vase. The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
14. Satyrs’ Orgy with Balancing Act, c. 500–470 BC.
Wine-Cooler.
15. The Kissing Competition, c. 510 BC.
Attic red-figure dish. Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.
16a. Men and Youths Engaged in Oral and Anal Sex, 6th century BC.
Attic red-figure. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
16b. Men and Youths Engaged in Oral and Anal Sex, 6th century BC.
Attic red-figure. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
17. Satyrs Masturbating.
Antique Greek vase. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Ancient Greek culture was male-centred. Men and boys held privileged status over women and girls. The correct education of boys was of primary concern, for the future of the city-state was at stake. The aim of the Greek educational system – called the paideia – was to attain male perfection by attending to the cultivation of the male body, mind, and soul. Pederasty, and its purpose of promoting the erotic love between men and youths, was seen as an effective way of fostering this ideal. The education of youths took place in the gymnasium. The gymnasium was not a single building, but rather a complex of structures situated in the centre of every Greek city-state. Here, men, boys and ephebes (adolescents aged eighteen to twenty-five) spent many hours per day engaged in physical and intellectual exercises. Also present were philosophers, poets, and artists of various ages, all gathered in an all-male environment to discuss, debate, and contemplate the moral and philosophical virtues of the male form and character.
The gymnasium literally became “an epicentre of erotic energy”. Bronze statues of athletes, gods, heroes, and warriors (such as Hermes, Apollo, Herakles, and Eros) were set up in various locations throughout the gymnasium complex. Daily exposure to these artistic displays of male bodily perfection was intended to instil in young viewers the desire to attain such perfection.
Two types of subjects abounded in Greek male statues (known today from later Roman marble copies of Greek bronze originals) within the gymnasium – warriors and athletes. The Doryphoros (Spear Carrier) by the Greek sculptor Polykleitos is a prime example of the Greek worship of the male nude body. The Doryphoros represents an ephebe who, although beardless, is on the transitional border from eromenos into erastes. At the gymnasium, he trains for superior strength, agility, bravery, and skill (Saslow, p.31). With this statue, male beauty is elevated to nearly divine status. Because the Greeks saw the male nude form as the outward sign of perfection, they customarily exercised and fought battles in the nude. Nudity itself carried with it a metaphysical significance. Physical perfection on the exterior was matched with spiritual and moral perfection within.
One of the practical advantages of the Greek system of pederasty was its military usefulness. The Greeks of several city-states often went into battle in erastes-eromenos pairs. The bravery of pederastic couples, such as that of the 150 pairs of lovers called the Sacred Band of Thebes, was renowned throughout ancient Greece and was an important factor in boosting morale for Greek victory over their enemies. Couples often fought in the nude, for the ability to see metaphysical worth in nudity was what the Greeks believed separated them from uncivilised foreigners or barbarians. Some of these warrior couples became known as tyrannicides (killers of tyrants). The best known of such couples is Harmodius and Aristogeiton.
In interpreting the images on vase paintings, some knowledge of Greek mythology is indispensable. Greek mythology was, as was Greek society in general, extremely anthropocentric or man-centred. It was through myths that the ancient Greeks linked themselves with the cycles and seasons of nature and rationalised the world of emotion and sensation. Greek myths usually focus on the powerful, heroic, and grandiose aspects of the gods. But they also address the sexual appetites of the gods and their union with heroes and mortals. Greek gods were personifications of nature and often engaged in various sexual adventures – homosexual, heterosexual, intergenerational, and bestial. Myths of ill-fated love between gods, heroes, and handsome youths abound on vase paintings, statuary, and wall frescos. The myths that most commonly address the theme of Greek pederasty and homosexuality include Zeus and Ganymede, Apollo and Hyacinth, Apollo and Zephyr, and Achilles and Patroclus.
The story of Zeus and Ganymede is perhaps the most frequently-depicted scene of homosexual desire on vases, floor mosaics, and in statuary. The myth exemplifies one of several divine courtships extolled by the Greeks as explanation for the origins of the cosmos and the workings of nature. With this myth, the gap in age and status between the god and his young minion reflects the inequalities in the hierarchical and rigidly structured relationship between erastes and eromenos in classical Athenian society.
In the eighth-century-BC epic verse of Homer called the Iliad, we find the most celebrated of all male-male unions in the comradeship of Achilles and Patroclus during the Trojan War. In the story, Homer glorifies the friendship between the two but does not mention that they were lovers. The classical Greeks themselves interpreted Homer as referencing their own social practice of pederasty and claimed Achilles and Patroclus as a pederastic pair. Achilles, a young warrior described as the most handsome and noblest of the Greeks, fell into profound grief when his companion Patroclus was slain by Hector, son of the Trojan king Priam. Achilles and Patroclus first appear in art toward the end of the sixth century BC on Athenian black-figure vase paintings (Saslow, p.16). Several red-figure vases from the late sixth century BC to the fourth century BC show the loving bond between the two warriors.
18. Warren Cup, 1st century AD, Augustan period.
Silver. The British Museum, London.
19. Warren Cup, 1st century AD, Augustan period.
Silver. The British Museum, London.
20. Euphronios, Ephebes at the Bath, c. 500–505 BC.
Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.
21. Scene of Coupling with a Horse, 6th century BC.
Greek vase. The British Museum, London.
Given the Greek structure of initiation into citizenship and the world of warriors, it should come as no surprise that many Greek military commanders were notorious for their sexual and erotic desires for other men. The most famous was Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) who made no secret of his intense love for a young commander named Hephaestion. It was Alexander the Great who ushered in the Hellenistic period. Both before and during Alexander’s reign, Greek influence spread far and wide through trade and foreign conquest. As Greek culture came more and more into contact with other peoples, its own ways of thinking and doing things began to show signs of foreign influence. A change in social conditions, coupled with the influence of Eastern philosophies and religious practices, resulted in changed attitudes towards sexuality. In this period, pederasty was still practised, but its importance as a social institution for grooming boys
