This work is the first in a six-volume series examining sensory cultural history. Overseen by C. Classen, a leading voice in sensory research, the series provides a representative introduction to the senses throughout history. Like all the volumes in the series, the nine chapters follow a set of common themes: ‘The Social Life of the Senses’; ‘Urban Sensations’; ‘The Senses in the Marketplace’; ‘The Senses in Religion’; ‘The Senses in Philosophy and Science’; ‘Medicine and the Senses’; ‘The Senses in Literature’; ‘Art and the Senses’; and ‘Sensory Media’. Such an arrangement guarantees uniformity across the series, but inevitably leaves gaps in the coverage of antiquity that may seem out of place. Discussion of archaeological data, for example, is largely absent, and when it does appear, it is often used for illustrative purposes rather than as the basis for argument (see, e.g., chapters by D. Potter and G.S. Aldrete). Discussion of the sensory aspects of gender, politics, morality, rural or provincial life, death, comedy, tragedy or the senses in literary metaphor must be teased out from various references scattered throughout the chapters, without the help of essential cross-references.
The chapters, perhaps meant to stand alone, exhibit a surprising lack of interplay. For example, Aldrete's section about garments and cloth should point to discussions of the same in chapters by A. Wallace-Hadrill, M. Bradley and B. Stevens. Fruitful connections could have been made that would have enlivened the volume, and enhanced the reader's understanding of the interrelatedness of ancient sensory experience. Contributors make such claims, but illustrating it throughout the volume would have strengthened the force of such assertions. Additionally, many chapters present separate discussions of the individual senses, and more connections might have been made between them. Certain constraints are necessarily built into a volume like this, but they can often be mitigated.
T.’s introduction, focusing on ancient Rome, lays out general sensory claims with particular emphasis on the senses in socio-cultural interactions, some of which are picked up in subsequent chapters. He juxtaposes disparate examples in order to illuminate larger themes. For example, a discussion of the imperial reach reflected in architectural stonework shares space with a summary of the Roman games as a way of creating social harmony, and Ovid's morality-busting account of how to touch your girlfriend surreptitiously in public sits alongside sensory components of early Christianity as examples of resistance to imperial sensory ideology. Although T. raises key themes, one might see Stevens' final chapter, which usefully explores the senses within the context of cultural history, as more effectively setting the agenda for the volume as a whole. Additionally, readers look to an introduction to provide a context for and an outline of the contents of the chapters and their connections. T. highlights themes found elsewhere in the book, but misses opportunities to point the reader to those chapters.
Exploring the theme of imperial sensory manipulation further, Potter's ‘Social Life of the Senses’ examines how ‘the mixture of the senses mattered most of all’ (p. 24). Potter summarises philosophical considerations of types of perception, highlighting how vision is most closely associated with power, before returning to the notion of mixed sensory experience. He then teases out how Greco-Roman rituals – particularly feasting and funerals – encourage the activation or suppression of particular aspects of sensory experience, themes picked up again by S. Ashbrook Harvey.
Aldrete takes us on a tour of Rome, to give readers a sense of what it was actually like to live in an ancient city. He addresses each sense modality in turn, citing sources and referencing buildings and statuary from the late Republic to the fifth century ad, so the reader is left wondering which Rome she is meant to envisage. His discussion of the interplay of sensory experience and social status is instructive but, as is often the case in this volume, more scholarly references would have helped readers to follow up particular points of interest. Strangely, given the aim of this chapter (p. 48), Aldrete ends with a description of the extravagant multisensory experience of watching a parade in Hellenistic Alexandria. It certainly speaks to the opulence of the title, but seems out of place in a chapter otherwise concerned with the ‘everyday’ lived experience in Rome.
The role of opulence in Roman culture is further developed by Wallace-Hadrill in a chapter reflecting ideas advanced in his Rome's Cultural Revolution (2008). Here he expands his discussion of luxury markets and trade during the Roman imperial period to explore how the imperial sensory experience combined the local with the exotic. Expanding trade with Arabia, East Africa, India and China altered the sensory experience, initially for the ancient Roman elite, and later for those of lower socio-economic status. As the reader might expect, Wallace-Hadrill's chapter stands out for its use of archaeological data and supporting literary evidence, supplying details about medical and culinary ingredients, the abundance of imported jewels and cloth, and the inventive ways of colouring ancient cities and homes.
The importance of the rhetoric of the senses is the focus of Ashbrook Harvey's far-reaching chapter about the varieties of religious experience in Rome. In particular, she examines how sensory experiences are heightened or narrowed to enhance ritual practices in pagan and Christian practice. The chapter highlights points for further research; of particular interest is the connection between beauty and the senses in a religious context where simplicity and excessive display coexist, or the role the senses play in both distinguishing and connecting the physical and the spiritual.
A. Clements's ambitious chapter addresses philosophical and medical models of sense perception in ancient Greece. The chapter analyses five sensory theories, including the works of three Presocratics (Heraclitus, Parmenides and Empedocles), a handful of Hippocratic texts and Plato's account in the Timaeus. This detailed survey, with ample references to guide further exploration, usefully suggests that ancient theoretical modelling of sensation is an important locus of understanding intellect and body. This is, according to Clements, a story of a developing continuum of opinions rather than direct competition between philosophers.
The diagnosis and treatment of ancient physical and mental ailments are examined by H. King and T., with a particular focus on medical practice among doctors, priests and practitioners of folk medicine and magic. This chapter develops important themes found elsewhere, including the variations in sensory experiences based on social status and gender, the link between the intellect and the senses, and the instrumentality of multisensory experience as a diagnostic tool and a source of healing.
S. Montiglio's approach to the senses and literature opens with a brief survey of Greek literature, before providing a more in-depth analysis, primarily, of the distance senses – sight and hearing – in the Greek novel. By exploring the varied interplay between sight and sound in the experience of the protagonists, Montiglio emphasises the way male lovers – accepted and spurned – experience the beloved. Sight comes out ahead of sound, both for its greater accuracy and for its reciprocity. Longus' novel stands out with its more pronounced incorporation of the ‘lower’ senses of taste, smell and touch. Although presumably constrained by the word limit, the chapter leaves the reader wondering whether the women in these novels have any sensory experiences of which to speak.
An introduction to sculpted and living bodies contrasts with the exploration of performative urban space in Bradley's chapter on ‘Art and the Senses’. Although focused primarily on ancient Rome, Bradley ultimately broadens his outlook to include some discussion of Greece. He advocates taking a multisensory approach to understanding ancient art, while picking up themes of decoration and the social implications of the senses found elsewhere.
Stevens provides a provocative take on ‘Sensory Media’ by drawing on key examples from Homeric epic, Platonic dialogue, Horatian lyric and Aeschylean tragedy (although the Oresteia is set in Argos, not Thebes). After introducing what sensory studies adds to cultural history, he examines ancient descriptions that are emphatically multisensory and unlike our own. In addition, he raises themes found in Ashbrook Harvey's chapter regarding the juxtaposition of sensory stimulus and deprivation.
The expertise of the authors is shown to great effect in this volume, offering a glimpse into how sensory studies illuminate other areas of classical research. For non-specialists the book is exceedingly accessible. Specialists will find here a starting place for further exploration of sensory studies in Greco-Roman antiquity.
