Tom van den Hurk

About Tom’s Research:

This interdisciplinary project discusses the representation of the emotions of freeborn men from cultures across the Mediterranean Basin (Etruscan, Greek, Roman, Jewish) who subverted gender expectations by assuming the receptive role during sexual intercourse from the third century BCE to the late second century CE. I will use literary, archaeological, epigraphic, and numismatic evidence to analyse the feelings such men were shown to have, and why our sources depict them as experiencing shame but also pleasure. Exploring this tension and its implications for our society, this study will reveal the ambiguities in the representation of this stigmatised social group.