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3. Homosexuality
• E. M. Foster states:
homosexuality was
“the vice of the
Greeks”
-fifth and fourth-century Athens
-integral part of social life.
-normal practice
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5. • Found in Greek Tragedies/Plays
• Found in Mythical stories of Greek Gods
• Found in public forms of literature, art, and
sculpture from Athens:
ex: The Symposium - Plato/Socrates
6. Dominant form of homosexuality in Greece:
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---> sexual relations between a man and
a boy
-the boy = passive partner
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• Erastest (elder man) would have the Eromenos
(young boy) as his sex partner, and become his mentor.
-Symposium = gathering place where philosophers would
drink and discuss knowledge
-youth wanted to be invited to these symposiums
- symposiums were regarded institution of Athens
- there was never a word to describe homosexual practices:
---> they were simply part of aphrodisia = love
-which included both men and women.
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asserts that:
-Sympoisums was regulated by the State as
an institution of knowledge.
- the eromenos (young) attempted to obtain
moral wisdom and strength
-viewed as a significant educational system in
Ancient Greece
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- arises from discovered artifacts
-prove that men of the same age would
engage in sexual behavior together as well.
- It is known because the erastes(adult) always was showed
with a beard
- artifacts have been found showing two
eromenos(youths) without beards engaging
in homosexual behavior
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exchanging sex for knowledge
11. -dominant in Greek civilization among the upper
classes
ex:
much of Athenian love life took place in
public places
- many vases show intercourse in the public
place
-not a single written statement exists that
people objected to this behavior
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How we came to have
homosexual and
heterosexual
soul mates
(I recorded the story--double click)
13. • Homosexual relationships between adult men did exist
However
-at least one member of each of these relationships
disregard social conventions by assuming a passive
sexual role
• Ancient Greeks did not believe sexual orientation was a
social identifier as Western societies do presently.
• Greek society did not distinguish sexual desire or behavior
by the gender of the participants
-but rather by the role that each participant played in the
sexual act
14. • Came before the rise of political organization
• Communities were organized according to age groups
• When it came time for a boy to make the transition into
adulthood --> to "become a man," the boy would leave his
community and accompany an older man for a period of time
as kind of a rite of passage
• The rite of passage after political organization evolved, no
longer involved the boys leaving their communities, but
rather they paired up with older men within the community.
-These men played an educational and instructive role
for the youth
15. A social code governed
Greek pederasty:
*Duty of the adult to court the boy whose taken
his interest
• Socially appropriate for the boy to withhold
from sexual behavior to ensure that the elder
male was not simply interested in him for sex
• The adult males would have genuine
emotional affection for the boys and wanted to
mentor them i.e. following the pederastic
paradigm (rules of pederasty in gov)
16. • Famous philosopher from Athens
• In 348 B.C. Plato asserts
- there is a widespread
practice of homosexuality in
Athens
• In Plato’s writings, Socrates the
character, is always Plato
17. Cont…
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• notably referred to as practicing in homosexuality himself
– Socrates in all his writings is an apparent homosexual
However
- Plato advocated laws to regulate homosexual behavior
because he believed homosexual relations derived from
being enslaved to pleasure
• Knowledge was of the up most importance in Greek life
not pleasure
-so Plato created “platonic love”
---> love without the pleasure of sex
sex was distracting
18. - Plato portrays Socrates as boy crazy
- He states, when “Socrates is in the company of beautiful boys, he loses
his senses.”
- Plato says, “Some sort of mania (divine madness) took possession of
Socrates and he lost his dominant interest in knowledge”
- Socrates says that the only way he could be distracted was by asking
difficult questions to these boys and teaching them philosophy
- So, according to Plato, Socrates sublimated his passion
(…and that is exactly what Plato did in reality, he controlled his
passions because he did not want to give in to the enslavement of
pleasure over the importance of knowledge)
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• asserted a metaphor:
– “Procreation, he says, can be earthly and spiritual, just like love. After
all, love can be physical” (aimed at the beautiful body of a boy) “and
spiritual” (which he believes is on a higher level)
– This last type of love can be described as longing for something good and
possessing it
– The true erastes (adult) will prefer the beauty of the soul above that of the
body.
-- Instead of a material/earthly parenthood (the procreation of children) he
prefers the spiritual type, which is the creation of virtue and knowledge.
--The eromenos' (youth) understanding grows and eventually he will be able to
see a beauty that is above all earthly standards
--Philosophically, by spiritually loving a beautiful beloved, the lover reaches an
understanding of absolute beauty
20. • “the only type of real love is
the love between two men”
-Homosexual love is related to education and gaining knowledge
-making it superior to other types of love
21. dedicated two of his dialogues to this specific subject of
homosexual behavior in Ancient Greece:
• The Symposium and The Phaedrus.
• We will focus on
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22. • In most of Plato’s writings, he presents
himself in the story as Socrates in which
Socrates is presented clearly homosexual.
• Even though homosexual behavior was
prominent and accepted for the aristocratic
class, some like Plato, did not let themselves
participate in the behavior because the
exchange of knowledge was always the most
important
= “one’s absolute”
-homosexual pleasure distracted one’s ability
to reach the “absolute”
23. • a collection of ideas on love by Socrates and other philosophers
• Ends by stating that homosexuality is a condition:
– Aristophanes says, three kinds of beings exist:
“that of the male, the
female - and androgynous”
24. Cont….
*Zeus(Greek God) is said to have cut these three
beings in half so that they each seek their other
sexual counterpart, or in the case of composite
being, their own sex
*Aristophanes describes the latter as being such to
prefer their own gender, in which he includes
lesbianism, and commends
25. Many speeches in The
Symposium speak of a
predisposition towards homosexuality
Examples…
• The Speech of Pausanias
• The speech of Socrates
• The Speech of Alcibiades
• From Plato’s other work about
homosexuality, Phaedrus, give
indications of how homosexuality was
thought of in Greek philosophy
27. • two kinds of Eros exist:
1) heavenly and beautiful
2) vulgar and base
- The better is homosexual, the worse
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28. states…
“the common people have degraded
homosexual love by making it mere
physical attraction. Real love is love of the
beautiful soul, good character, and
intelligence. It must be practiced with
grace, for it aims at virtue and wisdom.
This Eros is good for the individual and
the State”
29. Cont…
“The freedom given to the lover by both gods
and men according to our custom is
immense” (183c)
-Pausanias speaks passionately in defense of homosexuality
-Socrates and Agathon have a love almost more
famous than Athens itself
30. • Socrates says:
“Conquest is deemed noble, and failure
shameful. And as for attempts at conquest,
our custom is to praise lovers for totally
extraordinary acts -- so extraordinary, in fact,
that if they performed them for any other
purpose whatever, they would reap the most
profound contempt” (182e)
31. (209c-d; 210e-211e)
-Socrates asserts that “the highest purpose of love is to
become a philosopher” (a lover of wisdom)
-Socrates’ speech is the most significant because it
contains the most evidence of sexual behavior in
Ancient Athens
32. - Eros is not good and beautiful in itself
- Eros is in fact a mean between opposites
- Love cannot, therefore, be a god, but rather some thing halfway
between “the immortal and divine and the mortal”.
“Eros is a seeker after beauty and truth, and thus after wisdom”.
“Eros impels humanity to seek beauty, but the love of mind for mind
and of soul for soul is more lasting than the physical side of Eros”
---> Progression:
- Love of one physical body (beauty)
- Love of all physical bodies (abstract beauty)
-Love of beautiful activities
-Love of beautiful intellectual activities
-Love of absolute beauty.
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33. The Speech of
(215a-222b)
Alcibiades described his Pederastric experience as trying to be courted
by Socrates.
*Alcibiades states
“I think you’re the only worthy lover I have ever had --
and yet, look how shy you are with me! Well, here’s how I look
at it. It would be really stupid not to give you anything you
want: you can have me, my belongings, anything my friends
might have”
(for a sense of how much it was appropriate for a lover to give
up for his love)
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“Nothing is more important than becoming the
best man I can be, and no one can help me
more than you to reach that aim. With a man
like you, in fact, I’d be much more ashamed of
what wise people would say if I did not take you
as my lover, than I would of what all the others,
in their foolishness, would say if I did”
35. Selections from the
Phaedrus (231c-240c)
• “Eros deserves to be honored because of
his antiquity, as the source of many
blessings, and in particular as the Patron
of homosexual love. Love of man for youth
stimulates noble and courageous deeds.
An army composed of lovers would be
invincible. Lovers will give up their lives
for each other”
36. Cont…
• Eros = chief cause of virtue and
happiness
• Eros is seen in terms of military prowess
and courage.
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37. Speech
• Eros is a healer
- Originally the human race had three
sexes, double-male, double-female, male-
female.
• When humans became a threat to Zeus, he
weakened humans by separating their halves
with his thunderbolt. Ever since, the halves
have been searching for their natural mate:
• The worship of Eros will bring healing in man
and eternal happiness through the reunion of
the separated halves.
38. People think that homosexuality and
sexual deviance is a new phenomenon
The FACT is that those things have been
around as long as humans!!!!
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