This book looks at a contemporary concept – toxic masculinity – and considers its usefulness for understanding the ancient Mediterranean world. By concentrating on the particular elements that make up this form of masculine behaviour and identity, briefly defined as a performance of masculinity that is harmful to people who should be protected, to one’s community, or to oneself, we illuminate tensions and contradictions within Greek and Roman conceptions of gender, while tracing some origins of modern gender roles. This book also highlights the ways that texts and events from the ancient world are invoked in the construction of toxic masculinity today. Covering Athenian oratory and drama, Roman poetry and history, curse tablets, early Christian writing, Italian cinema, US politics, and more, this collection brings together the ancient and modern to ask what shapes a culture’s understanding of masculinity and how to identify the aspects of that understanding that can cause harm.

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Dr Melanie Racette-Campbell is an Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Winnipeg. She works on Roman masculinity, Augustan literature, and classical reception in the Renaissance and in modern pop culture. Her book The Crisis of Masculinity in the Age of Augustus was published in 2023 and she is working on the next one, on Cicero, masculinity, and the city of Rome.

Dr Aven McMaster is Professor Emerita of Ancient Studies from Thorneloe University at Laurentian. Her research interests are Latin poetry, gender and sexuality, and reception. She is also a co-host of the podcast ‘The Endless Knot’.