Part 9

[43] The foregoing attempt to reconstruct a possible environment for the Dorian form of paiderastia is, of course, wholly imaginative. Yet it receives certain support from what we know about the manners of the Albanian mountaineers and the nomadic Tartar tribes. Aristotle remarks upon the paiderastic customs of the Kelts, who in his times were immigrant.

[44] See above, Section V.

[45] It appears from the reports of travellers that this form of passion is not common among those African tribes who have not been corrupted by Musselmans or Europeans.

[46] It may be plausibly argued that Æschylus drew the subject of his _Myrmidones_ from some such non-Homeric epic. See below, Section XII.

[47] 182 A. Cp. _Laws_, i. 636.

[48] _Eroticus_, xvii. p. 761, 34.

[49] See Plutarch, _Pelopidas_, Clough, vol. ii. p. 219.

[50] Clough, as quoted above, p. 219.

[51] The connection of the royal family of Macedon by descent with the Æacidæ, and the early settlement of the Dorians in Macedonia, are noticeable.

[52] Cf. Athenæus, x. 435.

[53] Hadrian in Rome, at a later period, revived the Greek tradition with even more of caricature. His military ardour, patronage of art, and love for Antinous seem to hang together.

[54] _Dissert._, xxvi. 8.

[55] See Athen., xiii., 609, F. The prize was armour and the wreath of myrtle.

[56] _Symp._ 182, B. In the _Laws_, however, he mentions the Barbarians as corrupting Greek morality in this respect. We have here a further proof that it was the noble type of love which the Barbarians discouraged. For _Malakia_ they had no dislike.

[57] Bergk., _Poetæ Lyrica Græci_, vol. ii. p. 490, line 87 of Theognis.

[58] _Ibid._, line 1,353.

[59] _Ibid._, line 1,369.

[60] _Ibid._, lines 1,259-1,270.

[61] _Ibid._, line 1,267.

[62] _Ibid._, lines 237-254. Translated by me in _Vagabunduli Libellus_, p. 167.

[63] Bergk., _Poetæ Lyrici Græci_, vol. ii. line 1,239.

[64] _Ibid._, line 1,304.

[65] _Ibid._, line 1,327.

[66] _Ibid._, line 1,253.

[67] _Ibid._, line 1,335.

[68] _Eroticus_, cap. v. p. 751, 21. See Bergk., vol. ii. p. 430.

[69] See Cic., _Tusc._, iv. 33

[70] Bergk., vol. iii. p. 1,013.

[71] _Ibid._, p. 1,045.

[72] _Ibid._, pp. 1,109, 1,023; fr. 24, 26.

[73] _Ibid._, p. 1,023; fr. 48.

[74] Maximus Tyrius, _Dissert._, xxvi., says that Smerdies was a Thracian, given, for his great beauty, by his Greek captors to Polycrates.

[75] See what Agathon says in the _Thesmophoriazuse_ of Aristophanes.

[76] xv. 695.

[77] Bergk., vol. iii. p. 1,293.

[78] _Ibid._, vol. i. p. 327.

[79] Athen., xiii. 601 A.

[80] See the fragments of the _Myrmidones_ in the _Poetæ Scenici Græci_, My interpretation of them is, of course, conjectural.

[81] Lucian, _Amores_; Plutarch, _Eroticus_; Athenæus, xiii. 602 E.

[82] Possibly Æschylus drew his fable from a non-Homeric source, but if so, it is curious that Plato should only refer to Homer.

[83] _Symph._, 180 A. Xenophon, _Symph._, 8, 31, points out that in Homer Achilles avenged the death of Patroclus, not as his lover, but as his comrade in arms.

[84] Cf. Eurid., _Hippol._, l. 525; Plato, _Phoedr._, p. 255; Max. Tyr., _Dissert._, xxv. 2.

[85] See _Poetæ Scenici_, _Fragments of Sophocles_.

[86] _Eroticus_; p. 790 E.

[87] Ath., p. 602 E.

[88] _Tusc._, iv. 33.

[89] See Athenæus, xiii. pp. 604, 605, for two very outspoken stories about Sophocles at Chios and apparently at Athens. In 582, e, he mentions one of the boys beloved by Sophocles, a certain Demophon.

[90] Plato, _Parm._, 127 A.

[91] Pausanias, v. 11, and see Meier, p. 159, note 93.

[92] This, by the way, is a strong argument against the theory that the _Iliad_ was a post-Herodotean poem. A poem in the age of Pisistratus or Pericles would not have omitted paiderastia from his view of life, and could not have told the myth of Ganymede as Homer tells it. It is doubtful whether he could have preserved the pure outlines of the story of Patroclus.

[93] Page 182, Jowett's trans. Mr. Jowett censures this speech as sophistic and confused in view. It is precisely on this account that it is valuable. The confusion indicates the obscure conscience of the Athenians. The sophistry is the result of a half-acknowledged false position.

[94] Page 181, Jowett's trans.

[95] See the curious passages in Plato, _Symp._, p. 192; Plutarch, _Erot._, p. 751; and Lucian, _Amores_, c. 38.

[96] Quoted by Athen, xiii. 573 B.

[97] As Lycon chaperoned Autolycus at the feast of Callias.--_Xen. Symp._ Boys incurred immediate suspicion if they went out alone to parties. See a fragment from the _Sappho_ of Ephippus in Athen., xiii. p. 572 C.

[98] Line 137. The joke here is that the father in Utopia suggests, of his own accord, what in Athens he carefully guarded against.

[99] Page 222, Jowett's trans.

[100] _Clouds_, 948 and on. I have abridged the original, doing violence to one of the most beautiful pieces of Greek poetry.

[101] Aristophanes returns to this point below, line 1,036, where he says that youths chatter all day in the hot baths and leave the wrestling-grounds empty.

[102] There was a good reason for shunning each. The Agora was the meeting-place of idle gossips, the centre of chaff and scandal. The shops were, as we shall see, the resort of bad characters and panders.

[103] Line 1,071, _et seq._

[104] Caps. 44, 45, 46. The quotation is only an abstract of the original.

[105] Worn up to the age of about eighteen.

[106] Compare with the passages just quoted two epigrams from the _Mousa Paidiké_ (Greek _Anthology_, sect. 12): No. 123, from a lover to a lad who has conquered in a boxing-match; No. 192, where Straton says he prefers the dust and oil of the wrestling-ground to the curls and perfumes of a woman's room.

[107] Page 255 B.

[108] 1,025.

[109] _Charmides_, p. 153.

[110] _Lysis_, 206, This seems, however, to imply that on other occasions they were separated.

[111] _Charmides_, p. 154, Jowett.

[112] Page 155, Jowett.

[113] Cap. i. 8.

[114] See cap. viii. 7. This is said before the boy, and in his hearing.

[115] Cap. iii. 12.

[116] Cap. iv. 10, _et seq._ The English is an abridgment.

[117] _Laws_, i. 636 C.

[118] Athen., xiii. 602 D.

[119] _Eroticus_.

[120] Line 60, ascribed to Theocritus, but not genuine.

[121] Athen., xiii. 609 D.

[122] _Mousa Paidiké_, 86.

[123] Compare the _Atys_ of Catullus: "Ego mulier, ego adolescens, ego ephebus, ego puer, Ego gymnasi fui flos, ego eram decus olei."

[124] See the law on these points in _Æsch. adv. Timarchum_.

[125] Thus Aristophanes, quoted above.

[126] Aristoph., _Ach._, 144, and _Mousa Paidiké_, 130.

[127] See Sir William Hamilton's _Vases_.

[128] Lysias, according to Suidas, was the author of five erotic epistles adressed to young men.

[129] See Aristoph., _Plutus_, 153-159; _Birds_, 704-707. Cp. _Mousa Paidiké_, 44, 239, 237. The boys made extraordinary demands upon their lovers' generosity. The curious tale told about Alcibiades points in this direction. In Crete they did the like, but also set their lovers to execute difficult tasks, as Eurystheus imposed the twelve labours on Herakles.

[130] Page 29.

[131] _Mousa Paidiké_, 8: cp. a fragment of Crates, _Poetæ Comici_, Didot, p. 83.

[132] _Comici Græci_, Didot, pp. 562, 31, 308.

[133] It is curious to compare the passage in the second _Philippic_ about the youth of Mark Antony with the story told by Plutarch about Alcibiades, who left the custody of his guardians for the house of Democrates.

[134] See both _Lysias against Simon_ and _Æschines against Timarchus_.

[135] _Peace_, line 11; compare the word _Pallakion_ in Plato, _Comici Græci_, p. 261.

[136] Diog. Laert., ii. 105.

[137] Plato's _Phædo_, p. 89.

[138] _Orat. Attici_, vol. ii. p. 223.

[139] See Herodotus. Max. Tyr. tells the story (_Dissert._, xxiv, 1) in detail. The boy's name was Actæon, wherefore he may be compared, he says, to that other Actæon who was torn to death by his own dogs.

[140] 153.

[141] _Symp._, 217.

[142] _Phædr._, 256.

[143] Page 17. My quotations are made from Dobson's _Oratores Attici_, vol. xii., and the references are to his pages.

[144] Page 30.

[145] Page 67.

[146] Page 67.

[147] Page 59.

[148] Page 75.

[149] Page 78.

[150] Æchines, p. 27, apologises to Misgolas, who was a man, he says, of good breeding, for being obliged to expose his early connection with Timarchus. Misgolas, however, is more than once mentioned by the comic poets with contempt as a notorious rake.

[151] See _Pol._, ii. 7, 5; ii. 6, 5; ii. 9, 6.

[152] The advocates of paiderastia in Greece tried to refute the argument from animals (_Laws_, p. 636 B; cp. _Daphnis and Chloe_, lib. 4, what Daphnis says to Gnathon) by the following considerations: Man is not a lion or a bear. Social life among human beings is highly artificial; forms of intimacy unknown to the natural state are therefore to be regarded, like clothing, cooking of food, houses, machinery, &c., as the invention and privilege of rational beings. See Lucian, _Amores_, 33, 34, 35, 36, for a full exposition of this argument. See also _Mousa Paidiké_, 245. The curious thing is that many animals are addicted to all sorts of so-called unnatural vices.

[153] Maximus Tyrius, who, in the rhetorical analysis of love alluded to before (p. 172), has closely followed Plato, insists upon the confusion introduced by language. _Dissert._, xxiv. 3. Again, _Dissert._, xxvi. 4; and compare _Dissert._, xxv. 4.

[154] This is the development of the argument in the _Phædrus_, where Socrates, improvising an improvement on the speech of Lysias, compares lovers to wolves and boys to lambs. See the passage in Max. Tyr., where Socrates is compared to a shepherd, the Athenian lovers to butchers, and the boys to lambs upon the mountains.

[155] This again is the development of the whole eloquent analysis of love, as it attacks the uninitiated and unphilosophic nature, in the _Phædrus_.

[156] Jowett's trans., p. 837.

[157] _Dissert._, xxv. 1. The same author pertinently remarks that, though the teaching of Socrates on love might well have been considered perilous, it, formed no part of the accusations of either Anytus or Aristophanes. _Dissert._, xxiv., 5-7

[158] This is a remark of Diotima's. Maximus Tyrius (_Dissert._, xxvi. 8) gives it a very rational interpretation. Nowhere else, he says, but in the human form, does the light of the divine beauty shine so clear. This is the word of classic art, the word of the humanities, to use a phrase of the Renaissance. It finds an echo in many beautiful sonnets of Michelangelo.

[159] See Bergk., vol. ii. pp. 616-629, for a critique of the canon of the highly paiderastic epigrams which bear Plato's name and for their text.

[160] I select the _Vita Nuova_ as the most eminent example of mediæval erotic mysticism.

[161] _Tusc._, iv. 33; _Decline and Fall_, cap. xliv. note 192.

[162] See Meier, cap. 15.

[163] Cap. 23.

[164] Cap. 54.

[165] Page 4.

[166] It is noticeable that in all ages men of learning have been obnoxious to paiderastic passions. Dante says (_Inferno_, xv. 106):--

"In somma sappi, che tutti fur cherci, E letterati grandi e di gran fama, D'un medesmo poccato al mondo lerci."

Compare Ariosto, _Satire_, vii.

[167] _Dissert._, xxvi. 9.

[168] I am aware that the genuineness of the essay has been questioned.

[169] _Mousa Paidiké_, i.

[170] _Ibid._, 208.

[171] _Ibid._, 258, 2.

[172] _Ibid._, 70, 65, 69, 194, 220, 221, 67, 68, 78, and others.

[173] Perhaps ten are of this sort.

[174] 8, 125, for example.

[175] 132, 256, 221.

[176] 219.

[177] 7.

[178] 17. Compare 86.

[179] Ed. Kayser, pp. 343-366.

[180] It is worth comparing the letters of Philostratus with those of Alciphron, a contemporary of Lucian. In the latter there is no hint of paiderastia. The life of parasites, grisettes, lorettes, and young men about town at Athens is set forth in imitation probably of the later comedy. Athens is shown to have been a Paris _à la Murger_.

[181] See the introduction by Marcus Aurelius to his _Meditations_.

[182] See quotations in Rosenbaum, 119-140.

[183] See Athen., xii. 517, for an account of their grotesque sensuality.

[184] The following passage may be extracted from a letter of Winckelmann (see Pater's _Studies in the History of the Renaissance_, p. 162): "As it is confessedly the beauty of man which is to be conceived under one general idea, so I have noticed that those who are observant of beauty only in women, and are moved little or not at all by the beauty of men, seldom have an impartial, vital, inborn instinct for beauty in art. To such persons the beauty of Greek art will ever seem wanting, because its supreme beauty is rather male than female." To this I think we ought to add that, while it is true that "the supreme beauty of Greek art is rather male than female," this is due not so much to any passion of the Greeks for male beauty as to the fact that the male body exhibits a higher organisation of the human form than the female.