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Homosexuality in ancient Greece from 776 BC - 480 BC.
One thousand years of homosexuality
Ancient Greek studies have historically omitted references to the widespread practice of homosexuality. In 1910 a book called Maurice by E. M. Foster noted Cambridge professors employing “Omit: a reference to the unspeakable vice of the Greeks.” Four decades later in the 1940s: “This aspect of Greek morals is an extraordinary one, into which, for the sake of our equanimity, it is unprofitable to pry too closely”, by H. Michell. It would not be until 1978 when an English book on Greek homosexuality was first in the public realm.
Homosexual love was prevalent throughout all aspects of ancient Greece. Many believe the first recorded appearance of it 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 icons of male homosexuality. Poets write of male love from the earliest eras to the end of the Hellenistic era. Five philosophical dialogues debate its ethical implications. Notable scholars such as Plato, Xenophon, Plutarch, and pseudo-Lucian would discuss the topic. Tragedies on the theme became very popular. Aristophanes made comical theater about sexual relationships between males. Vases portray numerous homoerotic depictions with hundreds of inscriptions celebrating the love of young men. Famous politicians, warriors, artists, and writers would enjoy these relationships. These relationships held an honored place in their culture from at least 600 BC to 400 AD. (Dialogues)
Homosexuality was also reflected in Greek religion. Myths provide more than fifty examples of young men who were the lovers of gods (Sergent). Poets and traditions ascribe Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Hercules, Dionysus, Hermes, and Pan to such love. All the main gods of the pantheon except Ares had these relationships. The famous poets Sappho, Alcaeus, Ibycus, Anacreon, Theognis, and Pindar all wrote of same-sex love. Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides made plays on the subject. Political leaders Solon, Peisistratus, Hippias, Hipparchus, Themistocles, Aristides, Critias, Demosthenes, and Aeschines of Athens; Pausanias, Lysander, and Agesilaus of Sparta; Polycrates of Samos; Hieron and Agathocles of Syracuse; Epaminondas and Pelopidas of Thebes; and Archelaus, Philip II, and Alexander of Macedon were recorded to have had same-sex love. Socrates, Plato, and Xenophon described the inspirational powers of love between men though decrying its physical expression. Upon the death of Plato the presidency of the Academy passed from lover to lover. Of the Stoics, Chrysippus, Cleanthes, and Zeno fell in love with young men. The artist Phidias even memorialized his lover Pantarces in marble. During the Hellenistic era (332 BC – 400 AD) Plutarch, Athenaeus, and Aelian traced the history of Greek homosexuality to its beginning.
Throughout these records, male relationships were represented with honor, though there were always a few skeptics. But for the vast majority of ancient historians for a man to have not had a young man for a love presented a deficiency in character. Plato wrote of one such speech by Phaedrus in the Symposium:
- For I know not any greater blessing to a young man who is beginning in life than a virtuous lover, or to a lover than a beloved youth. For the principle, I say, neither kindred, nor honor, nor wealth, nor any motive is able to implant so well as love. Of what am I speaking? Of the sense of honor and dishonor, without which neither states nor individuals ever do any good or great work… And if there were only some way of contriving that a state or an army should be made up of lovers and their loves, they would be the very best governors of their own city, abstaining from all dishonor and emulating one another in honor; and it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that when fighting at each other’s side, although a mere handful, they would overcome the world.
Phaedrus’ belief in an army of lovers would be realized in the Sacred Band of Thebes. His views were common in their society from the earliest of Greek history to the eventual coming of Christianity. The institution of pederasty was held sacred. When Aeschines’ gave a speech on the topic to jurors in Athens composed of all classes they respectfully honored it. Belief in ideals sprouted from same-sex love became a central part of the ancient Greeks.
The Iliad
The closest word the ancient Greeks had for “homosexual” was “paiderastia” meaning “boy love”. It was a relationship between an older male and a young man around fourteen to twenty. 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.
With the Iliad the ancient Greeks had trouble designating which role to assign to Patroclus and Achilles. 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”.
Plato wrote the Symposium about 385 BC, and by then an established tradition viewed Achilles and Patroclus lovers. However there was still debate on whether this was Homer’s intentions or misguided. Aeschylus who wrote a century earlier in his popular tragedy Myrmidons regarded the relationship sexual and stated it in explicit detail. He tells of Achilles visiting Patroclus’ dead body and criticizing him for letting himself be killed. In it Achilles speaks of a “devout union of the thighs”. This reading was the common view at the climax of the Hellenistic era, though it was not shared by all.
Evidence of this debate is found in a speech by an Athenian politician Aeschines at his trial in 345 BC. Aeschines in placing an emphasis on the importance of pederasty to the Greeks argues that though Homer does not state it explicitly educated people should be able to read between the lines. “Although (Homer) speaks in many places of Patroclus and Achilles, he hides their love and avoids giving a name to their friendship, thinking that the exceeding greatness of their affection is manifest to such of his hearers as are educated men.” Most ancient writers followed the thinking laid out by Aeschines.
The inquiry is of significant importance. Homer’s Iliad is the most important sources for Greek history prior to 600 BC when Greek literary texts became numerous. In it he does not use the terms “erastes” and “eromenos”, it has been argued that their relationship was not pederastic but rather egalitarian. In his Ionian culture it appears homosexuality had not taken on the form it later would in pederasty. However some scholars such as Bernard Sergent have argued that it had though it was not reflected in Homer. He asserts that ritualized man-boy relations were widely diffused through Europe from prehistoric times.
It is impossible to designate the roles found in the Iliad between Achilles and Patroclus along pederastic lines. Achilles is the most dominant. Among the warriors in the Trojan War he has the most fame. Patroclus performs duties such as cooking, and nursing yet is older than Achilles. Both also sleep with women.
Nonetheless the emotion between the two is obviously intense love. Achilles is tender to Patroclus contrasted to his arrogance to others. Typically warriors fought for personal fame or their city-state. But Achilles emphasizes his relationship with Patroclus above all else. He dreams that all Greeks would die so that he and Patroclus might gain the fame of conquering Troy alone. After Patroclus dies he agonizes touching his dead body, smearing himself with ash, and fasting. It was not until his desire for revenge to kill Hector who had killed Patroclus that he would fight again; fully aware that the gods warned him it would cost his life.
Attempts to edit the text were undertaken by Aritarchus of Samothrace in Alexandria around 200 BC. He has been called “the founder of scientific scholarship”. In his belief he thought that Homer did not intend the two to be lovers. However he did agree that the “we-two alone” passage did imply a love relation and argued it was a later interpolation. But the majority of ancient and modern historians have accepted the lines to be an original part. Therefore even a Greek who argued against such a view had to admit that these lines expressed a relationship.
Chalcis, Crete, Sparta
Since pederasty does not appear in the Illiad as the important institution it later became many theories have been developed to explain why. A largely held view is the Dorian hypothesis first established by K. O. Muller in the 1800s. According to this theory pederasty emigrated with the Dorian warrior tribes who conquered Greece around 1200 BC. They settled most of the Peloponnesus along with the islands Crete, Thera, and Rhodes. This forced the Ionian Greeks towards Asia Minor but left important cities in Athens and Euboea.
Plato singled out Dorian communities such as Crete and Sparta in the Laws because he thought they encouraged homosexuality between males. Aristotle stated that the Cretans encouraged homosexuality as a population controller on the island community in his Politics. He tells us that the Cretan “lawgiver” – “segregating the women and instituting sexual relations among the males so that women would not have children.” Strabo in Geography who used Ephorus of Cyme as a source gave an account of how highly ritualized homosexuality was in Crete:
- "(The Cretans) have a peculiar custom in regard to love affairs, for they win the objects with their love, not by persuasion, but by abduction; the lover tells the friends of the boy three or four days beforehand that he is going to make the abduction; but for the friends to conceal the boy, or not to let him go forth the appointed road, is indeed a most disgraceful thing, a confession, as it were, that the boy is unworthy to obtain such a lover; and when they meet, if the abductor is the boy’s equal or superior in rank or other respects, the friends pursue him and lay hold of him, though only in a very gentle way, thus satisfying the custom; and after that they cheerfully turn the boy over to him to lead away; if, however, the abductor is unworthy, they take the boy away from him."
In this passage it is the boy’s masculinity that consigns him his lover. Together the boy and his lover enter the wilderness where he is given three expensive gifts, a military outfit, an ox (a sacrifice to Zeus), and a drinking cup (symbolic of Ganymede). Strabo also states in the same work:
- "It is disgraceful for those who are handsome in appearance or descendants of illustrious ancestors to fail to obtain lovers, the presumption being that their character (masculinity) is responsible for such a fate. But the parastathentes (those who stand by their lover in battle) receive honors; for in both the dances and the races they have the positions of highest honor, and are allowed to dress in better clothes than the rest, that is, in the habit given them by their lovers; and not then only, but even after they have grown to manhood, they wear a distinctive dress, which is intended to make known the fact that each wearer has become kleinos, for they call the loved one keinos (distinguished) and the lover philetor."