Ancient Greece and Hoop rolling (ancient Greece): Difference between pages

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[[Image:EUAION PAINTER -455c Boy serving wine in a banquet (Louvre G467) 2080x1390.jpg|250px|right]]
[[File:Youth with hoop and covered cake love gift sm.jpg|thumb|300px|right|'''Love gift'''<br>Youth with hoop and covered cake as a love gift]]  
'''Boylove in Ancient Greece''' was quite common between older men (lover [[Erastes]]) and boys (beloved [[eromenos]]), and was not unusual or frowned upon.  The most common place where men would go to meet boys was the ''palaestra'' (the Greek word for their version of a gymnasium) where older men watched the young boys exercising.  This being the case, only leisured aristocrats with time on their hands probably really engaged in homosexual affairs.  Only when men carried on a relationship with a boy who entered adulthood was the man scorned.


==Courtship==
'''The hoop'''  held symbolic meanings in Ancient Greek myth and culture and was used to represent a boy or youth in general in Greek art. The Greeks referred to the hoop as the ''trochus'' or ''krikoi,'' and they were probably made of bronze, iron, or copper. They were driven with a stick called the ''elater''.<ref>Athletics and Games of the Ancient Greeks By Edward M Plummer; p50</ref> The boys would roll them down the street running along side or have races.


Once a man had selected a boy from the palaestra, the next step would be to take him to the ''andreion'', a sort of men's club or meeting hall.  The youth received gifts, and the ''philetor'' along with the friends went away with him for two months into the countryside, where they hunted and feasted. At this end of this time, the ''philetor'' presented the youth with three contractually required gifts: military attire, an ox, and a drinking cup. Other costly gifts followed (see [[Trochus/Hoop|Trochus]])In Crete, in order for the suitor to carry out the ritual abduction, the father had to approve him as worthy of the honor.  However, according to Aeschines, Athenian fathers would pray that their sons would be handsome and attractive, with the full knowledge that they would then attract the attention of men and "be the objects of fights because of erotic passions."
A bronze hoop was one of the toys of the infant [[Dionysus]],<ref>Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity: Being Studies in Religious History from 330 B.C. to 330 A.D. by Francis Legge; 1915 p. 125</ref> and hoop driving is an attribute of [[Ganymede (mythology)|Ganymede]], often depicted on [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] vase paintings from the 5th century BC. It was a very popular toy among ancient Greek kids and the sport was regarded as healthful, and was recommended by Hippocrates for strengthening weak constitutions.<ref>"Hippocrates recommended playing with a hoop as a cure for weak people" Psychoanalytic perspectives on art: PPA, Volume 1 - Page 97 by Mary Mathews Gedo</ref> Though there are no images or written accounts, one can imagine that some rambunctious young Greek boy likely invented the ''Hula hoop'' 3000 years before Wham-O.


Copulation with the pederast was a choice the boy could make; it was not required. [[Pederasty|Pederast]]/[[Catamite]] relationships were not monogamous; both boys and men were free to engage in as many of these such relationships as they chose. Typically, after their sexual relationship had ended and the young man had married, the older man and his protégé would remain on close terms throughout their life.
Images of the hoop are often presented in the context of boylove in ancient Greece.<ref>The ancient Olympics By Nigel Jonathan Spivey; p48</ref> A trochus/hoop was a favorite gift given by a Greek man to the boy he fancied  <ref> http://www.scribd.com/doc/153553844/Sexuality-in-Greek-and-Roman-Culture</ref> as well as gifts of animals, or meat. A spear, trident, or wooden staff is sometimes depicted (on pottery) penetrating the boy's hoop as a symbolic allusion to the sexual nature of the relationship.<ref>http://www.homoerotimuseum.net/eur/eur07/329.html</ref>
{{clr}}
{{History|collapse}} 


== Social Aspects ==


[[Pederasty]] was the idealized form of an age-structured homoeroticism that had other, less idealized manifestations, such as prostitution or the sexual use of slave boys. Paying free youths for sex was prohibited. Free youths who did sell their favors were ridiculed, and later in life might be prohibited from performing certain official functions.


== Sexual Practices ==
[[Image:EUAION PAINTER -455c Man reclining and boy playing the aulos (Louvre G467) 2660x2664.jpg|200 px|thumb|EUAION PAINTER -455c Man reclining and boy playing the aulos (Louvre G467))]]
Vase paintings and an obsession with the beloved's appealing thighs in poetry indicate that when the pederastic couple engaged in sex acts, the preferred form was intercrural. To preserve his dignity and honor, the erômenos limits the man who desires him to penetration between closed thighs.


Anal sex may be depicted, but far more rarely. The evidence is not explicit and is open to interpretation. Some vase paintings, which Percy considers a fourth type of pederastic scene in addition to Beazley's three, show the erastês seated with an erection and the erômenos either approaching or climbing into his lap. The composition of these scenes is the same as that for depictions of women mounting men who are seated and aroused for intercourse. As a cultural norm considered apart from personal preference, anal penetration was most often seen as dishonorable to the one penetrated, or shameful. Oral sex is likewise not depicted, or is indicated only indirectly; anal or oral penetration seems to have been reserved for prostitutes or slaves.
== Zeus and Ganymede== 
The images below are from a red-figure bell Krater depicting Ganymede and Zeus attributed to the Berlin Painter  circa 500-480 BC. [[Krater]]s were used at banquets for mixing wine and water.<ref>http://www.mam.gov.mo/photodetail.asp?productkey=2008041201094&lc=3</ref>
[[Zeus]] is shown pursuing the boy [[Ganymede (mythology)|Ganymede]], who is playings with a toy hoop, symbol of his youth, and a cock, a traditional gift given to boys by their male suitors. <ref>http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/attic-red-figure-bell-krater</ref> The two images taken together convey the [[pederastic]] or sexual nature of the relationship.
{|
|
[[Image:BERLIN PAINTER -495c Zeus holding a scepter (Louvre G175) 1234x1388.jpg|thumb|250px|left|'''[[Zeus]]''']]
[[Image:BERLIN PAINTER -495c Ganymede holding a hoop and a cock (Louvre G175) 1874x1998.jpg|thumb|270px|right|'''[[Ganymede]]''']]
|}


{{clr}}
==References==
==See also==
{{reflist}}
*[[Greek love]]
==External links==
*[[Ganymede (mythology)]]
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoop_rolling
*[[Hyacinth (mythology)]]
*[[Ancient Crete]]
 
== External links ==


* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_Ancient_Greece Pederasty in ancient Greece (Wikipedia)]
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenian_pederasty
 
==References==
*'''Stephen Batchelor:''' ''The Ancient Greeks for Dummies'' &mdash; John Wiley & Sons, 2008. &mdash; ISBN 978-0-470-98787-2


[[Category:Ancient Greece]]
[[Category:Ancient Greece]]
[[Category:Greece]]
[[Category:Sports]]

Revision as of 15:41, 3 March 2016

Love gift
Youth with hoop and covered cake as a love gift

The hoop held symbolic meanings in Ancient Greek myth and culture and was used to represent a boy or youth in general in Greek art. The Greeks referred to the hoop as the trochus or krikoi, and they were probably made of bronze, iron, or copper. They were driven with a stick called the elater.[1] The boys would roll them down the street running along side or have races.

A bronze hoop was one of the toys of the infant Dionysus,[2] and hoop driving is an attribute of Ganymede, often depicted on Greek vase paintings from the 5th century BC. It was a very popular toy among ancient Greek kids and the sport was regarded as healthful, and was recommended by Hippocrates for strengthening weak constitutions.[3] Though there are no images or written accounts, one can imagine that some rambunctious young Greek boy likely invented the Hula hoop 3000 years before Wham-O.

Images of the hoop are often presented in the context of boylove in ancient Greece.[4] A trochus/hoop was a favorite gift given by a Greek man to the boy he fancied [5] as well as gifts of animals, or meat. A spear, trident, or wooden staff is sometimes depicted (on pottery) penetrating the boy's hoop as a symbolic allusion to the sexual nature of the relationship.[6]



Zeus and Ganymede

The images below are from a red-figure bell Krater depicting Ganymede and Zeus attributed to the Berlin Painter circa 500-480 BC. Kraters were used at banquets for mixing wine and water.[7] Zeus is shown pursuing the boy Ganymede, who is playings with a toy hoop, symbol of his youth, and a cock, a traditional gift given to boys by their male suitors. [8] The two images taken together convey the pederastic or sexual nature of the relationship.

Zeus
Ganymede

References

  1. Athletics and Games of the Ancient Greeks By Edward M Plummer; p50
  2. Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity: Being Studies in Religious History from 330 B.C. to 330 A.D. by Francis Legge; 1915 p. 125
  3. "Hippocrates recommended playing with a hoop as a cure for weak people" Psychoanalytic perspectives on art: PPA, Volume 1 - Page 97 by Mary Mathews Gedo
  4. The ancient Olympics By Nigel Jonathan Spivey; p48
  5. http://www.scribd.com/doc/153553844/Sexuality-in-Greek-and-Roman-Culture
  6. http://www.homoerotimuseum.net/eur/eur07/329.html
  7. http://www.mam.gov.mo/photodetail.asp?productkey=2008041201094&lc=3
  8. http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/attic-red-figure-bell-krater