Erotic desire is as old as the human race and erotic literature as old as civilization.

With bold, new translations, the author presents and discusses some of the most beautiful, stirring expressions of erotic desire from the ancient world of Greece and Rome, reaching across three thousand years of history to tap into the many kinds of passion we still know today: new or seasoned, obsessive or unrequited, heterosexual or homosexual, noble or illicit. Students learn the cultural events that led to a grand flourish of erotic poetry in Greece and Rome during the Archaic and Hellenistic periods, as well as the “Golden Age of Rome.” Readers traverse the varied works of over 35 different poets: from the epic interludes of Homer and Vergil to the personal lyrics of Sappho and Catullus, from the playful admonitions of Ovid to the dark elegies of Propertius, from a woman’s meditations on romance scribbled on a fragile papyrus in Egypt to anonymous verses about lost love scrawled on a crumbling wall in Pompeii. By introducing the reader to the greatest poets of the ancient world, this compelling collection demonstrates why ancient love poems have stood the test of time and continue to resonate with contemporary audiences.

Complete with introductions, cultural context, and engaging analysis for each selected work, along with thought-provoking questions to stimulate classroom discussion, Erotic Love Poems of Greece and Rome is an ideal choice for survey courses in classics, world literature, humanities, sexuality, and gender studies.