Transcript Gender and Sexuality in Ancient Greece

Gender and Sexuality in
Ancient Greece
Or why Plato Loved
Socrates!
The Evolution of Gender and
Sexuality in the Ancient World
 Gender and Sexuality Before the Classical Era
– Sapho and Lesbos
– The Greek “Dark Ages”
 The Removal of Women from the Public Sphere
 The Rise of Pedastry
 Evidence of Male Relationships
– And Women’s Relationships Remain Obscure
 Is Greek Homoerotic Practice Homosexuality or
Pedophilia?
Ancient Greece before the
Classical Era
• 3300-1000 BCE Minoan and Mycenaean
Civilizations
• 1200-800 BCE Age of Calamities and
Greek Dark Ages
• 800-507 BCE Archaic Period
• 507-404 BCE Classical Period
– Persian War, 499-479 BCE
– Peloponnesian War, 431-404 BCE
• 404-336 BCE Spartan Period
• 478-431 BCE Athens Golden Age
• 336-30 BCE Hellenistic
Minoa and Mycenae
• The Forerunners of Ancient Greece
Minoa, 2600-1450 BCE
Cultural Explosion on Crete
Sea Trade and the Aegean
Thera and the End of Minoa
Mycenae, 1600-1100 BCE
The Palace at Mycenae
Mycenaean Writing
The Megaron and Mycenaean
Frescoes
Artifacts from Mycenae
Dirty Dishes: The Rise of
Athens and the Greek Empire
Or Why They Held the
Olympics in the Nude
Sappho, Lesbos and the Diminishing
Power of Greek Women
The Island of Lesbos
Sapho and Alkaios
The Poetry of Sappho
• "Seizure"
• To me he seems like a god
as he sits facing you and
hears you near as you speak
softly and laugh
• in a sweet echo that jolts
the heart in my ribs. For now
as I look at you my voice
is empty and
• can say nothing as my tongue
cracks and slender fire quick
under my skin. My eyes are dead
to light, my ears
Key Terms
• Thiasos – finishing school for girls
• Didaskalos – School Mistress
• Tribades – Homosexual Women (savage,
uncontrollable, dangerous)
• Pederasty – Love of Young Boys
• Erōmenoi – Young men loved by adult males
• Erastai – Adult male lovers of boys
• Pais – boys
• Hetairēsis – Prostituting One’s self
• Pornos – Male Prostitute
• Pornē – Female Prostitute
The Persian War, 499-478 BCE
The Athenian Polis
Agora
Mass and Elite in Athens
The Origins of Pederasty
• Homeric Greece: Gender
and Sexual Roles are Fluid/
Women are part of the public
sphere: Ulysses and
Nausicca
• The Rise of City States and the
Codification of Law Isolates Women in the
Home
• Rites of Passage: Separation, Liminality,
Incorporation
• Pederasty and the Making of Citizens
Plato and Aristotle
The Evolution of Historical Thinking
on the Subject of Pederasty
• Oldest Explanation: Greek Homosexuality a
Function of a Lack of Women
• The Relationship of Martial Societies to Male
Love and Bonding
• Males as “Happily Homosexual in Youth and
“Happily Heterosexual” as Adults
• The Initiation of Greek Boys into Citizenship,
Philosophy, and the Public Sphere
• Socrates and the Elevation of Spiritual Love
over Physical Love
So Was it Just About Penetration Between
the Thighs?: The Graffiti of Thera
• “Here Krimon had
anal intercourse
with his pais, the
brother of
Bathycles”
Courtesans and Prostitutes
• Courtesans were professional companions
with skill in the arts of music, dancing,
conversation and poetry. Coveted for
banquets/symposiums as escorts, they
may engage in sex, but they are
equivalent to high-priced escorts and call
girls today.
• Prostitutes could be and were anything
from street walkers to workers in brothels,
but their skill sets were confined to sexual
acts.
Courtesan and Male Prostitute
The Law of Hetairēsis
• If an Athenian has prostituted Himself, according
to the law, he cannot serve as one of the nine
archons, not hold any priestly office, nor
exercise the function of public advocate or
magistrate, either inside or outside the city
whether chosen by election or lot. He cannot be
dispatched as a herald, or express his opinion,
or be associated with public sacrifices of wear
the crown, or enter within the purified boundaries
of the Agora. If he does any of things after being
convicted of hetairēsis, he shall be put to death.
Hetairae
Peloponnesian War
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Pericles and the Two Pronged Strategy
The Plague of 430 BCE
The Massacre at Melos, 416-415 BCE
Shift of Strategy – Alcibiades and Sicily,
415-413 BCE
Tragedy and Comedy
Bringing Women Back In: Lysistrata by Aristophanes