ABSTRACT
The study of representations is a controversial one, and the subject sometimes comes under fire for its supposed failure to reflect “history” or “reality.” Constructionist scholarship on ancient sexuality as it pervades social life has taken these imaginaries into account; sometimes scholars have been able, by means of hypotheses, to make the “leap” from representations to practices, thanks to the wealth of available sources. But this “leap” toward practices is not the only value of such studies: the passage from literary and iconographic discourse to imaginaries and representations is just as important, just as rich in information about ancient societies. Both in Greece and in Rome, the way each partner is separately perceived is central to the Ancients’ representation of sexual relationships. The lack of symmetry, to which our society is little accustomed, has often led to anachronisms or shortcuts in our understanding of ancient sexuality.
