It is in Plato’s Symposium where homosexual love is expressed and praised at length between an older, bearded lover (erastes) and a younger, hairless beloved youth (eromenos: aged from puberty to seventeen years old). The Symposium is part of what is called ‘banquet literature’ or a collection of informal discussions on various topics, including the philosophical and moral merits of love and the delights of young men and boys. There are many vase paintings illustrating what went on at these banquets or symposia in which young boys often served as cupbearers for invited guests.
Plato’s Symposium describes the strict rules of courtship and love governing the erastes and eromenos relationship. There were many taboos. For example, under no circumstances was a boy allowed to take the role of aggressor, pursuer, or penetrator. Also discouraged was the courtship or sexual activity between two boys or men of the same age or social rank. Intergenerational and correct class courtship was the expectation.
The majority of our primary visual information on the customs and habits of homosexual courtship and sexual practices in ancient Greece comes to us from vase paintings. Greek vases, used for carrying water, storing wine and olive oil, and serving food and drink, were produced in large quantities by local craftsmen and exported all over the Mediterranean region. Many were sold to middle- and upper-class clientele and often carried hand-painted scenes of gods, myths, heroic deeds, or images of everyday life. Many vases, dating from the sixth and fifth centuries BC, show older males conversing with younger males, offering gifts, touching their genitals, or embracing. Also commonly depicted were vignettes of males engaged in athleticism, courtship and graphic sexual acts. Quite often, an erastes would have a vase made specifically for his eromenos to be presented to him along with other courting gifts such as a hare, a cockerel, or a stag. These offerings were standard and associated with the hunt, further underscoring the function of pederastic courtship as a rite of passage. Sometimes, short inscriptions were applied or the word ‘kalos’ (is beautiful) would appear preceded by the name of a favourite boy or adolescent youth.
08. Brygos Painter, Erastes Soliciting an Eromenos, c. 500–480 BC.
Attican cup. The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
09. Man and Ephebe, end of 6th Century BC.
Attic vase. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
10. Pan Pursuing a Young Shepherd, c. 470 BC.
Ceramic. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
11. Apollodoros, Two Hetaerae, c. 500 BC.
Attic red-figure cup. Archaeological Museum, Tarquinia.
12. Men Courting a Youth, c. 6th century BC.
Staatlichen Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek, Munich.
At around age eighteen, an eromenos became an erastes and was expected to marry, father children, and take an active role in the pursuit of younger men. However, the imposing of such strict social rules often invited transgressions. These were sometimes depicted on vase paintings and could be linked with Plato’s frequent admonitions and warnings against sexual overindulgence by Athenian males. Although of concern to the ancients, these transgressions were minor compared with the gravest taboos of all – oral and anal sex. These activities were regarded as beneath the dignity of the Athenian male citizen and were reserved for women, male and female prostitutes, foreigners (called barbarians by the Greeks), and slaves. Along with female passivity, anal penetration and oral sex were associated with bestial activity commonly represented on vases showing satyrs or other mythological creatures. Satyrs (mythological beings who are half-man, half-goat) are symbols of the conflict between civilised man and his uncontrollable animal passions and desires. Their virility was insatiable and they are typically shown inebriated, with enormous genitals, copulating, or masturbating.
Despite the social and moral prohibition against oral and anal sex between same-sex partners, these activities did indeed occur in private. So, although scenes of anal sex between men and boys are relatively rare in Greek art, they are not entirely non-existent. On the other hand, scenes of men and women performing anal sex are quite common. Most Athenian vase paintings of homosexual courtship show erastai [plural of erastes] fondling the genitals of eromenoi [plural of eromenos] or the accepted standing position, face-to-face intercrural intercourse (mutual masturbation in which the erect penis is thrust between the partner’s thighs).
Anal sex was lampooned by many playwrights, who used it as a gauge by which to judge a person’s morality. The ambivalent social and sexual roles played out between erastai and eromenoi in courtship is implied in some of the comedies of Aristophanes, where the anally penetrated man becomes a target of ridicule and abuse. There are corresponding images on vases in which the anus becomes the site for launching insults or jokes. To be passive and penetrated was a mark of shame and immoral behaviour. Although young boys and men practised homosexuality as a form of initiation into the privileged status of citizenship, the prevailing concept of an active and dominant masculinity had to be maintained. Giving in too quickly to advances was viewed as a sign of weakness and made one ineligible as an upstanding citizen and warrior. It is partly for this reason why many vase paintings show youths rebuking or resisting the advances of their older suitors.
13. Euaichme Painter, Man Offering a Gift to a Youth, c. 530–430 BC.
Athenian red-figure vase. The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
14. Satyrs’ Orgy with Balancing Act, c. 500–470 BC.
Wine-Cooler.
15. The Kissing Competition, c. 510 BC.
Attic red-figure dish. Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.
16a. Men and Youths Engaged in Oral and Anal Sex, 6th century BC.
Attic red-figure. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
16b. Men and Youths Engaged in Oral and Anal Sex, 6th century BC.
Attic red-figure. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
17. Satyrs Masturbating.
Antique Greek vase. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Ancient Greek culture was male-centred. Men and boys held privileged status over women and girls. The correct education of boys was of primary concern, for the future of the city-state was at stake. The aim of the Greek educational system – called the paideia – was to attain male perfection by attending to the cultivation of the male body, mind, and soul. Pederasty, and its purpose of promoting the erotic love between men and youths, was seen as an effective way of fostering this ideal. The education of youths took place in the gymnasium. The gymnasium was not a single building, but rather a complex of structures situated in the centre of every Greek city-state. Here, men, boys and ephebes (adolescents aged eighteen to twenty-five) spent many hours per day engaged in physical and intellectual exercises. Also present were philosophers, poets, and artists of various ages, all gathered in an all-male environment to discuss, debate, and contemplate the moral and philosophical virtues of the male form and character.
The gymnasium literally became “an epicentre of erotic energy”. Bronze statues of athletes, gods, heroes, and warriors