Instead, a growing hedonism and tendency toward materialism and excess developed. Physical pleasure was enjoyed for its own sake and bisexuality reigned. Hellenistic sensibilities toward sex were to later influence Roman culture which was, during this same period, expanding militarily and advancing into Greek territory. By the beginning of the Hellenistic period, the production of Greek vases and vase paintings had already declined significantly. The Hellenistic Greeks turned their attention to the creation of statues of marble and bronze in which the physicality and pleasurable experiences of the body were of primary focus. During the classical period, the Greeks had been renowned for the celebration of male physical beauty, an aesthetic which held a fundamental position in educational thinking of the period.
Unlike classical Greek statuary in which the quiet contemplation of male physical beauty was paramount, most sculpture from the Hellenistic period is turbulent and trivial, often requiring that the viewer psychologically and physically participate in the activities presented. One such statue is The Sleeping Hermaphrodite. The image of the hermaphrodite became very popular in Hellenistic times and was the outgrowth of the period’s tolerance and experimentation with sexual variations that deviated from the standard. Hermaphroditus was a minor deity, an offspring of the gods Aphrodite and Hermes, who exhibited characteristics of both sexes. In the Hellenistic period, the hermaphrodite was worshipped as an embodiment of bisexuality and as a god of marriage (Saslow, p.41).
The Sleeping Hermaphrodite is only vaguely part of what is called Dionysian art (see R. R. R. Smith), which refers to art produced during the Hellenistic period that has as its subject a variety of mythological creatures such as satyrs, fauns, female bacchants, centaurs, nymphs, and Pan. Besides the fact that these personages are all followers of Dionysos (Bacchus to the Romans), god of agriculture and wine, what most of them have in common is that they are wild, frolic outdoors in wooded areas, and have a lustful nature. Like Dionysos, they are associated with drunken abandon and orgiastic release. Their sexuality was oftentimes excessive and sometimes ambiguous. These Dionysian characteristics carry over into the Roman period and are particularly visible in the art discovered at Pompeii (Saslow, p.38).
22. Berlin Painter, Men and Boys, c. 540 BC.
Attic black-figure vase. The British Museum, London.
23. Doryphoros (Spear-Carrier), c. 440 BC. Marble, h: 196 cm.
Copy after a Greek original by Polykleitos.
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis.
24. Circle of the Nikosthenes Painter, Satyr Scene, c. 5th century BC.
Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.
The Greeks were avid traders, explorers, and conquerors. For centuries before and after the classical period (fifth century BC), the Greeks imported their ideas and experiences to other countries and cultures. When they arrived in what is now Italy, they encountered the native Etruscans who had occupied the central and northern areas of that land between the ninth and third centuries BC. Our knowledge of the art and origins of the Etruscans is very limited, but what is certain is that they practised very different customs from the Greeks and held specific views about death. Prior to contact with the Etruscans, the concept of life after death was alien to Greek thinking and practice. The Tomb of the Diver at Paestum in southern Italy and Tomb of the Bulls in Tarquinia near Rome are just two examples of decorated tombs that show the extent to which the Etruscans utilised a large amount of sexually charged symbols and figures in their funerary art.
The strong mutual influence of the Greeks and Etruscans was to have a significant impact on the art and experience of the Romans who eventually conquered and absorbed aspects of both cultures. However, despite the influence, many Greek and later Roman writers, including Plato, referred to the Etruscans as immoral because of their seemingly wanton and unusual sexual practices. Roman sources accused the Etruscans of sharing women in common, engaging in homosexuality without philosophical justification, participating in orgies, and showing a lack of shame regarding sexual intercourse and the naked body. Indeed, homosexually suggestive scenes are found in many Etruscan tomb frescos, sculptures, pottery, ash urns, sarcophagi, and on small decorative objects. It is believed that scenes of homosexual and heterosexual intercourse in Etruscan funerary art were not intended as reflections of actual activities, but served symbolic metaphors to either ward off evil or were associated with rituals or religious festivals.
25. Man and Ephebe Having a Conversation, c. 420 BC.
Red-figure dish (detail). Musée municipal, Laon.
26. Penthesilea Painter, Zeus and Ganymede, c. 530–430 BC.
Attic red-figure vase.
In antiquity, males dominated society and women were segregated from men in almost all of the Greek city-states. Unlike boys and young men in classical Athens, women were completely absent from public life. Most women were not allowed an education and were kept in virtual seclusion from everyone but their immediate families. Because Greek society was male centred – that is, as a society created by and for men who took part in the public aspect of society (e.g. art, poetry, literature, politics), female homosexuality is all but invisible on vase paintings, in lyric poetry, and on the dramatic stage. Although female homosexuality did exist in antiquity, there are only a few writers and artists in the Greek world who dealt with the topic. Plato did make a passing reference to female homosexuality in his writings, presenting it in abstract philosophical terms through a parable about primeval androgynes, but saying nothing of its daily practice in society (Saslow, p.29). Aristophanes, too, also avoided the topic by collapsing it into a discussion of the role of women as hetaerae, or professional entertainers/courtesans in Greek society. There is a rare vase painting by Apollodoros showing two hetaerae in sexual intimacy. There is also one extraordinary vase painting showing two women in gestures of courtship.
Although Athenian men were thoroughly disinterested in the sexual life of women, Greek law did permit a form of institutionalised female homosexuality in Sparta. It was within the thiasoi, or an educational and social community of women and girls, that female homosexuality was most prevalent. Thiasoi were schools where “older women trained teenage girls in music and dancing, charm and beauty” (Saslow, p.19–20). Like boys with their erastai, girls of high social standing were segregated from society and took part in rituals worshipping Diana, goddess of virginity and the hunt. Theoretically, thiasoi were schools to prepare young girls for marriage, but the woman-centred nature of their environment also fostered intimate emotional and sexual relationships among them. As part of a refined yet limited education, many girls were trained in the writing of poetry. The lyric poems (poetry accompanied by a lyre) of Sappho are the most famous and known for extolling the passionate love of women for one another.
Sappho’s influence was so profound that Plato dubbed her as “the tenth Muse”. She was born during the archaic period in 612 BC in the city of Mytilene on the Aegean island of Lesbos, located near the western coast of what is today called Turkey. She was a thiasos educator of girls who came specifically from Lesbos and the Ionian coast. Her lyric poems spoke of the many loves in her life, including love of her own pupils. Her words are of longing and despair – extolling passion and jealousy driven by desire. Most of the poems are fragmentary and available only in ancient copies. Only one poem survives completely intact.
Despite the obvious homoerotic nature of her poetry,
