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Well, the above statement may not be strictly true, but it is definitely not far removed from the truth.
Let's make a few points here: what we're talking about are gay boys; lesbianism, bisexuality is not mentioned at all in how we understand it at the moment, although I'm as sure as you are that it happened!
Ancient Greece is synonymous with the image of the bronzed, sleek, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, beautiful boy, worshipped not from afar but at close quarters. Unfortunately it was not the gay paradise that most believe it to be, homosexuality being accepted because it wasn't seen as homosexuality, it was seen as something as natural and 'normal' as heterosexuality, again a concept that really did not exist, our perception is extremely different from the Greek perception.
Socrates' advice is as relevant now as it was then: '"Don't you realise that this beast they call 'young and handsome' is more terrible than a scorpion inasmuch as it does not even need to touch you as the scorpion must, but pierces anyone that looks at it from a distance and makes them mad... I advise you to take to your heel's and run whenever you see a beautiful man, and you should spend a year abroad. It will take you at least that long to recover."'
Ancient Greece did not judge as harshly as we, but accepted. Another lover of boys, Alexander, 'in a theatre full of people bent over to caress his boyfriend and when the audience responded with applause, he bent over again and kissed him.'
Sexuality was not something seen as to be able to rule up on as it is in our times, although the Greeks were extremely liberal, this would seem to be because of their great learning and understanding of the mind and the body, who were they to deny it, and who are we?
'Epicrates has fallen in love with a boy who works in a perfume shop and has offered to buy his freedom from the owner. The boy persuades Epicrates to include his father and brother in the deal. Only little does it transpire that included within the deal are enormous debts incurred by the slaves through the perfumery, for which the new owner is now responsible.'
It would seem that no amount of money spent on a boy, or for a boy, was too great, love and lust was, and still is, blind. The Greek purse needed to be bottomless, for one night with a male prostitute 'a certain Simon claims to have paid as much as 300 drachmas for a boy. Simon chose to sue the new lover of the boy for assault in an argument rather than sue the boy for breach of contract' (300 drachmas being roughly equivalent to £900).
Socrates to Xenophon: '"Poor thing. Do you have no idea what will happen to you once you have kissed a handsome boy?
Without a doubt you would become a slave instead of a free man, you'll spend large sums of money on harmful pleasures, you'll have no time for the business of a decent gentleman and be forced in to pursuits even a madman would eschew." "Hercules!" said Xenophon. "What terrible power you ascribe to a kiss."' 'katapepaiderasteekenai' means to have wasted an entire estate on boys. Well, I'm quite positive that I won't get to that state... (?)
Article by Stuart Sandford Main source: 'Courtesans and Fishcakes', James Davidson |
