Pederasty in ancient Greece: Encyclopedia II - Pederasty in ancient Greece - Political aspects

Pederasty in ancient Greece - Political aspects

The state benefitted from these relationships, according to the statements of ancient writers. The friendship functioned as a restraint on the youth, since if he committed a crime it was not he but his lover who was punished. In the military the lovers fought side by side, with each vying to shine before the other. Thus it was said that an army of lovers would be invincible, as was the case until the battle of Chaeronea with the Theban Sacred Band, a batallion of one hundred and fifty warriors, each aided by his beloved charioteer.

Pederastic couples were also said to be feared by tyrants, because the bond between the friends was stronger than that of obedience to a tyrannical ruler. Athenaeus, in his Deipnosophists, 602, states that "Hieronymus the Aristotelian says that love with boys was fashionable because several tyrannies had been overturned by young men in their prime, joined together as comrades in mutual sympathy."

He gives as examples of such pederastic couples the Athenians Harmodius and Aristogeiton, who were credited (perhaps symbolically) with the overthrow of the tyrant Hippias and the establishment of the democracy, and also Chariton and Melanippus. Others, such as Aristotle, claimed that some states encouraged pederasty as a means of population control, by directing love and sexual desire into non-procreative channels, a feature of pederasty also employed by other cultures.

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.

Pederasty in ancient Greece - Crete

The Cretans, a people described by Plutarch as renowned for their moderation and conservative ways, practiced an archaic form of pederasty (described by Ephorus of Cyme in Strabo's Geography 10.21.4) in which the man enacted a ritual kidnapping of a boy of his choosing, with the approval of the boy's father. The practice seems to have been reserved for the aristocracy: the beloved was known as kleinos, glorious, and enjoyed high status. Not surprisingly, these same Cretans were credited with introducing the myth of Zeus kidnapping Ganymede to be his lover in Olympus – though even the king of the gods had to make amends to the father. (Plato, Laws)

As Strabo records it,

• "(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 live in the wilderness for a time. Upon their return the lover gives the boy expensive gifts, among which a military outfit, an ox (a sacrifice to Zeus), and a drinking cup (symbolic of spiritual accomplishment). 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."

Aristotle stated that the Cretans encouraged homosexuality as a means of population control on the island community in his Politics: [They] “segregated the women and instituted sexual relations among the males so that women would not have children.”

Pederasty in ancient Greece - Thebes

In Thebes, another renowned center of pederasty, the practice was enshrined in the founding myth of the city. In this instance the story was meant to teach by counterexample: it depicts Laius, one of the mythical ancestors of the Thebans, in the role of a lover who betrays the father and rapes the son. For his double crime the gods meted out exemplary punishment, visited not only upon him, but upon his own son, Oedipus, and his children. (In an apparent attempt to emphasize Laius' criminality, ancient artistic convention had his victim depicted not as an adolescent – the usual representation of beloved boys in Greek paintings on ceramic – but as a child, a reference to the contempt the Greeks had for men who pursued under-age boys) See [4] on the protection of Athenian boys against unlawful acts. Theban pederasty, however, was not the result of the "disaster of Laius," but it was the Theban lawgivers who instituted pederasty as an educational device for boys, in order to "soften, while they were young, their natural fierceness," and to "temper the manners and characters of the youth." (Plutarch, Life of Pelopidas)

Pederasty in ancient Greece - Sparta

The Spartans required all their adult men to engage a boy in a pederastic relationship, and Aelian reports that Spartiates who failed to take an eromenos were fined by the ephors. Plutarch claims that the relationships were chaste, and that it was as unthinkable for a lover to sexually consumate a relationship with his beloved as for a father with his own son. The law was given to them by their quasi-mythical founding legislator, Lycurgus, who fashioned the Spartan state into an idealistic community that lasted hundreds of years. However, unlike in Crete, in Sparta, Athens and most other Greek city-states the man first had to win the affection of the boy he sought.

The title given lover was eispnelas, "inspirer," while the beloved was known as the aites, "hearer." Pederasty and military training were intimately connected in Sparta, as in many other cities. The Spartans supposedly sacrificed to Eros before every battle. The man was responsible for the boy's training, and if his pupil showed any sign of weakness, like crying out in pain in battle, it was his lover who was punished.

Pederasty in ancient Greece - Athens

The founder of the pederastic tradition in Athens is said to be the lawgiver Solon, who also composed poetry praising the love of boys. One fragment survives, in which he praises a "boy in the lovely flower of youth, desiring his thighs and sweet mouth." In Athens, the lover was known as the erastes, and his young partner as the eromenos. beloved. Athenian society generally encouraged the erastes to pursue a boy to love, tolerating excesses like sleeping on the youth's stoop and otherwise going to great lengths to make himself noticed. At the same time, the boy and his family were expected to put up resistance and not give in too easily. Boys who succumbed too readily, or were seduced by gifts and wealth were looked down upon.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Political aspects", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki