Historical boylove relationships in ancient Greece: Difference between revisions

From BoyWiki
← Older edit
VisualWikitext
No edit summary
No edit summary
 
(31 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
Pederastic couples in classical antiquity
{{History}}
 
    See also: Historical pederastic couples for other times and places
    See also: Pederasty
 
Harmodius and Aristogiton
Harmodius and Aristogiton
 
In classical antiquity there were many known pederastic relationships between adult men and adolescent boys. In some of these cases both members became well-known historical figures, while in others, only one of the two may have.
In classical antiquity there were many known pederastic relationships between adult men and adolescent boys. In some of these cases both members became well-known historical figures, while in others, only one of the two may have.


Though all such relationships were by definition homoerotic in nature, the individuals involved did not identify themselves as homosexuals, but rather as ordinary men having ordinary desires. The nature of the relationships have ranged from overtly sexual to what is now referred to as platonic, in accordance with ancient ethical and philosophical standards.[1]
Though all such relationships were by definition homoerotic in nature, the individuals involved did not identify themselves as homosexuals, but rather as ordinary men having ordinary desires. The nature of the relationships ranged from overtly sexual to what is now referred to as platonic, in accordance with ancient ethical and philosophical standards.<ref>Hubbard, Thomas K. "Introduction" to Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook of Basic Documents. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. pg. 9.</ref>
 
In the following list the couples are listed in chronological order, and the name of the older partner precedes that of the younger. Though many more men are known to have engaged in such relationships, only those instances in which the name of the younger partner is known are included. In keeping with ancient traditions which promoted chaste pederastic relationships (See Philosophy of Greek pederasty) included below are also relationships in which there is evidence of an erotic component even in the absence of actual sexual relations.
Contents
[hide]
 
    1 Ancient Greece
        1.1 Archaic period in Greece
        1.2 Classical Greece
        1.3 Hellenistic Greece
    2 Ancient Rome
        2.1 Roman Republic
        2.2 Roman Empire
    3 References
    4 See also
    5 Sources
    6 External links
 
[edit] Ancient Greece
 
    Main article: Pederasty in ancient Greece
 
[edit] Archaic period in Greece
 
    Solon and Peisistratus
        The law giver was the erastes of the future tyrant, presumably around 590 BCE.[2] Aristotle, however, claims that the story is "mere gossip" and cannot possibly be true due to their relative ages.[3]
    Peisistratus and Charmus
        Later in life, Charmus would give his daughter, Myrrhina, in marriage to Hippias, his old erastes' son.[4]
    Chariton of Agrigentum and Melanippus
        The two lovers plotted against Phalaris around 560 BCE. Chariton was discovered and tortured to divulge accomplices, but remained silent. Melanippus, to save his friend, presented himself and freely confessed. The tyrant, impressed, set both free, but sent them into exile. Their valor and love were celebrated in a Delphic oracle:
 
            Blessed were Chariton and Melanippus:
            They showed mortals the way to a friendship that was divine. [5]
 
    Charmus and Hippias
        After having been the eromenos of the father, Charmus, by now a polemarch, became the erastes of the son, who later also became his son-in-law. In Charmus' honor, a statue of Eros was erected, either by Pisistratus or Hippias, before the entrance of the Akademia, where the runners in the sacred torch race lit their torches. The inscription claimed that Charmus had been the first to dedicate to love,
 
            Eros of many devices, Charmus built you this altar
            Among the shady boundaries of the gymnasium.[6]


    Prokleides and Hipparchus
In the following list the couples are listed in chronological order, and the name of the older partner precedes that of the younger. Though many more men are known to have engaged in such relationships, only those instances in which the name of the younger partner is known are included. In keeping with ancient traditions which promoted chaste pederastic relationships (See: [[Greek love]]) included below are also relationships in which there is evidence of an erotic component even in the absence of actual sexual relations.
        Prokleides, an important citizen, as behooves the erastes of a ruler's son, also is known for setting up the Hermes Trikephalos, a three-headed road-marker statue, on the Hestia Road.[7]
    Theognis of Megara and Cyrnus
        The poet, thought to have lived in the sixth c. BCE, addressed many of his poems to his young beloved, using them to pass on his wisdom to the boy.[8]
    Polycrates and Smerdies
        The love of the tyrant of Samos for his Thracian favorite, some time between 535 and 515, was recorded by the poet Anacreon.[9]
    Anacreon and Bathyllus
        Legend has it that while in Samos, Anacreon competed with the tyrant for the love of another beautiful boy, Bathyllus, who is considered the most famous of his beloveds, and whom he celebrated in his poems, such as the following one:


            O boy, with virgin-glancing eye,
*[[Erastes]] - lover
            I call thee, but thou dost not hear;
*[[Eromenos]] - beloved
            Thou know'st not how my soul doth cry
            For thee, its charioteer.[10][11]


    Anacreon and Critias
        Hipparchus invited Anacreon to Athens after the death of Polycrates. There Anacreon took an eromenos, in whose house he lived, and who, in a reversal of the usual roles, wrote love poetry to his erastes. It is not certain which Critias this is, though it has been proposed that it is the same as the eponymous archon.[12][13]
    Aristogeiton and Harmodius
        Heroic couple, later lionized by the Athenian democrats, whose 514 BCE plot to assassinate Hippias in was credited with the overthrow of tyranny in Athens.[14]


[edit] Classical Greece
==Ancient Greece==


    Parmenides of Elea and Zeno of Elea
:*Main article: [[Ancient Greece]]
        According to Plato, Zeno was "tall and fair to look upon" and was "in the days of his youth . . . reported to have been beloved by Parmenides."[15] This would have occurred around 475 BCE.
    Hiero I of Syracuse and Daelochus
        Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse surrounded himself with pederastic intellectuals and had a number of lovers. Around 470 BCE, on being challenged by Simonides on the ethics of being a pederast while a tyrant, he replied: "My passion for Daelochus arises from the fact that human nature perhaps compels us to want from the beautiful, but I have a very strong desire to attain the object of my passion [only] with his love and consent."[16]
    Antileon and Hipparinos
        Natives of Herakleia, near Metapontum, the two were famed as tyrant killers in the style of Harmodius and Aristogiton. After the tyrant of Herakleia accosted Hipparinos, Antileon assassinated him, but paid with his life.[17][18]
    Archelaus and Socrates
        The older philosopher loved the younger when the latter was seventeen.[19][20][21]
    Phidias and Agoracritus
        The youth, both beloved and student of the sculptor, is also known for his sculpture of Nemesis at Rhamnus.[22]
    Phidias and Pantarkes
        Pantarkes, was an Elian youth and winner of the boys' wrestling match at the 86th Olympics in 436 BCE. He modeled for one of the figures sculpted in the throne of the Olympian Zeus, and Phidias, to honor him, carved "Kalos Pantarkes" into the god's little finger.[23][24][25]
    Empedocles and Pausanias
        Pausanias was both friend and student of the philosopher.[26]


Alcibiades
===Archaic period in Greece===
Alcibiades


    Socrates and Alcibiades
*Solon and Peisistratus
        Each is said to have saved the life of the other in battle, and the relationship, which took place around 435-430 was said to have been chaste.[27]
:*The law giver was the [[erastes]] of the future tyrant, presumably around 590 BCE.<ref>Plutarch, The Lives, "Solon"</ref> Aristotle, however, claims that the story is "mere gossip" and cannot possibly be true due to their relative ages.<ref>"It is evident from this that the story is mere gossip which states that Pisistratus was the youthful favourite of Solon" Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution Tr. Sir Frederic G. Kenyon</ref>
    Critias and Euthydemos
      
        A relationship mocked by Socrates for the brutish physicality of Critias' desire.
*Peisistratus and Charmus
    Xenophon and Clinias
:*Later in life, Charmus would give his daughter, Myrrhina, in marriage to Hippias, his old erastes' son.<ref>Plutarch, The Lives, "Solon"</ref>
        Of his eromenos, Xenophon said, "Now I look upon Clinias with more pleasure than upon all the other beautiful things which are to be seen among men; and I would rather be blind as to all the rest of the world, than as to Clinias. And I am annoyed even with night and with sleep, because then I do not see him; but I am very grateful to the sun and to daylight, because they show Clinias to me."[28]
*Chariton of Agrigentum and Melanippus
    Callias III and Autolycus
:*The two lovers plotted against Phalaris around 560 BCE. Chariton was discovered and tortured to divulge accomplices, but remained silent. Melanippus, to save his friend, presented himself and freely confessed. The tyrant, impressed, set both free, but sent them into exile. Their valor and love were celebrated in a Delphic oracle:
        The relationship between the two, in 421 BCE, is touched upon in Xenophon's Symposium, where Callias entertains both the boy and the father.[29]
    Themistocles and Stesilaus of Ceos
        Around 420 BCE Themistocles competed for the boy's love with Aristides. As Plutarch recounts, "... they were rivals for the affection of the beautiful Stesilaus of Ceos, and were passionate beyond all moderation."[30]
     Pytheas and Teisis
        Pytheas, who was also the guardian of the youth, appointed to that position by Teisis' father in his will, is held up as being an unwise erastes, concerned with impressing his eromenos and as a result giving him bad advice.[31]
    Archedemus and Alcibiades II
        In his childhood, Alcibiades II, son of the famous general by the same name, was notorious for frequenting the house of his erastes, drinking, and reclining with him under a single cloak in sight of all.[32]
    Archebiades and Alcibiades II
        After the death of the older Alcibiades, his old associate and co-defendant in the desecration of the Eleusinian mysteries, became the erastes of his son, then in his early teens, ransoming him from imprisonment, a ransom the boy's father had refused to pay, out of disgust with his own son.[33]
    Lysander and Agesilaus II
        Lysander had been the eispnelas of Agesilaus and was instrumental in the latter's rise to kingship, only to be spurned by him once he rose to power in 399BCE.
    Archidamus and Cleonymus
        Archidamus, son of Agesilaus II, is described by Xenophon to have been in love with the handsome son of Sphodrias. The boy asked his eispnelas to intervene with the king in favor of his father in a life and death legal matter, promising that Archidamus would never be ashamed to have befriended him. That proved to be so, as he was the first Spartan to die at the battle of Leuctra.[34]
    Ariaeus and Menon the Thessalian
        Menon, a commander of Greek mercenaries in Cyrus the Younger's army who had received his commission on account of his youthful beauty, took Ariaeus, a Persian, as his lover. The matter was badly seen, as it was deemed especially base to submit sexually to a barbarian.[35][36]
    Artaxerxes II of Persia and Tiridates
        The Persian king, distraught at the death of his beloved eunuch, found consolation in placing the dead youth's cloak over the shoulders of Aspasia, his Greek hetaira.[37]
    Archelaus I of Macedon and Craterus (or Crateuas)
        The king of Macedon was assassinated in 399 BCE by this eromenos, upon reneging on a promise to give the boy his daughter in marriage.[38]
    Aristippus of Cyrene and Euthychides
        The youth was a slave of the philosopher, compared by him with the students of Socrates.[39]
    Agesilaus II and Megabates
        By taking on the Perisan boy as beloved, the king of Sparta was following Spartan law.


The group below (indented) consists of relationships revealed during the course of Aeschines' speech (ca. 345) to the court bringing suit against the politician Timarchus so as to deprive him of his political rights for having behaved like a prostitute in his adolescence. They occurred around 375, except the first two, presumably about ten to fifteen years earlier. [40]
<blockquote>''Blessed were Chariton and Melanippus:''<br>
''They showed mortals the way to a friendship that was divine.''<ref>Athenaeus, Deipnosophistai, 13.602</ref>  </blockquote>


        Diopeithes of Sounion, and Hegesandros of Sounion
*Charmus and Hippias
            Diopeithes, besides being the judge before whom Pittalakos (see below) brought his suit, had also been an erastes of Hegesandros. Not surprisingly, he stalled the suit until it was withdrawn.
:*After having been the eromenos of the father, Charmus, by now a polemarch, became the erastes of the son, who later also became his son-in-law. In Charmus' honor, a statue of Eros was erected, either by Pisistratus or Hippias, before the entrance of the Akademia, where the runners in the sacred torch race lit their torches. The inscription claimed that Charmus had been the first to dedicate to love,
        Leodamas and Hegesandros
            During his testimony, Hegesandros indicated that he previously had been in a similar relationship with Leodamas. Hegesandros himself is accused of having prostituted himself in his youth, and of having misbehaved sexually with Leodamas.
        Misgolas, son of Naukrates of the demeof Kollytos, and Timarchus
            Timarchus is accused not only of having sold his services, but of submitting to anal penetration, particularly shameful behavior at the time.
        Antikles, son of Kallias of the deme Euonymon, and Timarchus
            As Antikles was away at the time of the trial no further information was presented by Aeschines.
        Pittalakos and Timarchus
            As Pittalakos was a public slave, Timarchus incurred even greater shame for his sexual submission and penetration.
        Hegesandros, son of Diphilos of Steiria, and Timarchus
            Hegesandros, having accumulated great wealth on a military campaign, bribed Timarchus away from Pittalakos, causing the latter great jealousy. As he was making a nuisance of himself Hegesandros and Timarchus beat him up, to which he responded with a lawsuit against both.


    Epaminondas and Micythus[41]
<blockquote>''Eros of many devices, Charmus built you this altar''<br>
    Epaminondas and Asopichos
''Among the shady boundaries of the gymnasium.''<ref>Plutarch,Solon 1.7; Pausanias, 1.30.1; Athen., xiii. 609D</ref></blockquote>
        A couple famed for their military prowess, such as in their victory at Leuctra in 371 BCE.[42]
    Epaminondas and Caphisodorus
        Caphisodorus was his last lover. He fell with Epaminondas iin 362 at Mantineia and was buried by his side. [43].
    Demosthenes and Cnosion
        After the orator took in his young beloved, his wife is said to have bedded the boy in a fit of jealousy,[44] though Aeschines claims that it was Demosthenes who put his own wife in bed with the youth so as to get children by him.[45]
    Demosthenes and Aristarchus
        Much of what is known about this relationship comes from the speeches of Demosthenes' enemy, Aeschines. He accuses Demosthenes of having been such a bad erastes to Aristarchus so as not even to deserve the name. Among his alleged crimes are his complicity in Aristarchus' murder of Nicodemus of Aphidna, whose eyes and tongue were gouged out. This murder took place while the youth was under Demosthenes' tutelage.[46] Another misdeed of Demosthenes, the one allegedly disqualifying him from calling himself an erastes, is his pillaging of Aristarchus' estate. He is alleged to have pretended being in love with the youth so as to get his hands on the boy's inheritance, which he is said to have squandered and from which he is said to have taken three talents upon Aristarchus' fleeing into exile so as to avoid a trial.[47]
    Demosthenes and Aristion
        Again, according to Aeschines, Demosthenes had the handsome youth in his house, engaged in unspeakable behavior: There is a certain Aristion, a Plataean..., who as a youth was oustandingly good-looking and lived for a long time in Demosthenes' house. Allegations about the part he was playing ('undergoing or doing what') there vary, and it would be most unseemly for me to talk about it.[48]
    Philip II of Macedon and Pausanias
        In 336 BCE Pausanias killed Philip out of jealousy over another lover.
    Darius III of Persia and Bagoas
        Bagoas was the favorite of Darius, who was said to have been "intimate" with him.[49]
    Alexander the Great and Bagoas.
        The two met in 330 BCE after the death of Bagoas' previous patron, Darius III.
    Dimnus and Nichomachus
        One of Alexander the Great's Hetairoi (or Companion Cavalry), Dimnus enlisted his eromenos in a plot to kill Alexander, revealing to him the names of the conspirators. The boy told his brother, who denounced them, leading to the trial and execution of the plotters, in 330.[50]
    Aristotle and Palaephatus of Abydus
        According to the Suda, Palaephatus was Aristotle's paidika. [51]


[edit] Hellenistic Greece
*Prokleides and Hipparchus
:*Prokleides, an important citizen, as behooves the erastes of a ruler's son, also is known for setting up the Hermes Trikephalos, a three-headed road-marker statue, on the Hestia Road.<ref>Rommel Mendès-Leite et al. Gay Studies from the French Cultures p.157</ref>
*Theognis of Megara and Cyrnus
:*The poet, thought to have lived in the sixth c. BCE, addressed many of his poems to his young beloved, using them to pass on his wisdom to the boy.<ref> Ed. Thomas K. Hubbard, Homosexuality in Greece and Rome [1]</ref>
*Polycrates and Smerdies
:*The love of the tyrant of Samos for his Thracian favorite, some time between 535 and 515, was recorded by the poet Anacreon.<ref>Aelian, Varia Historia, 9.4</ref>
*Anacreon and Bathyllus
:* Legend has it that while in Samos, Anacreon competed with the tyrant for the love of another beautiful boy, Bathyllus, who is considered the most famous of his [[Eromenos|beloveds]], and whom he celebrated in his poems, such as the following one:


    Demetrius Phalereus and Diognis
<blockquote>''O boy, with virgin-glancing eye,''<br>
        Between 317 BC and 307 BC, when he was despot of Athens, he had a boyfriend by the name of Diognis, of whom all the Athenian boys were jealous.[52]
''I call thee, but thou dost not hear;''<br>
    Zeno of Citium and Persaeus
''Thou know'st not how my soul doth cry''<br>
        According to Diogenes Laërtius, the philosopher had Persaeus as his eromenos and lived with him in the same house.[53]
''For thee, its charioteer.''<ref>Athenæus (bk. xiii.17)</ref> <ref>Edward Carpenter, Ioläus:An Anthology of Friendship[1917] p.72 [2]</ref></blockquote>
    Demetrius I of Macedon and Cleaenetus
        Known for his requent debauches, the Macedonian king waived a fine of 50 talents imposed on a citizen in exchange for the favors of Cleaenetus, that man's son.[54]
    Hamilcar Barca and Hasdrubal the Fair
        The Carthaginian Hasdrubal was noted for his beauty, first becoming the catamite of Hamilcar, and later his son-in-law.[55]
    Xenares and Cleomenes III
        Xenares inspired the future king before 235 BCE.[56]
    Cleomenes III and Panteus.
        According to Plutarch, Panteus was "the most beautiful and valorous youth of Sparta." Later he joined his inspirer in death - when Cleomenes took his own life upon being exiled to Egypt, Panteus, seeing that he could still knit his brows, "...kissed him and raised him. Holding the body next to him, he plunged his sword into his own breast." [57]
    Ptolemy VI Philometor and Galestes
        The king loved the boy not only for his good looks but also for his wisdom. Ca. 170-140 BCE [58]


[edit] Ancient Rome
*Anacreon and Critias
:*Hipparchus invited Anacreon to Athens after the death of Polycrates. There Anacreon took an eromenos, in whose house he lived, and who, in a reversal of the usual roles, wrote love poetry to his erastes. It is not certain which Critias this is, though it has been proposed that it is the same as the eponymous archon.<ref>Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization; p.22</ref><ref>Debra NailsThe People of Plato: A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics p.107</ref>
*[[Harmodius and Aristogeiton|Aristogeiton and Harmodius]]
:*Heroic couple, later lionized by the Athenian democrats, whose 514 BCE plot to assassinate Hippias in was credited with the overthrow of tyranny in Athens.<ref>Richard Hunter, Ed. Plato's Symposium (Oxford Approaches to Classical Literature) p.52</ref>


[edit] Roman Republic
===Classical Greece===


    Lucius Quinctius T.f. Flaminius and Philip
*Parmenides of Elea and Zeno of Elea
        While consul in 189 BCE, Flaminius took the Carthaginian boy as catamite on his travels away from Rome, only to be berated by the youth for making him miss the gladiator games. At dinner one day, a Gaul presented himself to ask for safety. The consul asked the boy if he wanted to see a man killed, and ran the Gaul through with his sword.[59]
:*According to Plato, Zeno was "tall and fair to look upon" and was "in the days of his youth . . . reported to have been beloved by Parmenides."<ref> Plato, Parmenides, 127</ref> This would have occurred around 475 BCE.
    Gaius Lucilius and Gentius (and Macedo)
*Hiero I of Syracuse and Daelochus
        In his poetry, Lucilius blames a praetor for having stolen Gentius from him, and predicts the boy will return. The satirist was blamed in later antiquity for having "prostituted" his lovers by using their actual names in his poem, instead of veiling them, as other authors were wont to do, by the use of pseudonyms.[60][61][62]
:*Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse surrounded himself with pederastic intellectuals and had a number of lovers. Around 470 BCE, on being challenged by Simonides on the ethics of being a pederast while a tyrant, he replied: "My passion for Daelochus arises from the fact that human nature perhaps compels us to want from the beautiful, but I have a very strong desire to attain the object of my passion [only] with his love and consent."<ref> Xenophon, Hiero, I.31-38</ref>
*Antileon and Hipparinos
:*Natives of Herakleia, near Metapontum, the two were famed as tyrant killers in the style of Harmodius and Aristogiton. After the tyrant of Herakleia accosted Hipparinos, Antileon assassinated him, but paid with his life.<ref>Phanias of Eresus, Fr. 16 FHG</ref><ref>Ed. Thomas K. Hubbard, Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook of Basic Documents, p. 62 [3]</ref>
*Archelaus and Socrates
:*The older philosopher loved the younger when the latter was seventeen.<ref> Diogenes Laërtius, ii. </ref><ref>Porphyrius  </ref> <ref>Aristoxenus of Tarentum </ref>
*Phidias and Agoracritus
:*The youth, both beloved and student of the sculptor, is also known for his sculpture of Nemesis at Rhamnus.<ref>Pausanias, IX.34.1 "In the temple are bronze images of Itonian Athena and Zeus; the artist was Agoracritus, pupil and loved one of Pheidias." (...technê de Agorakritou, mathêtou te kai erômenou Pheidiou.)</ref>
*Phidias and Pantarkes
:*Pantarkes, was an Elian youth and winner of the boys' wrestling match at the 86th Olympics in 436 BCE. He modeled for one of the figures sculpted in the throne of the Olympian Zeus, and Phidias, to honor him, carved "Kalos Pantarkes" into the god's little finger.<ref>Plutarch, Erotikos; </ref><ref>Pausanias, V.11.3. "The figure of one binding his own head with a ribbon is said to resemble in appearance Pantarces, a stripling of Elis said to have been the love of Pheidias. Pantarces too won the wrestling-bout for boys at the eighty-sixth Festival." (ton de hauton tainiai tên kephalên anadoumenon eoikenai to eidos Pantarkei legousi, meirakion de Êleion ton Pantarkê paidika einai tou Pheidiou: aneileto de kai en paisin ho Pantarkês palês nikên Olumpiadi hektêi pros tais ogdoêkonta.) </ref><ref>Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus, 53, 4; "The Athenian Phidias inscribed on the finger of the Olympian Jove, Pantarkes is beautiful. It was not Zeus that was beautiful in his eyes, but the man he loved." </ref>
*Empedocles and Pausanias
:*Pausanias was both friend and student of the philosopher.<ref>Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers Life of Empedocles</ref>
*[[Alcibiades|Socrates and Alcibiades]]
:*Each is said to have saved the life of the other in battle, and the relationship, which took place around 435-430 was said to have been chaste.<ref>Robert J. Littman, "The Loves of Alcibiades" in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 101, 1970 (1970), pp. 263-276 "Socrates' and Alcibiades' relationship is very much connected to the role of pederasty in education in classical Greece..."</ref>
*Critias and Euthydemos
:*A relationship mocked by Socrates for the brutish physicality of Critias' desire.
*Xenophon and Clinias
:*Of his eromenos, Xenophon said, "Now I look upon Clinias with more pleasure than upon all the other beautiful things which are to be seen among men; and I would rather be blind as to all the rest of the world, than as to Clinias. And I am annoyed even with night and with sleep, because then I do not see him; but I am very grateful to the sun and to daylight, because they show Clinias to me."<ref>Diogenes Laertius, LIFE OF XENOPHON</ref>
*Callias III and Autolycus
:*The relationship between the two, in 421 BCE, is touched upon in Xenophon's Symposium, where Callias entertains both the boy and the father.<ref>Xenophon, Symposium</ref>
*Themistocles and Stesilaus of Ceos
:*Around 420 BCE Themistocles competed for the boy's love with Aristides. As Plutarch recounts, "... they were rivals for the affection of the beautiful Stesilaus of Ceos, and were passionate beyond all moderation."<ref>Plutarch, The Lives, "Themistocles"</ref>
*Pytheas and Teisis
:*Pytheas, who was also the guardian of the youth, appointed to that position by Teisis' father in his will, is held up as being an unwise erastes, concerned with impressing his eromenos and as a result giving him bad advice.<ref>Lysias, Against Teisis, Fr.17.2.1-2, in Hubbard, 2003, p.122</ref>
*Archedemus and Alcibiades II
:*In his childhood, Alcibiades II, son of the famous general by the same name, was notorious for frequenting the house of his erastes, drinking, and reclining with him under a single cloak in sight of all.<ref> Lysias, Against Alcibiades, I 25-27 in Hubbard, 2003, pp.122-23</ref>
*Archebiades and Alcibiades II
:*After the death of the older Alcibiades, his old associate and co-defendant in the desecration of the Eleusinian mysteries, became the erastes of his son, then in his early teens, ransoming him from imprisonment, a ransom the boy's father had refused to pay, out of disgust with his own son.<ref>Lysias, Against Alcibiades, I 25-27 in Hubbard, 2003, pp.122-23</ref>
*Lysander and Agesilaus II
:*Lysander had been the eispnelas of Agesilaus and was instrumental in the latter's rise to kingship, only to be spurned by him once he rose to power in 399BCE.
*Archidamus and Cleonymus
:*Archidamus, son of Agesilaus II, is described by Xenophon to have been in love with the handsome son of Sphodrias. The boy asked his eispnelas to intervene with the king in favor of his father in a life and death legal matter, promising that Archidamus would never be ashamed to have befriended him. That proved to be so, as he was the first Spartan to die at the battle of Leuctra.<ref>Xenophon, Hellenica 5.4</ref>
*Ariaeus and Menon the Thessalian
:*Menon, a commander of Greek mercenaries in Cyrus the Younger's army who had received his commission on account of his youthful beauty, took Ariaeus, a Persian, as his lover. The matter was badly seen, as it was deemed especially base to submit sexually to a barbarian.<ref>Xenophon, Anabasis; 2.6.29 </ref><ref>Robin Lane Fox, The Long March: Xenophon and the Ten Thousand p.198 </ref>
*Artaxerxes II of [[Persian Empire|Persia]] and Tiridates
:*The Persian king, distraught at the death of his beloved eunuch, found consolation in placing the dead youth's cloak over the shoulders of Aspasia, his Greek hetaira.<ref>Aelian, Var. Hist. 12.1 </ref>
*Archelaus I of Macedon and Craterus (or Crateuas)
:*The king of Macedon was assassinated in 399 BCE by this eromenos, upon reneging on a promise to give the boy his daughter in marriage.<ref>Aelian, Varia Historia, 8.9 </ref>
*Aristippus of Cyrene and Euthychides
:*The youth was a slave of the philosopher, compared by him with the students of Socrates.<ref>Diogenes Laërtius, ii.74 </ref>
*Agesilaus II and Megabates
:*By taking on the Perisan boy as beloved, the king of Sparta was following Spartan law.


[edit] Roman Empire
The group below (indented) consists of relationships revealed during the course of Aeschines' speech (ca. 345) to the court bringing suit against the politician Timarchus so as to deprive him of his political rights for having behaved like a prostitute in his adolescence. They occurred around 375, except the first two, presumably about ten to fifteen years earlier. <ref>Aeschines, Against Timarchos40-79 </ref>
Antinous
Antinous
Polydeukion
Polydeukion


    Octavian and Sarmentus
''<blockquote>Diopeithes of Sounion, and Hegesandros of Sounion
        One of the favorites (or, "delicia") of the emperor, Sarmentus was held up as an example of rank favoritism by the historian Dellius. He incurred Cleopatra's wrath by complaining that while he and others dignitaries were served sour wine by Marc Antony in Greece, Octavian's catamite was drinking Falernian in Rome.[63]
:*Diopeithes, besides being the judge before whom Pittalakos (see below) brought his suit, had also been an erastes of Hegesandros. Not surprisingly, he stalled the suit until it was withdrawn.
    Virgil and Alexander
*Leodamas and Hegesandros
        According to an account by Suetonius preserved in the writings of Aelius Donatus, itself incorporated in a critical account by Servius, the Alexis of the Bucolics was based on a real-life beloved of Virgil. Allegedly, Virgil was fond of boys, with later commentary specifying that his love was patterned along the lines of chaste pederasty. The boy, a slave, was a gift from one of his patrons, Asinius Pollio.[64] While some modern historians accept the story as credible, an opposing school of thought deems it a fabrication.[65]
:*During his testimony, Hegesandros indicated that he previously had been in a similar relationship with Leodamas. Hegesandros himself is accused of having prostituted himself in his youth, and of having misbehaved sexually with Leodamas.
    Nero and Sporus
*Misgolas, son of Naukrates of the demeof Kollytos, and Timarchus
        According to Suetonius, "He castrated the boy Sporus and actually tried to make a woman of him; and he married him with all the usual ceremonies, including a dowry and a bridal veil, took him to his home attended by a great throng, and treated him as his wife. [...] This Sporus, decked out with the finery of the empresses and riding in a litter, he took with him to the courts and marts of Greece, and later at Rome through the Street of the Images, fondly kissing him from time to time."[66]
:*Timarchus is accused not only of having sold his services, but of submitting to anal penetration, particularly shameful behavior at the time.
    Vitellius and Asiaticus
*Antikles, son of Kallias of the deme Euonymon, and Timarchus
        First slave and catamite of Vitellus, the boy ran away, was found, imprisoned, reinstated in his former position, sold as gladiator, recovered again, freed and finally knighted by his lover on his first day as emperor in 69 CE, to whom he became a trusted adviser for the short duration of his reign.[67]
:*As Antikles was away at the time of the trial no further information was presented by Aeschines.
    Martial and Diadoumenos
*Pittalakos and Timarchus
        The poet immortalized his slave catamite, playing on the topoi of sweet kisses and cruel boys.[68][69]
:*As Pittalakos was a public slave, Timarchus incurred even greater shame for his sexual submission and penetration.
    Aulus Pudens and Encolpus
*Hegesandros, son of Diphilos of Steiria, and Timarchus
        The poet Martial (around 90 CE) celebrated the love of his centurion friend for his young slave, in several epigrams describing their mutual love and the cruelty of the boy who decides to cut his hair to the consternation of his master.[70][71]
:*Hegesandros, having accumulated great wealth on a military campaign, bribed Timarchus away from Pittalakos, causing the latter great jealousy. As he was making a nuisance of himself Hegesandros and Timarchus beat him up, to which he responded with a lawsuit against both.</blockquote>
    Domitian and Earinos
''
        A number of poets hurried to flatter the emperor by praising his beloved, a slave eunuch who was compared to Ganymede. Domitian decreed that thenceforth castration would be forbidden.[72][73][74][75]
*Epaminondas and Micythus<ref> Cornelius Nepos </ref>
    Trajan and Arbandes
*Epaminondas and Asopichos
        Trajan's love of youths influenced even his governing, leading him, around 115 CE, to favour the king of Osroene out of appreciation for his handsome son: "On this occasion, however, Abgarus, induced partly by the persuasions of his son Arbandes, who was handsome and in the pride of youth and therefore in favor with Trajan, and partly by his fear of the latter's presence, he met him on the road, made his apologies and obtained pardon, for he had a powerful intercessor in the boy."[76]
:*A couple famed for their military prowess, such as in their victory at Leuctra in 371 BCE.<ref>Atheneus, Deipnosophists, 605–606 </ref>
    Emperor Hadrian and Antinous
*Epaminondas and Caphisodorus
        The Roman emperor met this 13 or 14 years old boy from Bithynia in 124 CE. Antinous was deified by Hadrian, when he died six years later. Many statues, busts, coins and reliefs display Hadrian's deep affections for him: http://antinoos.info/antinous.htm
:*Caphisodorus was his last lover. He fell with Epaminondas iin 362 at Mantineia and was buried by his side. <ref>Plutarch, Dialogue on Love (Moralia 761) </ref>.
    Herodes Atticus and Polydeukion
*Demosthenes and Cnosion
        Herodes emulated Hadrian in establishing a heroic cult for the boy upon his early death ca. 174 CE.[77]
:*After the orator took in his young beloved, his wife is said to have bedded the boy in a fit of jealousy,<ref>Athenaeus of Naucratis, The Deipnosophists Book XIII "Concerning Women"(Page III) </ref> though Aeschines claims that it was Demosthenes who put his own wife in bed with the youth so as to get children by him.<ref> Aeschines, On the Embassy, 2.149 </ref>
    Ptolemy and Eutropius
*Demosthenes and Aristarchus
        Eutropius, an Armenian or Assyrian slave castrated at birth, was derided for having had many masters, beginning with Ptolemy, a groom or soldier in the imperial stables of Byzantium. Promised his freedom by his master, he was instead given as a gift (being still too young to be bought) to the general Arintheus, whom he served as pander.[78][79]
:*Much of what is known about this relationship comes from the speeches of Demosthenes' enemy, Aeschines. He accuses Demosthenes of having been such a bad erastes to Aristarchus so as not even to deserve the name. Among his alleged crimes are his complicity in Aristarchus' murder of Nicodemus of Aphidna, whose eyes and tongue were gouged out. This murder took place while the youth was under Demosthenes' tutelage.<ref>Aeschines, On the Embassy, 148-150 </ref> Another misdeed of Demosthenes, the one allegedly disqualifying him from calling himself an erastes, is his pillaging of Aristarchus' estate. He is alleged to have pretended being in love with the youth so as to get his hands on the boy's inheritance, which he is said to have squandered and from which he is said to have taken three talents upon Aristarchus' fleeing into exile so as to avoid a trial.<ref>Dover, J.K., op.cit. pp.46-47 </ref>
*Demosthenes and Aristion
:*Again, according to Aeschines, Demosthenes had the handsome youth in his house, engaged in unspeakable behavior: There is a certain Aristion, a Plataean..., who as a youth was oustandingly good-looking and lived for a long time in Demosthenes' house. Allegations about the part he was playing ('undergoing or doing what') there vary, and it would be most unseemly for me to talk about it.<ref> Aeschines, Against the Crown, iii 162 </ref>
*Philip II of Macedon and Pausanias
:*In 336 BCE Pausanias killed Philip out of jealousy over another lover.
*Darius III of Persia and [[Bagoas (courtier)|Bagoas]]
:*Bagoas was the favorite of Darius, who was said to have been "intimate" with him.<ref>Curtius, Historiae Alexandri Magni, vi. 5; x. 1 </ref>
*Alexander the Great and [[Bagoas (courtier)|Bagoas]].
:*The two met in 330 BCE after the death of Bagoas' previous patron, Darius III.
*Dimnus and Nichomachus
:*One of Alexander the Great's Hetairoi (or Companion Cavalry), Dimnus enlisted his eromenos in a plot to kill Alexander, revealing to him the names of the conspirators. The boy told his brother, who denounced them, leading to the trial and execution of the plotters, in 330.<ref> Waldemar Heckel, Who's Who in the Age of Alexander the Great: Prosopography of Alexander's Empire p.112; Blackwell Publishing, 2006 </ref>
*Aristotle and Palaephatus of Abydus
:*According to the Suda, Palaephatus was Aristotle's paidika. <ref>William George Smith,Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology p.308</ref>


[edit] References
===Hellenistic Greece===


    ^ Hubbard, Thomas K. "Introduction" to Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook of Basic Documents. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. pg. 9.
*Demetrius Phalereus and Diognis
    ^ Plutarch, The Lives, "Solon"
:*Between 317 BC and 307 BC, when he was despot of Athens, he had a boyfriend by the name of Diognis, of whom all the Athenian boys were jealous.<ref>According to Carystius of Pergamum in F.H.G. Fr. 10, in Hubbard, 2003, p.75</ref>
    ^ "It is evident from this that the story is mere gossip which states that Pisistratus was the youthful favourite of Solon" Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution Tr. Sir Frederic G. Kenyon
*Zeno of Citium and Persaeus
    ^ Plutarch, The Lives, "Solon"
:*According to Diogenes Laërtius, the philosopher had Persaeus as his eromenos and lived with him in the same house.<ref>Diogenes Laërtius, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, vii.8,13 </ref>
    ^ Athenaeus, Deipnosophistai, 13.602
*Demetrius I of Macedon and Cleaenetus
    ^ Plutarch,Solon 1.7; Pausanias, 1.30.1; Athen., xiii. 609D
:*Known for his requent debauches, the Macedonian king waived a fine of 50 talents imposed on a citizen in exchange for the favors of Cleaenetus, that man's son.<ref>Plutarch, Life of Demetrios </ref>
    ^ Rommel Mendès-Leite et al. Gay Studies from the French Cultures p.157
*Hamilcar Barca and Hasdrubal the Fair
    ^ Ed. Thomas K. Hubbard, Homosexuality in Greece and Rome [1]
:*The Carthaginian Hasdrubal was noted for his beauty, first becoming the catamite of Hamilcar, and later his son-in-law.<ref>Livy's History of Rome: Book 21.2 </ref>
    ^ Aelian, Varia Historia, 9.4
*Xenares and Cleomenes III
    ^ Athenæus (bk. xiii.17
:*Xenares inspired the future king before 235 BCE.<ref>John Addington Symonds, [[A Problem in Greek Ethics]], X p.14 </ref>
    ^ Edward Carpenter, Ioläus:An Anthology of Friendship[1917] p.72 [2]
*Cleomenes III and Panteus.
    ^ Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization; p.22
:*According to Plutarch, Panteus was "the most beautiful and valorous youth of Sparta." Later he joined his inspirer in death - when Cleomenes took his own life upon being exiled to Egypt, Panteus, seeing that he could still knit his brows, "...kissed him and raised him. Holding the body next to him, he plunged his sword into his own breast." <ref> John Addington Symonds, op.cit. X p.14 </ref>
    ^ Debra NailsThe People of Plato: A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics p.107
*Ptolemy VI Philometor and Galestes
    ^ Richard Hunter, Ed. Plato's Symposium (Oxford Approaches to Classical Literature) p.52
:*The king loved the boy not only for his good looks but also for his wisdom. Ca. 170-140 BCE <ref> Aelian, Varia Historia, I.30 </ref>
    ^ Plato, Parmenides, 127
    ^ Xenophon, Hiero, I.31-38
    ^ Phanias of Eresus, Fr. 16 FHG
    ^ Ed. Thomas K. Hubbard, Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook of Basic Documents, p. 62 [3]
    ^ Diogenes Laërtius, ii.
    ^ Porphyrius
    ^ Aristoxenus of Tarentum
    ^ Pausanias, IX.34.1 "In the temple are bronze images of Itonian Athena and Zeus; the artist was Agoracritus, pupil and loved one of Pheidias." (...technê de Agorakritou, mathêtou te kai erômenou Pheidiou.)
    ^ Plutarch, Erotikos;
    ^ Pausanias, V.11.3. "The figure of one binding his own head with a ribbon is said to resemble in appearance Pantarces, a stripling of Elis said to have been the love of Pheidias. Pantarces too won the wrestling-bout for boys at the eighty-sixth Festival." (ton de hauton tainiai tên kephalên anadoumenon eoikenai to eidos Pantarkei legousi, meirakion de Êleion ton Pantarkê paidika einai tou Pheidiou: aneileto de kai en paisin ho Pantarkês palês nikên Olumpiadi hektêi pros tais ogdoêkonta.)
    ^ Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus, 53, 4; "The Athenian Phidias inscribed on the finger of the Olympian Jove, Pantarkes is beautiful. It was not Zeus that was beautiful in his eyes, but the man he loved."
    ^ Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers Life of Empedocles
    ^ Robert J. Littman, "The Loves of Alcibiades" in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 101, 1970 (1970), pp. 263-276 "Socrates' and Alcibiades' relationship is very much connected to the role of pederasty in education in classical Greece..."
    ^ Diogenes Laertius, LIFE OF XENOPHON
    ^ Xenophon, Symposium
    ^ Plutarch, The Lives, "Themistocles"
    ^ Lysias, Against Teisis, Fr.17.2.1-2, in Hubbard, 2003, p.122
    ^ Lysias, Against Alcibiades, I 25-27 in Hubbard, 2003, pp.122-23
    ^ Lysias, Against Alcibiades, I 25-27 in Hubbard, 2003, pp.122-23
    ^ Xenophon, Hellenica 5.4
    ^ Xenophon, Anabasis; 2.6.29
    ^ Robin Lane Fox, The Long March: Xenophon and the Ten Thousand p.198
    ^ Aelian, Var. Hist. 12.1
    ^ Aelian, Varia Historia, 8.9
    ^ Diogenes Laërtius, ii.74
    ^ Aeschines, Against Timarchos40-79
    ^ Cornelius Nepos
    ^ Atheneus, Deipnosophists, 605–606
    ^ Plutarch, Dialogue on Love (Moralia 761)
    ^ Athenaeus of Naucratis, The Deipnosophists Book XIII "Concerning Women"(Page III)
    ^ Aeschines, On the Embassy, 2.149
    ^ Aeschines, On the Embassy, 148-150
    ^ Dover, J.K., op.cit. pp.46-47
    ^ Aeschines, Against the Crown, iii 162
    ^ Curtius, Historiae Alexandri Magni, vi. 5; x. 1
    ^ Waldemar Heckel, Who's Who in the Age of Alexander the Great: Prosopography of Alexander's Empire p.112; Blackwell Publishing, 2006
    ^ William George Smith,Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology p.308
    ^ According to Carystius of Pergamum in F.H.G. Fr. 10, in Hubbard, 2003, p.75
    ^ Diogenes Laërtius, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, vii.8,13
    ^ Plutarch, Life of Demetrios
    ^ Livy's History of Rome: Book 21.2
    ^ John Addington Symonds, A Problem in Greek Ethics, X p.14
    ^ John Addington Symonds, op.cit. X p.14
    ^ Aelian, Varia Historia, I.30
    ^ Livy, The History of Rome XLII
    ^ Amy Richlin, The Garden of Priapus: Sexuality and Aggression in Roman Humor p. 165
    ^ Lucilius, 273, 274
    ^ Apuleius, Defense 10
    ^ Plutarch, Life of Marc Antony; 59
    ^ Aelius Donatus, Life of Virgil; tr. David Wilson-Okamura (1996; rev. 2005); 9-11 [4] "With regard to pleasure, he was partial to boys. <But good men have thought that he loved boys as Socrates loved Alcibiades, and Plato his favorites ( paidiká).> He loved Cebes and Alexander most of all. Alexander was a gift to him from Asinius Pollio; the second poem of his Bucolics refers to him as "Alexis." Nor was the other one unlearned; in fact, Cebes was a poet as well."
    ^ Richard Jenkyns, Virgil's Experience: Nature and History, Times, Names, and Places p.7; Oxford University Press, 1998
    ^ Suetonius, The Lives of Twelve Caesars, Life of Nero 28
    ^ Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars IX.12
    ^ Craig Williams, Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity, p.33
    ^ Martial, Epigrams, III.65; V.46; VI.34
    ^ Craig Williams, Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity, p.33
    ^ Martial, Epigrams, I.31; V.48
    ^ Craig Williams, Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity, p.33
    ^ Statius, Silvae, IV 3. Translation is from Publius Papinius Statius, Silvae IV, edited with an English translation and commentary by K.M. Coleman, New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Latin: "... fortem vetat interire sexum et censor prohibet mares adultos pulchrae supplicium timere formae."
    ^ Dio Cassius, LXVII 2.3.
    ^ Martial, Epigrams, IX.16, 17, 36
    ^ Dio Cassius, Epitome of Book LXVIII; 21.2–3
    ^ Giovanni Dall'Orto,Saggi di storia gay > Biografie di personaggi gay > Erode àttico "Erode Attico ebbe amori omosessuali che non si preoccupò di rendere pubblici. Quello che fece più parlare di sé fu l'ultimo, perché quando ad Atene l'adolescente "discepolo" Pollùce (Polydeukes / Polydeukion / Polideuce)"[5]
    ^ Claudian, Against Eutropius Loeb edition p.143-145
    ^ Edward Gibbon The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: p.325N7; Published 1899 P. F. Collier & Son, 1899


[edit] See also
==References==
{{reflist|3}}


    Friendship
==See also==
    Greek love
*[[Greek love]]   
    Homosexuality
*[[Homosexuality]]
    Pederasty
*[[Pederasty]]
    Pederasty in ancient Greece
*[[Ancient Greece]]
    Platonic love
*[[Historical boylove relationships]]
    Sodomy
*[[Historical boylove relationships in ancient Rome]]
*[[Historical boylove relationships in Japan]]


[edit] Sources
==Sources==
Look up pederastic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.


General


    Louis Crompton. Homosexuality and Civilization, Cambridge, Mass. and London, 2003. ISBN 0-674-01197-X
'''General'''
    Michel Larivière. Homosexuels et bisexuels célèbres, Delétraz Editions, 1997. ISBN 2-911110-19-6


Ancient Greece
*Louis Crompton. Homosexuality and Civilization, Cambridge, Mass. and London, 2003. ISBN 0-674-01197-X
*Michel Larivière. Homosexuels et bisexuels célèbres, Delétraz Editions, 1997. ISBN 2-911110-19-6


    Kenneth J. Dover. Greek Homosexuality, New York; Vintage Books, 1978. ISBN 0-394-74224-9
'''Ancient Greece'''
    Thomas K. Hubbard. Homosexuality in Greece and Rome, U. of California Press, 2003. [6] ISBN 0-520-23430-8
    Harald Patzer. Die Griechische Knabenliebe [Greek Pederasty], Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1982. In: Sitzungsberichte der Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Vol. 19 No. 1.
    Carola Reinsberg. Ehe, Hetärentum und Knabenliebe im antiken Griechenland, C.H.Beck Verlag, München 1993. ISBN 3-406-37374-7
    Eva Cantarella, Cormac O Cuilleanain. Bisexuality in the Ancient World , Yale University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-300-04844-0
    W. A. Percy III. Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece, University of Illinois Press, 1996. ISBN 0-252-02209-2


[edit] External links
*Kenneth J. Dover. Greek Homosexuality, New York; Vintage Books, 1978. ISBN 0-394-74224-9
*Thomas K. Hubbard. Homosexuality in Greece and Rome, U. of California Press, 2003. [6] ISBN 0-520-23430-8
*Harald Patzer. Die Griechische Knabenliebe [Greek Pederasty], Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1982. In: Sitzungsberichte der Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Vol. 19 No. 1.
*Carola Reinsberg. Ehe, Hetärentum und Knabenliebe im antiken Griechenland, C.H.Beck Verlag, München 1993. ISBN 3-406-37374-7
*Eva Cantarella, Cormac O Cuilleanain. Bisexuality in the Ancient World , Yale University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-300-04844-0
*W. A. Percy III. Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece, University of Illinois Press, 1996. ISBN 0-252-02209-2


    World history of homosexual and pederastic relationships
{{Navbox Ancient Greece}}
[[Category:Ancient Greece]]

Latest revision as of 22:40, 2 July 2022

Part of the boylove history series
History
Ancient Greece
Alcibiades Ancient Greece Athenian pederasty Archias of Corinth Cretan pederasty Ephebophilia Erastes Eromenos Greek love Greek terms applied to pederastia Gyges of Lydia Harmodius and Aristogeiton Herodotus Historical boylove relationships in ancient Greece Palaestra
Pederasty Pederasty in ancient Greece
Philolaus Philosophy of ancient Greek pederasty Spartan pederasty Symposium
Theban pederasty (Boylove Essays) - The Exquisite Corpse of Ganymede Trochus/Hoop
Gods and mythology
Apollo Atymnius Cyparissus Dionysus
Eros Ganymede Hyacinth Miletus
Orpheus Zephyrus Zeus
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome Augustus Antinous
Catamite Commodus Definitions of Roman legal terms Hadrian and Antinous
Historical boylove relationships in ancient Rome Lex Scantinia Plutarch Roman Emperors Sporus
Boylove in the middle ages
Boylove in the middle ages Pederastic relationships in history - Post-antiquity to present Pederasty in the Renaissance
Boylove in modern times
Boylove in modern times Historical boylove relationships in modern times Pederastic relationships in history - Post-antiquity to present Pederasty in the modern world
References material
A Problem in Greek Ethics (book) Erastes
Eromenos Krater Kylix Lovers' Legends: The Gay Greek Myths (book) Paidika
Reading list category ancient Greece
Boylove Documentary Sourcebook
Art
Kiss (Briseis Painter) Man with ephebe
Warren Cup Tomb of the Diver
Portal:History

In classical antiquity there were many known pederastic relationships between adult men and adolescent boys. In some of these cases both members became well-known historical figures, while in others, only one of the two may have.

Though all such relationships were by definition homoerotic in nature, the individuals involved did not identify themselves as homosexuals, but rather as ordinary men having ordinary desires. The nature of the relationships ranged from overtly sexual to what is now referred to as platonic, in accordance with ancient ethical and philosophical standards.[1]

In the following list the couples are listed in chronological order, and the name of the older partner precedes that of the younger. Though many more men are known to have engaged in such relationships, only those instances in which the name of the younger partner is known are included. In keeping with ancient traditions which promoted chaste pederastic relationships (See: Greek love) included below are also relationships in which there is evidence of an erotic component even in the absence of actual sexual relations.


Ancient Greece

Archaic period in Greece

  • Solon and Peisistratus
  • The law giver was the erastes of the future tyrant, presumably around 590 BCE.[2] Aristotle, however, claims that the story is "mere gossip" and cannot possibly be true due to their relative ages.[3]
  • Peisistratus and Charmus
  • Later in life, Charmus would give his daughter, Myrrhina, in marriage to Hippias, his old erastes' son.[4]
  • Chariton of Agrigentum and Melanippus
  • The two lovers plotted against Phalaris around 560 BCE. Chariton was discovered and tortured to divulge accomplices, but remained silent. Melanippus, to save his friend, presented himself and freely confessed. The tyrant, impressed, set both free, but sent them into exile. Their valor and love were celebrated in a Delphic oracle:

Blessed were Chariton and Melanippus:
They showed mortals the way to a friendship that was divine.[5]

  • Charmus and Hippias
  • After having been the eromenos of the father, Charmus, by now a polemarch, became the erastes of the son, who later also became his son-in-law. In Charmus' honor, a statue of Eros was erected, either by Pisistratus or Hippias, before the entrance of the Akademia, where the runners in the sacred torch race lit their torches. The inscription claimed that Charmus had been the first to dedicate to love,

Eros of many devices, Charmus built you this altar
Among the shady boundaries of the gymnasium.[6]

  • Prokleides and Hipparchus
  • Prokleides, an important citizen, as behooves the erastes of a ruler's son, also is known for setting up the Hermes Trikephalos, a three-headed road-marker statue, on the Hestia Road.[7]
  • Theognis of Megara and Cyrnus
  • The poet, thought to have lived in the sixth c. BCE, addressed many of his poems to his young beloved, using them to pass on his wisdom to the boy.[8]
  • Polycrates and Smerdies
  • The love of the tyrant of Samos for his Thracian favorite, some time between 535 and 515, was recorded by the poet Anacreon.[9]
  • Anacreon and Bathyllus
  • Legend has it that while in Samos, Anacreon competed with the tyrant for the love of another beautiful boy, Bathyllus, who is considered the most famous of his beloveds, and whom he celebrated in his poems, such as the following one:

O boy, with virgin-glancing eye,

I call thee, but thou dost not hear;
Thou know'st not how my soul doth cry

For thee, its charioteer.[10] [11]

  • Anacreon and Critias
  • Hipparchus invited Anacreon to Athens after the death of Polycrates. There Anacreon took an eromenos, in whose house he lived, and who, in a reversal of the usual roles, wrote love poetry to his erastes. It is not certain which Critias this is, though it has been proposed that it is the same as the eponymous archon.[12][13]
  • Heroic couple, later lionized by the Athenian democrats, whose 514 BCE plot to assassinate Hippias in was credited with the overthrow of tyranny in Athens.[14]

Classical Greece

  • Parmenides of Elea and Zeno of Elea
  • According to Plato, Zeno was "tall and fair to look upon" and was "in the days of his youth . . . reported to have been beloved by Parmenides."[15] This would have occurred around 475 BCE.
  • Hiero I of Syracuse and Daelochus
  • Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse surrounded himself with pederastic intellectuals and had a number of lovers. Around 470 BCE, on being challenged by Simonides on the ethics of being a pederast while a tyrant, he replied: "My passion for Daelochus arises from the fact that human nature perhaps compels us to want from the beautiful, but I have a very strong desire to attain the object of my passion [only] with his love and consent."[16]
  • Antileon and Hipparinos
  • Natives of Herakleia, near Metapontum, the two were famed as tyrant killers in the style of Harmodius and Aristogiton. After the tyrant of Herakleia accosted Hipparinos, Antileon assassinated him, but paid with his life.[17][18]
  • Archelaus and Socrates
  • The older philosopher loved the younger when the latter was seventeen.[19][20] [21]
  • Phidias and Agoracritus
  • The youth, both beloved and student of the sculptor, is also known for his sculpture of Nemesis at Rhamnus.[22]
  • Phidias and Pantarkes
  • Pantarkes, was an Elian youth and winner of the boys' wrestling match at the 86th Olympics in 436 BCE. He modeled for one of the figures sculpted in the throne of the Olympian Zeus, and Phidias, to honor him, carved "Kalos Pantarkes" into the god's little finger.[23][24][25]
  • Empedocles and Pausanias
  • Pausanias was both friend and student of the philosopher.[26]
  • Each is said to have saved the life of the other in battle, and the relationship, which took place around 435-430 was said to have been chaste.[27]
  • Critias and Euthydemos
  • A relationship mocked by Socrates for the brutish physicality of Critias' desire.
  • Xenophon and Clinias
  • Of his eromenos, Xenophon said, "Now I look upon Clinias with more pleasure than upon all the other beautiful things which are to be seen among men; and I would rather be blind as to all the rest of the world, than as to Clinias. And I am annoyed even with night and with sleep, because then I do not see him; but I am very grateful to the sun and to daylight, because they show Clinias to me."[28]
  • Callias III and Autolycus
  • The relationship between the two, in 421 BCE, is touched upon in Xenophon's Symposium, where Callias entertains both the boy and the father.[29]
  • Themistocles and Stesilaus of Ceos
  • Around 420 BCE Themistocles competed for the boy's love with Aristides. As Plutarch recounts, "... they were rivals for the affection of the beautiful Stesilaus of Ceos, and were passionate beyond all moderation."[30]
  • Pytheas and Teisis
  • Pytheas, who was also the guardian of the youth, appointed to that position by Teisis' father in his will, is held up as being an unwise erastes, concerned with impressing his eromenos and as a result giving him bad advice.[31]
  • Archedemus and Alcibiades II
  • In his childhood, Alcibiades II, son of the famous general by the same name, was notorious for frequenting the house of his erastes, drinking, and reclining with him under a single cloak in sight of all.[32]
  • Archebiades and Alcibiades II
  • After the death of the older Alcibiades, his old associate and co-defendant in the desecration of the Eleusinian mysteries, became the erastes of his son, then in his early teens, ransoming him from imprisonment, a ransom the boy's father had refused to pay, out of disgust with his own son.[33]
  • Lysander and Agesilaus II
  • Lysander had been the eispnelas of Agesilaus and was instrumental in the latter's rise to kingship, only to be spurned by him once he rose to power in 399BCE.
  • Archidamus and Cleonymus
  • Archidamus, son of Agesilaus II, is described by Xenophon to have been in love with the handsome son of Sphodrias. The boy asked his eispnelas to intervene with the king in favor of his father in a life and death legal matter, promising that Archidamus would never be ashamed to have befriended him. That proved to be so, as he was the first Spartan to die at the battle of Leuctra.[34]
  • Ariaeus and Menon the Thessalian
  • Menon, a commander of Greek mercenaries in Cyrus the Younger's army who had received his commission on account of his youthful beauty, took Ariaeus, a Persian, as his lover. The matter was badly seen, as it was deemed especially base to submit sexually to a barbarian.[35][36]
  • Artaxerxes II of Persia and Tiridates
  • The Persian king, distraught at the death of his beloved eunuch, found consolation in placing the dead youth's cloak over the shoulders of Aspasia, his Greek hetaira.[37]
  • Archelaus I of Macedon and Craterus (or Crateuas)
  • The king of Macedon was assassinated in 399 BCE by this eromenos, upon reneging on a promise to give the boy his daughter in marriage.[38]
  • Aristippus of Cyrene and Euthychides
  • The youth was a slave of the philosopher, compared by him with the students of Socrates.[39]
  • Agesilaus II and Megabates
  • By taking on the Perisan boy as beloved, the king of Sparta was following Spartan law.

The group below (indented) consists of relationships revealed during the course of Aeschines' speech (ca. 345) to the court bringing suit against the politician Timarchus so as to deprive him of his political rights for having behaved like a prostitute in his adolescence. They occurred around 375, except the first two, presumably about ten to fifteen years earlier. [40]

Diopeithes of Sounion, and Hegesandros of Sounion

  • Diopeithes, besides being the judge before whom Pittalakos (see below) brought his suit, had also been an erastes of Hegesandros. Not surprisingly, he stalled the suit until it was withdrawn.
  • Leodamas and Hegesandros
  • During his testimony, Hegesandros indicated that he previously had been in a similar relationship with Leodamas. Hegesandros himself is accused of having prostituted himself in his youth, and of having misbehaved sexually with Leodamas.
  • Misgolas, son of Naukrates of the demeof Kollytos, and Timarchus
  • Timarchus is accused not only of having sold his services, but of submitting to anal penetration, particularly shameful behavior at the time.
  • Antikles, son of Kallias of the deme Euonymon, and Timarchus
  • As Antikles was away at the time of the trial no further information was presented by Aeschines.
  • Pittalakos and Timarchus
  • As Pittalakos was a public slave, Timarchus incurred even greater shame for his sexual submission and penetration.
  • Hegesandros, son of Diphilos of Steiria, and Timarchus
  • Hegesandros, having accumulated great wealth on a military campaign, bribed Timarchus away from Pittalakos, causing the latter great jealousy. As he was making a nuisance of himself Hegesandros and Timarchus beat him up, to which he responded with a lawsuit against both.

  • Epaminondas and Micythus[41]
  • Epaminondas and Asopichos
  • A couple famed for their military prowess, such as in their victory at Leuctra in 371 BCE.[42]
  • Epaminondas and Caphisodorus
  • Caphisodorus was his last lover. He fell with Epaminondas iin 362 at Mantineia and was buried by his side. [43].
  • Demosthenes and Cnosion
  • After the orator took in his young beloved, his wife is said to have bedded the boy in a fit of jealousy,[44] though Aeschines claims that it was Demosthenes who put his own wife in bed with the youth so as to get children by him.[45]
  • Demosthenes and Aristarchus
  • Much of what is known about this relationship comes from the speeches of Demosthenes' enemy, Aeschines. He accuses Demosthenes of having been such a bad erastes to Aristarchus so as not even to deserve the name. Among his alleged crimes are his complicity in Aristarchus' murder of Nicodemus of Aphidna, whose eyes and tongue were gouged out. This murder took place while the youth was under Demosthenes' tutelage.[46] Another misdeed of Demosthenes, the one allegedly disqualifying him from calling himself an erastes, is his pillaging of Aristarchus' estate. He is alleged to have pretended being in love with the youth so as to get his hands on the boy's inheritance, which he is said to have squandered and from which he is said to have taken three talents upon Aristarchus' fleeing into exile so as to avoid a trial.[47]
  • Demosthenes and Aristion
  • Again, according to Aeschines, Demosthenes had the handsome youth in his house, engaged in unspeakable behavior: There is a certain Aristion, a Plataean..., who as a youth was oustandingly good-looking and lived for a long time in Demosthenes' house. Allegations about the part he was playing ('undergoing or doing what') there vary, and it would be most unseemly for me to talk about it.[48]
  • Philip II of Macedon and Pausanias
  • In 336 BCE Pausanias killed Philip out of jealousy over another lover.
  • Darius III of Persia and Bagoas
  • Bagoas was the favorite of Darius, who was said to have been "intimate" with him.[49]
  • Alexander the Great and Bagoas.
  • The two met in 330 BCE after the death of Bagoas' previous patron, Darius III.
  • Dimnus and Nichomachus
  • One of Alexander the Great's Hetairoi (or Companion Cavalry), Dimnus enlisted his eromenos in a plot to kill Alexander, revealing to him the names of the conspirators. The boy told his brother, who denounced them, leading to the trial and execution of the plotters, in 330.[50]
  • Aristotle and Palaephatus of Abydus
  • According to the Suda, Palaephatus was Aristotle's paidika. [51]

Hellenistic Greece

  • Demetrius Phalereus and Diognis
  • Between 317 BC and 307 BC, when he was despot of Athens, he had a boyfriend by the name of Diognis, of whom all the Athenian boys were jealous.[52]
  • Zeno of Citium and Persaeus
  • According to Diogenes Laërtius, the philosopher had Persaeus as his eromenos and lived with him in the same house.[53]
  • Demetrius I of Macedon and Cleaenetus
  • Known for his requent debauches, the Macedonian king waived a fine of 50 talents imposed on a citizen in exchange for the favors of Cleaenetus, that man's son.[54]
  • Hamilcar Barca and Hasdrubal the Fair
  • The Carthaginian Hasdrubal was noted for his beauty, first becoming the catamite of Hamilcar, and later his son-in-law.[55]
  • Xenares and Cleomenes III
  • Xenares inspired the future king before 235 BCE.[56]
  • Cleomenes III and Panteus.
  • According to Plutarch, Panteus was "the most beautiful and valorous youth of Sparta." Later he joined his inspirer in death - when Cleomenes took his own life upon being exiled to Egypt, Panteus, seeing that he could still knit his brows, "...kissed him and raised him. Holding the body next to him, he plunged his sword into his own breast." [57]
  • Ptolemy VI Philometor and Galestes
  • The king loved the boy not only for his good looks but also for his wisdom. Ca. 170-140 BCE [58]

References

  1. ↑ Hubbard, Thomas K. "Introduction" to Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook of Basic Documents. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. pg. 9.
  2. ↑ Plutarch, The Lives, "Solon"
  3. ↑ "It is evident from this that the story is mere gossip which states that Pisistratus was the youthful favourite of Solon" Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution Tr. Sir Frederic G. Kenyon
  4. ↑ Plutarch, The Lives, "Solon"
  5. ↑ Athenaeus, Deipnosophistai, 13.602
  6. ↑ Plutarch,Solon 1.7; Pausanias, 1.30.1; Athen., xiii. 609D
  7. ↑ Rommel Mendès-Leite et al. Gay Studies from the French Cultures p.157
  8. ↑ Ed. Thomas K. Hubbard, Homosexuality in Greece and Rome [1]
  9. ↑ Aelian, Varia Historia, 9.4
  10. ↑ Athenæus (bk. xiii.17)
  11. ↑ Edward Carpenter, Ioläus:An Anthology of Friendship[1917] p.72 [2]
  12. ↑ Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization; p.22
  13. ↑ Debra NailsThe People of Plato: A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics p.107
  14. ↑ Richard Hunter, Ed. Plato's Symposium (Oxford Approaches to Classical Literature) p.52
  15. ↑ Plato, Parmenides, 127
  16. ↑ Xenophon, Hiero, I.31-38
  17. ↑ Phanias of Eresus, Fr. 16 FHG
  18. ↑ Ed. Thomas K. Hubbard, Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook of Basic Documents, p. 62 [3]
  19. ↑ Diogenes Laërtius, ii.
  20. ↑ Porphyrius
  21. ↑ Aristoxenus of Tarentum
  22. ↑ Pausanias, IX.34.1 "In the temple are bronze images of Itonian Athena and Zeus; the artist was Agoracritus, pupil and loved one of Pheidias." (...technê de Agorakritou, mathêtou te kai erômenou Pheidiou.)
  23. ↑ Plutarch, Erotikos;
  24. ↑ Pausanias, V.11.3. "The figure of one binding his own head with a ribbon is said to resemble in appearance Pantarces, a stripling of Elis said to have been the love of Pheidias. Pantarces too won the wrestling-bout for boys at the eighty-sixth Festival." (ton de hauton tainiai tên kephalên anadoumenon eoikenai to eidos Pantarkei legousi, meirakion de Êleion ton Pantarkê paidika einai tou Pheidiou: aneileto de kai en paisin ho Pantarkês palês nikên Olumpiadi hektêi pros tais ogdoêkonta.)
  25. ↑ Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus, 53, 4; "The Athenian Phidias inscribed on the finger of the Olympian Jove, Pantarkes is beautiful. It was not Zeus that was beautiful in his eyes, but the man he loved."
  26. ↑ Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers Life of Empedocles
  27. ↑ Robert J. Littman, "The Loves of Alcibiades" in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 101, 1970 (1970), pp. 263-276 "Socrates' and Alcibiades' relationship is very much connected to the role of pederasty in education in classical Greece..."
  28. ↑ Diogenes Laertius, LIFE OF XENOPHON
  29. ↑ Xenophon, Symposium
  30. ↑ Plutarch, The Lives, "Themistocles"
  31. ↑ Lysias, Against Teisis, Fr.17.2.1-2, in Hubbard, 2003, p.122
  32. ↑ Lysias, Against Alcibiades, I 25-27 in Hubbard, 2003, pp.122-23
  33. ↑ Lysias, Against Alcibiades, I 25-27 in Hubbard, 2003, pp.122-23
  34. ↑ Xenophon, Hellenica 5.4
  35. ↑ Xenophon, Anabasis; 2.6.29
  36. ↑ Robin Lane Fox, The Long March: Xenophon and the Ten Thousand p.198
  37. ↑ Aelian, Var. Hist. 12.1
  38. ↑ Aelian, Varia Historia, 8.9
  39. ↑ Diogenes Laërtius, ii.74
  40. ↑ Aeschines, Against Timarchos40-79
  41. ↑ Cornelius Nepos
  42. ↑ Atheneus, Deipnosophists, 605–606
  43. ↑ Plutarch, Dialogue on Love (Moralia 761)
  44. ↑ Athenaeus of Naucratis, The Deipnosophists Book XIII "Concerning Women"(Page III)
  45. ↑ Aeschines, On the Embassy, 2.149
  46. ↑ Aeschines, On the Embassy, 148-150
  47. ↑ Dover, J.K., op.cit. pp.46-47
  48. ↑ Aeschines, Against the Crown, iii 162
  49. ↑ Curtius, Historiae Alexandri Magni, vi. 5; x. 1
  50. ↑ Waldemar Heckel, Who's Who in the Age of Alexander the Great: Prosopography of Alexander's Empire p.112; Blackwell Publishing, 2006
  51. ↑ William George Smith,Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology p.308
  52. ↑ According to Carystius of Pergamum in F.H.G. Fr. 10, in Hubbard, 2003, p.75
  53. ↑ Diogenes Laërtius, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, vii.8,13
  54. ↑ Plutarch, Life of Demetrios
  55. ↑ Livy's History of Rome: Book 21.2
  56. ↑ John Addington Symonds, A Problem in Greek Ethics, X p.14
  57. ↑ John Addington Symonds, op.cit. X p.14
  58. ↑ Aelian, Varia Historia, I.30

See also

Sources

General

  • Louis Crompton. Homosexuality and Civilization, Cambridge, Mass. and London, 2003. ISBN 0-674-01197-X
  • Michel Larivière. Homosexuels et bisexuels célèbres, Delétraz Editions, 1997. ISBN 2-911110-19-6

Ancient Greece

  • Kenneth J. Dover. Greek Homosexuality, New York; Vintage Books, 1978. ISBN 0-394-74224-9
  • Thomas K. Hubbard. Homosexuality in Greece and Rome, U. of California Press, 2003. [6] ISBN 0-520-23430-8
  • Harald Patzer. Die Griechische Knabenliebe [Greek Pederasty], Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1982. In: Sitzungsberichte der Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Vol. 19 No. 1.
  • Carola Reinsberg. Ehe, Hetärentum und Knabenliebe im antiken Griechenland, C.H.Beck Verlag, München 1993. ISBN 3-406-37374-7
  • Eva Cantarella, Cormac O Cuilleanain. Bisexuality in the Ancient World , Yale University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-300-04844-0
  • W. A. Percy III. Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece, University of Illinois Press, 1996. ISBN 0-252-02209-2
Retrieved from "https://www.boywiki.org/en/index.php?title=Historical_boylove_relationships_in_ancient_Greece&oldid=53633"