Homosexuality in ancient Greece

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Same-sex love in ancient Greece was an integral part of civic life for a thousand years, from the seventh century until the Roman era. Three general categories of such relationships can be drawn. Love between women can be traced back as far as the time of Sappho. Love between adult men was known, and though it was discouraged and ridiculed there are records of many such couples. The third, and best known category was love between adult men and adolescent boys, known as pederasty.

Sapphic love

Main article: Lesbian

Sappho, a poet from the island of Lesbos, was mistress of a school of girls and wrote love poems to many of her young students, with whom she often fell in love and who often reciprocated her feelings. She is thought to have written close to 12,000 lines of poetry on her love for other women. Of these, only about 600 lines have survived concerted efforts to obliterate her works. As a result of her fame in antiquity, she and her land have become emblematic of love between women.

In general, the historical record of same-sex love between women is sparse. This is thought to be due at least in part to the dominant male role in writing and preserving historical documents.

Love between adult men

Main article: Homosexuality

The first recorded appearance of such love, albeit in a non-sexual form, was in the Iliad (800 BC). The intentions of the Iliad have been a subject of much debate. An abundance of evidence exists that by the beginning of the Hellenistic era (480 BC) the Iliad’s heroes Achilles and Patroclus were pederastic icons. Unlike the modern construction of homosexuality, such relationships were not seen as markers of identity but as activities that people engaged in at will.

The ancient Greeks made efforts to establish a clear age difference between Patroclus and Achilles, since they were uncomfortable with any perception of them as adult equals. There was disagreement on whom to make the erastes and whom the eromenos, since the Homeric tradition made Patroclus out to be older but Achilles dominant.

Aeschylus in the tragedy Myrmidons made Achilles the protector since he had avenged his love’s death even though the gods told him it would cost his own life. However Phaedrus asserts that Homer emphasized the beauty of Achilles which would qualify him, not Patroclus, as “eromenos”. See Iliad for a detailed discussion

Another mythical couple who are represented as coevals is that of Orestes and Pylades. Many historical male couples are known, where both partners were adults. Among these is the love between Euripides, in his seventies, and Agathon, already in his forties. The love between Alexander the Great and his childhood friend, Hephaistion is of the same order.

Pederasty

Main article: Pederasty in ancient Greece

The most common form of same-sex love between males in Greece was "paiderastia" meaning "boy love". It was a relationship between an older male and a youth around twelve to twenty. In Athens the older man was called "erastes", he was to educate, protect, love, and provide a role model for his lover. His lover was called "eromenos" whose reward for his lover lay in his beauty, youth, and promise.

The ancient Greeks, in the context of the pederastic city-states, were the first to describe, study, systematize, and establish pederasty as an institution. It was an important element in civil life, the military, philosophy and the arts.

In the military

Main article:Homosexuality in the militaries of ancient Greece.

The Sacred Band of Thebes, a separate military unit reserved only for men and their beloved boys, is usually considered as the prime example of how the ancient Greeks used relationships between soldiers in a troop to boost their fighting spirit. The Thebans attributed to the Sacred Band the power of Thebes for the generation before its fall to Philip II of Macedon, who was so impressed with their bravery during battle, he erected a monument that still stands today on their gravesite. He also gave a harsh criticism of the Spartan views ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]} of the band:

"Perish miserably they who think that these men did or suffered aught disgraceful."

Pammenes' opinion, according to Plutarch, was that

"Homer's Nestor was not well skilled in ordering an army when he advised the Greeks to rank tribe and tribe... he should have joined lovers and their beloved. For men of the same tribe little value one another when dangers press; but a band cemented by friendship grounded upon love is never to be broken."

These bonds, perhaps somewhat inspired by episodes from Greek mythology, such as the heroic relationship between Achilles and Patroclus in the Iliad, were thought to boost morale as well as bravery. They typically took the form of pederasty, with more egalitarian relationships being rarer. Such relationships were documented by many Greek historians and in philosophical discourses, as well as in offhand remarks such as Philip II of Macedon's recorded by Plutarch demonstrates:

• "It is not only the most warlike peoples, the Boeotians, Spartans, and Cretans, who are the most susceptible to this kind of love but also the greatest heroes of old: Meleager, Achilles, Aristomenes, Cimon, and Epaminondas."

During the Lelantine War between the Eretrians and the Chalcidians, before a decisive battle the Chalcidians called for the aid of a warrior named Cleomachus. Cleomachus answered their request and brought his lover along with him to watch. He charged against the Eretians and brought the Chalcidians to victory at the cost of his own life. It was said he was inspired with love during the battle. Afterwards the Chalcidians erected a tomb for him in their marketplace and adopted pederasty.

See also

• Homosexuality in the militaries of ancient Greece
• Malakos
• Philosophy of Greek pederasty

External links

• [Pederasty and Pedagogy In Archaic Greece]

References

• Greek Homosexuality, by Kenneth J. Dover; New York; Vintage Books, 1978. ISBN 0394742249
• [Homosexuality in Greece and Rome,] by Thomas K. Hubbard; U. of California Press, 2003. [link] ISBN 0520234308
• [Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece] by William A. Percy, III. University of Illinois Press, 1996. ISBN 0252022092

 

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