From Abortion to Pederasty

BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 209 first to take the enlightened step of finding women who have been forced into prostitution blameless and worth saving with their honor restored, by contrast with a uniform public indifference toward forced prostitution in Roman society. Harper’s evidence in favor of Christians being enlightened comes from the church father Basil, who compares two prostitutes, one whose sin is against her will and the other who is wickedly willful. Basil finds the unwilling prostitute blameless. Harper’s main evidence for his argument, however, rests on his interpretation of Cod. Theod. 15.8.2, which prohibits pimps from “imposing the necessity of sinning” on women “who are unwilling” (183–184), and he draws on early Christian biographies about penitent prostitutes to explain what this law means in its Christian social context. The stories about penitent prostitutes, Harper maintains, have a “manifest correspondence” with this “legal program of the Christian state” to curtail prostitution (235). Yet this Christian biographical genre presents even forced prostitutes as blameworthy sinners, and Harper does not acknowledge that this poses a problem for his view that early Christians were enlightened about forced prostitution . For example, he summarizes at length one penitential Life of Thais, even though it is a counter-example to his argument. Thais, forced into prostitution as a young girl, remains in this coerced position until she meets the Christian monk Serapion and beseeches him to intervene and save her. He shuts her in a small dark cell as penance for the sexual sins she unwillingly commited. Thais wastes away there for three years until Serapion has her removed, finally forgiven, just days before she dies from the deprivation and squalor (223–226). Thus, contrary to Basil’s enlightened view, the Christian tales of penitent prostitutes contain an alternative and unenlightened view that forced prostitutes are still held blameworthy. Their necessity of sinning is still sinful, regardless of being coerced. This leaves Thais no enlightened choice of rescue and restoration of honor from Serapion, only two different kinds of abuse imposed on her, the Roman prostitution that she tried to escape and the Christian penance that takes its time killing her. Harper’s view that early Christians were the first to be enlightened about forced prostitution puts him in the awkward position of having to downplay the powerful moral and social critique of forced prostitution offered by the Stoic-influenced orator Dio Chrysostom (Orat. 7.132–140). Dio’s critique makes it more likely that pre-Christian intellectual currents already present in Roman society, perhaps Stoic currents, were in the advance in taking the enlightened step of finding forced prostitution problematic. Harper’s From Shame to Sin is refreshing in its spirited engagement with multi-genre sources on Roman and early Christian sexual moralities. Primary-source evidence is quoted in translation aside from a few keywords (e.g., 278, n. 58), and the translations are Harper’s unless otherwise indicated (262, n. 1). There is one index of subjects but no bibliography. Vanderbilt University Kathy L. Gaca From Abortion to Pederasty: Addressing Difficult Topics in the Classics Classroom. Edited by Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz and Fiona McHardy. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press. 2014. Pp. ix, 303. Each of the fifteen essays in this volume treats the teaching of a “difficult” subject within the classics curriculum. These subjects range from the emotionally sensitive 210 PHOENIX (death, suicide, disease, disability) through the politically or socially controversial (abortion , pornography, pederasty, immorality) to the disturbing (domestic violence, rape, slavery). The authors describe their own experience in the classroom and reflect on the problems that arose as a result. Teaching these subjects can produce a wide range of reactions: in some cases, working with discomfiting material can profitably open students ’ minds; in other cases, it can cause emotional damage to individuals or incite other pedagogical setbacks. The difficulty might come from the material itself, from the way it is presented, or from the behavior of other students in or outside of the classroom. Instructors can be discouraged, intimidated, or face serious professional repercussions. All the authors agree, however, that rather than avoid teaching difficult topics, it is necessary to strive for the best possible

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