Incollection,
The erotic eye: visual stimulation and cultural conflict
Being Greek under Rome. Cultural identity, the second sophistic and the development of empire, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge u.a., (2001)
Abstract
Rezension v. Thomas A. Schmitz in http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2002/2002-02-22.html: Goldhill's "The Erotic Eye: Visual Stimulation and Cultural Conflict" (154-94) gives a penetrating analysis of the role of the gaze in a number of second-century texts. He demonstrates that seeing and being seen are important aspects of cultural identity in such diverse writers as Lucian, Achilles Tatius, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian. I found his interpretation of the use of similar Stoic terminology in Achilles Tatius and Clement of Alexandria especially rewarding: "How you look ... is integral to who you are and to the narrating of the self" (179). In his argument about Lucian's Images and For the Images, Goldhill is less successful in showing why the fact that Panthea is the Greek mistress of a Roman Emperor should be significant for our reading of the text. Otherwise, this is a fine contribution that constantly makes good use of sophisticated theoretical approaches. Unfortunately, it is marred by numerous misprints in the Greek quotations and some slipshod references (One example, p. 175 n. 47: I doubt whether "Phil. VA 6.19 and Dionysus of Halicarnassus De Im. fr. 3" can be labeled "well-known discussions" of the concept of mimesis; but, what is worse, both references are wrong. If "Phil." is Philostratus, the passage referred to is not a technical discussion at all; if "Dionysus" is Dionysius, Goldhill should have noted that the word is not in the fragment he is quoting, but in a parallel passage from the pseudo-Dionysian ars (p. 373.21 Usener/Radermacher).).
