
That is not to say that the book is not edifying. There is a lot of information about how the Greeks and Romans viewed men loving men, and even the acknowledgement of women loving women and even individuals we might describe as being transgender today. Though this is balanced by the rampant misogyny in the texts (and let's be honest, it would be surprising if ancient Greek texts DIDN'T overtly hate or denigrate women), it also reveals queer history that has been hushed or ignored for millenia.
That is not to say that the book is not edifying. There is a lot of information about how the Greeks and Romans viewed men loving men, and even the acknowledgement of women loving women and even individuals we might describe as being transgender today. Though this is balanced by the rampant misogyny in the texts (and let's be honest, it would be surprising if ancient Greek texts DIDN'T overtly hate or denigrate women), it also reveals queer history that has been hushed or ignored for millenia.