Cleanup in Classical Aisle 5
Wednesday, September 24, 2025 - 08:00
As noted previously, sometimes I cover publications because I think they'll be useful to the Project; sometimes I cover them to document that they're not useful. And sometimes the way I pre-schedule and write up materials out of order means that I blog things that I might have otherwise just noted as "not useful" in my database. So I blogged Downing 1989 to document that, despite the intriguing title, it isn't really useful for historical study. But I'm blogging this response to that article because I have a couple dozen articles pre-scheduled in a specific order and dropping it would leave an awkward hole in my schedule that would mar the logical symmetry of the blog structure. OK, maybe that's going a bit far, but let's just say it's easier to blog it than to not blog it at this point.
The second Downing-related article does turn out to be relevant (and points out that maybe I quit on Downing 1989 too early?) In the mean time, as I'm typing this, I'm finding mysefl dealing with several random ants crawling across my screen, so the next task is to figure out where they're coming from and deal with it. (Late summer is always "dealing with ants" season.)
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Full citation:
Reineke, Martha & Christine Downing. 1993. “Within the Shadow of the Herms: A Critique of "Myths and Mysteries of Same-Sex Love" [with Reply] in Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques, Vol. 19, No. 1: 81-101, 103-106
Given that I found Downing 1989 to have little relevance to the goals of the Project, it may be unsurprising that I find Reineke’s critique of it to be similarly of only tangential interest. Reineke begins by spending almost half of her article in a detailed summary and rewording of Downing’s points (something that Downing complements in her reply). Reineke’s critique focuses primarily on modern psychological theoretical interpretations, adding in additional frameworks of analysis. Her one historical critique is that Downing “is insufficiently mindful of [the] androcentrism and misogyny” of the ancient Greek sources and the society they were created in. Glossing over this context includes not recognizing (or at least, not acknowledging) that the women presented in, for example, Plato’s work represent a male-centered fiction and not an accurate reflection of women’s function in society. Downing’s response largely boils down to: “I think we’re closer in our interpretations than you believe, but maybe I was less clear than I could have been.” But, as with Downing 1989, the focus is strongly on modern psychoanalysis, not on history.
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