Philosophy of Greek pederasty: Encyclopedia II - Philosophy of Greek pederasty - Chaste pederasty

Philosophy of Greek pederasty - Chaste pederasty

Plato was among the first to analyze and critique the traditions of male love current in their time, the fourth century BCE. His works document the teachings of Socrates, who appears to have favored chaste pederastic relationships, marked by a balance between desire and self-control. He pointedly criticized purely physical infatuations, for example by mocking Critias' lust for Euthydemus by comparing his behavior towards the boy to that of a "a piglet scratching itself against a rock" (Xenophon, Memorabilia 1.2.29-30). That, however, did not prevent him from frequenting the boy brothels, from which he bought and freed his future friend and student, Phaedo, nor from describing his erotic intoxication upon glimpsing the beautiful Charmides' naked body beneath his open tunic (Plato, Charmides 155c-e).

Socrates' love of Alcibiades, which was more than reciprocated, is held as an example of chaste pederasty. His desire for the boy is commented upon in several texts. In Plato's Gorgias,481d, Socrates asserts that he is "in love with two objects — Alcibiades, son of Clinias, and philosophy." In his Protagoras, 309a, Socrates is teased for his infatuation, "Where have you come from Socrates? No doubt from pursuit of the captivating Alcibiades. . . He's actually growing a beard." Socrates replies, "What of it? Aren't you an enthusiast for Homer, who says that the most charming age is that of the youth with his first beard, just the age of Alcibiades now?" But in the Symposium it comes out that despite his love for the youth, and despite the desperate advances of Alcibiades, who craves to have Socrates as a lover in every sense of the word, Socrates spends the night in bed with Alcibiades without satisfying his beloved's desires, and their mutual love remains chaste.

Philosophy of Greek pederasty - Phaedrus

In the dialogue Phaedrus Socrates described ideal pederasty as a relationship inspired by divine madness, a madness which "is given us by the gods to ensure our greatest good fortune.” He describes a man’s falling in love with a beautiful boy as “the best and noblest of all the forms that possession by a god can take" [249] and the relationship as one in which the boy reminds the lover of the divine, and the lover in turn helps the boy attain divine qualities. This ideal relationship, while physically intimate and affectionate, is chaste in that it stops short of sexual intercourse. This kind of love Socrates labels philosophical pederasty. He describes its fruits as both beautiful and blissful, and he states that those who [256] practice love in this fashion

Sexually expressed pederasty is set one level below the philosophical. The quality of the friendship between the lovers is also strong, since they too are inspired by the same kind of divine madness, but its strength does not equal to that of the higher kind. On the lowest rung Socrates places pederastic relationships between individuals who are not truly in love with each other. These he regards as profane, rather than sacred, and their benefits, if any, remain on a mundane level. Both of these relationships are criticized as being shameful and damaging to the lover as well as the beloved, and are characterized as being fundamentally materialistic and predatory: "Do wolves love lambs? That’s how lovers befriend a boy." [240]

Philosophy of Greek pederasty - Laws

Later, in the Laws, Plato further elaborates on the concept of chaste pederasty (now in his own voice) by positing three types of love, or "philia," which can reach the level of “eros” when intense. First he presents those between equals and between unequals. The third is one marked by conflict between first two types, a conflict that resolves into chaste pederasty when physical desire is held in check by self-control. The third type of lover is said to “prefer to remain continually chaste with a beloved who is chaste.” This love, suggests Plato, is the one that an ideal law would favor, while simultaneously “keeping out the other two, if at all possible.”[837]

Philosophy of Greek pederasty - Other examples

Aristotle, while not specifically discussing constructions of pederasty, nevertheless suggests that it is obvious to him and his contemporaries that it is better to have a beloved who is disposed to grant his sexual favors but abstains, to having a beloved who is averse to granting his favors but nevertheless obliges. He thus concludes that in such relationships the goal is not so much the sexual act as the attainment of reciprocated affection. [Prior Analytics, 2.22]

Plutarch and Xenophon, in their descriptions of Spartan pederasty, state that even though it is the beautiful boys who are sought above all others (contrary to the Cretan traditions), nevertheless the pederastic couple remains chaste. In his Lacaedemonian Republic (II, 13), Plutarch goes so far as to assert that for an erastes to desire his eromenos would be as shameful as for a father to desire his own son. Nonetheless, the opinion on the Athenian street was at variance: The sexual character of Spartan pederasty was a running gag in the repertoire of Athenian comedians, and the verb λακωνίζω / lakônízô ("to do it the Lacedaemonian way) took on the meaning of "to sodomize."

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