Coming May 7th 2026
Was Ovid a surprising champion of women's sexual pleasure? Or did he just want them to fake it? Where did the British Museum curators hide the most pornographic of frescoes? And what exactly was the phallic wooden object excavated in 90's Northumberland?
In Aphrodisia, Dr Jean Menzies dives into the hidden history of women's sexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome. The classical world stretched across the Mediterranean for more than a millennium, its people and cultures wide and varied and its sexual proclivities equally so. Yet so often when we read about sex in antiquity it is about the men folk first and foremost: which brothels they were visiting, how they balanced wives and lovers, and what they got up to in the gymnasium. Delving into the literature, art and artefacts of the ancient world, from sex toys to seduction tips to kink, Dr Jean Menzies instead centres women and their desire. In doing so, she uncovers the many faces of women's sexuality over the course of thousands of years, and asks intriguing, and sometimes provocative questions about women, sex and desire today.
WHAT PEOPLE SAY
ELODIE HARPER
author of The Wolf Den
Aphrodisia by Jean Menzies is a wonderfully witty and insightful look at attitudes towards female sexual pleasure in Ancient Greece and Rome... Truly fabulous.
EMILY HAUSER
author of Mythica
Was sex always the same? Have women always expressed their desire in the same way? In Aphrodisia, Jean Menzies suggests that if history shows anything, it's that there is no one rule to women's desire, except that every woman deserves it... Menzies' book offers fascinating insights into women's worlds and desires in Greco-Roman antiquity and beyond.
WATERSTONES
Redressing the gender imbalance in studies of sexuality in the classical world, this eye-opening and highly entertaining volume explores sexual pleasure and proclivities from a female point of view.
All the Violet Tiaras
Queering the Greek Myths
For a period in time that gave us Sappho and the love affair of Achilles and Patroclus, the Ancient Greek relationship with queer folk is more complicated than at first glance. Tales as old as antiquity persevere, whether the goddess of love Aphrodite, Tiresias, the prophet who spent time as both man and woman, or the infamous Heracles. But, what can these ancient stories offer our contemporary world?
Historian Jean Menzies dives into the world of queer retellings and the Greek myths being told anew by LGBTQ+ writers. From explorations of gender and identity across millennia, to celebrating queer love in its many forms, All the Violet Tiaras invites readers to discover the power to be found in remaking these myths, time and again, carving a space for queer stories to be told with all the complexity and tenderness they deserve, with a goddess or two for good measure.
