Conversing with Civilisations

When considering the ancient world, individuals either sway towards viewing it through a black-and-white, conservative lens, or through an anachronistic bias, both of which distort ancient evidence. Sexuality in Classical Athens is no different. Homosexuality is studied, unsurprisingly, when the case concerned two men, either because female homosexuality did not occur, in that they were too heavily supervised to be able to do such things, or because it was simply not recorded.

A normative relationship in Classical Athens consisted, as is assumed, of a man and a woman for the final goal of producing children and fulfilling the societal function. There is a singular focus on the continuity of the oikos (household) and the bloodline, as is seen in Leonidas’ choosing of men ‘all of whom had sons’ to fight at Thermopylae, and the strict Athenian laws against adultery. In the larger picture, this reproduction was to ensure continuation of the polis, which put an emphasis on children: Spartan men with four or more sons were exempt from taxes, polyandry was encouraged in Sparta to increase birthrate, and Athenian citizens under Pericles must have a citizen father and a citizen mother. Demosthenes sets out the insignificance of heterosexual relationships and how they were based on efficiency as opposed to romance: ‘Mistresses we keep for the sake of pleasure, concubines for the daily care of our persons, but wives to bear us legitimate children and to be faithful guardians of our households.’

With the emergence of homosexual adaptations such as The Song of Achilles, individuals have come to view male same-sex relationships as present but tragic in the ancient world when they were, in fact, largely unproblematic, neither justified nor criticised.

These homosexual relationships usually feature an age asymmetry between an older (erastes) and younger (eromenos) man, such as Aristogeiton and Harmodius, and Cleonymus and Archidamus (though the 1918 euphemistically translates eron and their relationship to mere fondness, as opposed to being ‘in love with’ one another). 

There are, however, violations of this norm, typically when they come into contact with politics. In mid 4th century BC, Aeschines claims Timarchus violated an Athenian law by working as a prostitute for male clients, which resulted in the latter losing his citizen rights and ability to participate politically. This trial has fascinated scholars for decades; Dover argued that the issue wasn’t the same-sex relationship, but was the selling of sex. This lends to the broader Greek notion that trade is morally suspect and a moral Athenian citizen should not engage with it; therefore, selling sex is problematic as it suggests subordination, which a citizen never should be, and a lack of control. Dover later argues, in 1978, that the problem was the physical act of penetration as it suggests a lack of masculinity and power, and he supports this argument with iconographic evidence that merely depicts intercrural sex.

In iconography, the men are usually facing one another, such as in the black-figure neck amphora by the Amasis painter and the Attic black-figure lekythos attributed to the Taleides Painter (550-500). When the men aren’t facing one another or having intercrural sex, the ‘giver’ is depicted as the traditional stylistic Greek whilst the ‘receiver’ is notably barbarian, such as on the Eurymedon Cup where the man in oriental-style clothing is ‘bent forward,’ implying the stereotype of barbarians being inferior and effeminate when looked at alongside the “superior” Greeks. However, there is also evidence of Greek homosexuality being looked at through a comedic lens, as seen on Mount Hymettos in Athens, on which is graffited the outline of a foot, a euphemistic iconographical reference to sex, and the inscription ‘Aithonides, beautiful, a willing katapugon (referring to a male who submits to anal penetration)’. Here, the compliment alongside the insult lays a distorted view over how the “everyday” classical Greeks viewed the act.

There is, as always with the past, no way to know for certain how an act or a way of life was received by contemporary society, and the question of how common or how impactful homosexuality was in the ancient world remains a common debate among modern scholars. However, homosexuality was a present and, for the most part, unproblematic concept in classical Greece.

Bib.

Aeschines 1, ‘Against Timarchus’

Aristotle, ‘Politics’

Aristotle, ‘Athenaion Politeia’

Demosthenes 59, ‘Against Neaira’ 

Herodotus, ‘Histories’

Lysias 1, ‘On the Murder of Eratosthenes’

Thucydides, ‘History of the Peloponnesian War’

Xenophon, ‘Constitution of the Spartans’

Xenophon, ‘Hellenica’

A. Scott, ‘Plural Marriage and the Spartan State,’ Historia 60 (2011) 

K. J. Dover, ‘Greek Homosexuality’ (1978)

Beazley 301629; black-figure neck amphora, by the Amasis painter, now in Munich.

Beazley 320395; black-figure amphora, found in Vulci. Now in the British Museum (1865,1118.39): described by its website as ‘erotic encounters’.

Beazley Archive no. 350510, from Mayer (2018); Attic black-figure lekythos attributed to the Taleides Painter, 550-500 BCE.

‘Eurymedon Cup’: Athens, ca. 460. Hamburg: Museum für Kunst & Gewerbe, 1981.173.