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Female eroticism is one of the most fascinating themes in ancient literature. However, works on the subject often consider literature as a source from which to reconstruct the reality of practices and mores in the Roman world. This study of representations of feminine desire in Latin poetry from the late Republic to the early Empire adopts a different perspective: female lust is observed as an object constructed and shaped by literature, which owes its existence above all to generic codes, poetic language and its specificities, and certain auctorial traits. Poetry is both a space of freedom and a space of constraint for the erotic subject: the poet plays with the genre codes and sets up strategies to make the representation of a woman's desire acceptable, in a cultural context where it is condemned, even denied. The poetic form exerts a considerable influence on the representation of desire and its modalities: it is then the process of construction of this object by the poet that we bring to light. The first part of this book enlightens the different types of condemnation of female libido, and the different representations associated with them. The second part examines the exaltation of feminine desire, and the forms it takes when sung by male poets.

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