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Homosexuality in Ancient Greece

Homosexuality is a term that refers to the sexual relationship held between members of the same gender. Most recently this lifestyle has been looked down upon and has forced many to remain “in the closet” about their sexual desires. However, this was not the case for boys and older men in ancient Greece.

The term homosexual was not used to describe the relationship that was held between two males during the classical Greek period. The relationship that was commonly depicted on much of the classical Greek pottery was known as "paiderastia" which translates to “boylove”(1) . This was the relationship that existed when an adult male selected a junior “eromenos” male from a separate family. Upon approval of the boys family, the adult male (referred to as a “erastes”) was to take the boy to a andreian clubhouse where the boy was to receive gifts. Afterward, the two would spend 2 months in the countryside where the adult was to teach the young junior to hunt and fight (Halperin, 56).

Halperin writes that it was ritual for the erastes to give the eromenos their first sexual experience. Much like women of the time, the young eromenos was not to enjoy the experience. He was to accept the dominance of the older male. Halperin stated that even though copulation was ideally achieved without penetration as to spare effemination of the eromenos, this was not usually the case (Halperin).

Conflicting writings have may have stated that Halperin’s findings of domination in the young male may have been skewed slightly from how most men felt about their younger partners. Thomas K. Hubbard at University of California has translated a recorded dialect that was held between Syracuse ruler, Hieron and the poet Sinonides of Ceos. In the conversation Hieron states that as a tyrant, he does not enjoy taking from the boy what he could just simply ask for.

“For when a boy loves you in return, how sweetly he looks back at you, how sweetly he asks questions, how sweetly he answers; and the sweetest of all and the most erotic is when he fights with you and argues. But to enjoy the charms of an unwilling boy," he said, "seems to me to be more like robbery than love-making. In fact, a robber at least gets some pleasure from his profits and from making his enemies unhappy; but for a man to take pleasure in the unhappiness of the person he loves and to be hated in return for his love and to force himself on someone he makes miserable: how could this not be a nasty, debasing experience?” (2).

This dialog also has me curious on exactly how women were treated. If the statues of Aphrodite were placed in rooms to be seen as statues of erotic behavior, shouldn’t have female partners been looked at in the same respect as the young male partners? After all, was it not the women that were mothers of these great, masculine men?

In some cases, affairs between women were documented in the poems of Sappo, a poet from the island of Lesbos. In her poems she glamorizes the Spartan women for their athleticism and freedom to compete nude with the young male Spartans (3).

The homosexual love affairs between Greek soldiers was also common. One instance is Achilles and Patroclus. An image depicts Achilles bandaging his friend Patroclus and is seen as being homoerotic by many scholars. The relationships were held valuable by the soldiers in that it was thought to be that one would fight harder for one's lover than they would for one's neighbor. Homer noted this in the mistake of organizing troops by village than by friendship (5).

Today, homosexuality is regarded as culturally unacceptable in Greece. The citizens of Greece for most have denied the relationships held between the same sexes of their early ancestors. The 2002 movie “Alexander” shows the homosexual relationship held between Alexander the Great and his childhood friend, Hephaistion. The film was a flop in Greece as it was in theaters for only 4 days (6).

Although homosexuality is seen as morally wrong in today’s Christian dominated culture, ancient Classical Greece was in a different time with far different cultural concerns. As the world became more involved with a single creator, it became more involved with self-control. The Greeks had not concerned themselves with forbidden as Christians did. The Greeks figured the desirable was okay just as long as it was not in excess. They felt that they had these urges for their male partners for a reason and the morality should not be an issue (Foucault, 68).

Bibliography

5. Aeschylus: Translated by Anthony Hecht and Helen H. Bacon. (1991). Seven Against Thebes. New York: Oxford University Press.

Halperin, D. M. (1990). One Hundered Years of Homosexuality: and other essays on Greek Love. 29 West 35 Street, New York, NY 10001: Chapman and Hall, Inc.

4. Hubbard, T. K. (2003, April). 2.4: Xenophon, Hieron 1.29-38. Retrieved October 17, 2007, from Homosexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome: http://www.laits.utexas.edu/ancienthomosexuality/readindex.php?view=18

1.Oxford Classical Dictionary: The ultimate Refference Work on the Classical World. Third Edition Revised. (2003). Entery on ancient Greek homosexuality. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press.

3. Sappic Love. (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2007, from http://perseus.uchicago.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Plat.+Sym.+191&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0166