Non-Fiction Reviews
This book attempts to look at Greek myths and extrapolate what is therefore happening within the Greek family, specifically 5th centry Athens. I must say that I was very dissapointed by this book. In general, I found the conclusions hasty and based upon questionable theories, certainly tinged with modernism. For example, he claims that the Medusa is representative of a mother's pubic hair and that is why the Gorgon is feared. He does not explain why he draws this connection or why he does not
bother to investigate a religious symbol with the religious understandings of the time. Slater's basic argument is that male homosexuality was an integral part of Greek society and was caused by absent fathers and menacing mothers. One of his major sources of proof is the case of Kenneth Elton who was convicted of child sexual abuse three times in the 1940s. Why does Slater use such a modern example? Why does he chose a pedophile to explain what in Greece happened between teenagers (adults) and grown men? Why does he assume that any one example can stand for a whole? None of the answers here are clear. He suggests that the homosexuality could be schizophrenic or a deferrment of schizophrenia.
His theories are problematical for several reasons: (1) he assumes that absent fathers always cause troubled sons; (2) he assumes that unhappy mothers take this out on their children, particularly their male children; and (3) there is no mention of daughters at all. Where are the young girls here? His search does not reflect the more recent research with compellingly suggests that the supposed "homosexuality" of the ancient world was in reality ritualized adoption in most cases, not sexual in nature. Most biologists and psychologists seem to agree that homosexuals form a small percentage of society, perhaps up to 20%, which would not account for almost every male in Greece, even given the hidden numbers of homosexuals who are hidden, repressed, and denied (which should not have happened in a culture which did not vilify homosexuality, as Greece did not). Slater's assumptions do not jive with the modern psychological theories he is trying to use as evidence.
While it is true that societies are not often aware of the neuroses of which they are suffering, Slater's conclusions ring hollow, based as they are upon incomplete psychological investigations and inappropriate "proofs."
Grade: C-
Make up your own mind and order Slater's The Glory of Hera from Amazon.com.
Let me know if you disagree.
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