ABSTRACT
The surviving source material dealing with ancient sexuality, gender and body history may be divided into the same categories that deal with all other aspects of ancient life. Only since the last decades of the eighteenth century did the notion of sexuality derived from the Latin word sexus, meaning gender first enter scientific parlance so as to describe the sexual character of animals, plants or single-celled life forms. Few material artefacts from ancient Egypt have survived to the modern age in a pristine state. Because of this state of affairs, many representations of people must remain uncertain in relation to intended gender. Looking at the evidence for non-official inscriptions as they pertain to sexual beliefs and practices in Greek antiquity will require a brief survey of what is known about the socio-cultural environment in archaic, classical and post-classical Greece.
