Two types of subjects abounded in Greek male statues (known today from later Roman marble copies of Greek bronze originals) within the gymnasium – warriors and athletes. The Doryphoros (Spear Carrier) by the Greek sculptor Polykleitos is a prime example of the Greek worship of the male nude body. The Doryphoros represents an ephebe who, although beardless, is on the transitional border from eromenos into erastes. At the gymnasium, he trains for superior strength, agility, bravery, and skill (Saslow, p.31). With this statue, male beauty is elevated to nearly divine status. Because the Greeks saw the male nude form as the outward sign of perfection, they customarily exercised and fought battles in the nude. Nudity itself carried with it a metaphysical significance. Physical perfection on the exterior was matched with spiritual and moral perfection within.
One of the practical advantages of the Greek system of pederasty was its military usefulness. The Greeks of several city-states often went into battle in erastes-eromenos pairs. The bravery of pederastic couples, such as that of the 150 pairs of lovers called the Sacred Band of Thebes, was renowned throughout ancient Greece and was an important factor in boosting morale for Greek victory over their enemies. Couples often fought in the nude, for the ability to see metaphysical worth in nudity was what the Greeks believed separated them from uncivilised foreigners or barbarians. Some of these warrior couples became known as tyrannicides (killers of tyrants). The best known of such couples is Harmodius and Aristogeiton.
In interpreting the images on vase paintings, some knowledge of Greek mythology is indispensable. Greek mythology was, as was Greek society in general, extremely anthropocentric or man-centred. It was through myths that the ancient Greeks linked themselves with the cycles and seasons of nature and rationalised the world of emotion and sensation. Greek myths usually focus on the powerful, heroic, and grandiose aspects of the gods. But they also address the sexual appetites of the gods and their union with heroes and mortals. Greek gods were personifications of nature and often engaged in various sexual adventures – homosexual, heterosexual, intergenerational, and bestial. Myths of ill-fated love between gods, heroes, and handsome youths abound on vase paintings, statuary, and wall frescos. The myths that most commonly address the theme of Greek pederasty and homosexuality include Zeus and Ganymede, Apollo and Hyacinth, Apollo and Zephyr, and Achilles and Patroclus.
The story of Zeus and Ganymede is perhaps the most frequently-depicted scene of homosexual desire on vases, floor mosaics, and in statuary. The myth exemplifies one of several divine courtships extolled by the Greeks as explanation for the origins of the cosmos and the workings of nature. With this myth, the gap in age and status between the god and his young minion reflects the inequalities in the hierarchical and rigidly structured relationship between erastes and eromenos in classical Athenian society.
In the eighth-century-BC epic verse of Homer called the Iliad, we find the most celebrated of all male-male unions in the comradeship of Achilles and Patroclus during the Trojan War. In the story, Homer glorifies the friendship between the two but does not mention that they were lovers. The classical Greeks themselves interpreted Homer as referencing their own social practice of pederasty and claimed Achilles and Patroclus as a pederastic pair. Achilles, a young warrior described as the most handsome and noblest of the Greeks, fell into profound grief when his companion Patroclus was slain by Hector, son of the Trojan king Priam. Achilles and Patroclus first appear in art toward the end of the sixth century BC on Athenian black-figure vase paintings (Saslow, p.16). Several red-figure vases from the late sixth century BC to the fourth century BC show the loving bond between the two warriors.
18. Warren Cup, 1st century AD, Augustan period.
Silver. The British Museum, London.
19. Warren Cup, 1st century AD, Augustan period.
Silver. The British Museum, London.
20. Euphronios, Ephebes at the Bath, c. 500–505 BC.
Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.
21. Scene of Coupling with a Horse, 6th century BC.
Greek vase. The British Museum, London.
Given the Greek structure of initiation into citizenship and the world of warriors, it should come as no surprise that many Greek military commanders were notorious for their sexual and erotic desires for other men. The most famous was Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) who made no secret of his intense love for a young commander named Hephaestion. It was Alexander the Great who ushered in the Hellenistic period. Both before and during Alexander’s reign, Greek influence spread far and wide through trade and foreign conquest. As Greek culture came more and more into contact with other peoples, its own ways of thinking and doing things began to show signs of foreign influence. A change in social conditions, coupled with the influence of Eastern philosophies and religious practices, resulted in changed attitudes towards sexuality. In this period, pederasty was still practised, but its importance as a social institution for grooming boys to become citizens had waned. Instead, a growing hedonism and tendency toward materialism and excess developed. Physical pleasure was enjoyed for its own sake and bisexuality reigned. Hellenistic sensibilities toward sex were to later influence Roman culture which was, during this same period, expanding militarily and advancing into Greek territory. By the beginning of the Hellenistic period, the production of Greek vases and vase paintings had already declined significantly. The Hellenistic Greeks turned their attention to the creation of statues of marble and bronze in which the physicality and pleasurable experiences of the body were of primary focus. During the classical period, the Greeks had been renowned for the celebration of male physical beauty, an aesthetic which held a fundamental position in educational thinking of the period.
Unlike classical Greek statuary in which the quiet contemplation of male physical beauty was paramount, most sculpture from the Hellenistic period is turbulent and trivial, often requiring that the viewer psychologically and physically participate in the activities presented. One such statue is The Sleeping Hermaphrodite. The image of the hermaphrodite became very popular in Hellenistic times and was the outgrowth of the period’s tolerance and experimentation with sexual variations that deviated from the standard. Hermaphroditus was a minor deity, an offspring of the gods Aphrodite and Hermes, who exhibited characteristics of both sexes. In the Hellenistic period, the hermaphrodite was worshipped as an embodiment of bisexuality and as a god of marriage (Saslow, p.41).
The Sleeping Hermaphrodite is only vaguely part of what is called Dionysian art (see R. R. R. Smith), which refers to art produced during the Hellenistic period that has as its subject a variety of mythological creatures such as satyrs, fauns, female bacchants, centaurs, nymphs, and Pan. Besides the fact that these personages are all followers of Dionysos (Bacchus to the Romans), god of agriculture and wine, what most of them have in common is that they are wild, frolic outdoors in wooded areas, and have a lustful nature. Like Dionysos, they are associated with drunken abandon and orgiastic release. Their sexuality was oftentimes excessive and sometimes ambiguous. These Dionysian characteristics carry over into the Roman period and are particularly visible in the art discovered at Pompeii (Saslow, p.38).
22. Berlin Painter, Men and Boys, c. 540 BC.
Attic black-figure vase. The British Museum, London.
23. Doryphoros (Spear-Carrier), c. 440 BC. Marble, h: 196 cm.
Copy after a Greek original by Polykleitos.
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis.
24. Circle