Gender and Sexuality in Ancient Greece The Evolution of Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World

Gender and Sexuality in Ancient Greece

The Evolution of Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World

• Gender and Sexuality Before the Classical Era

• Sapho and Lesbos
• The Greek “Dark Ages”

• The Removal of Women from the Public Sphere

• The Rise of Pedastry

• Evidence of Male Relationships

• And Women’s Relationships Remain Obscure

• Is Greek Homoerotic Practice Homosexuality or Pedophilia?

Ancient Greece before the Classical Era

• 3300-1000 BCE Minoan and Mycenaean Civilizations

• 1200-800 BCE Age of Calamities and Greek Dark Ages

• 800-507 BCE Archaic Period

• 507-404 BCE Classical Period

• Persian War, 499-479 BCE
• Peloponnesian War, 431-404 BCE

• 404-336 BCE Spartan Period

• 478-431 BCE Athens Golden Age

• 336-30 BCE Hellenistic

Minoa and Mycenae

• The Forerunners of Ancient Greece

Minoa, 2600-1450 BCE

Cultural Explosion on Crete

Sea Trade and the Aegean

Thera and the End of Minoa

Mycenae, 1600-1100 BCE

The Palace at Mycenae

Mycenaean Writing

The Megaron and Mycenaean Frescoes

Artifacts from Mycenae

Dirty Dishes: The Rise of Athens and the Greek Empire

• Or Why They Held the Olympics in the Nude

Sappho, Lesbos and the Diminishing Power of Greek Women

The Island of Lesbos

The Poetry of Sappho

• "Seizure"

• To me he seems like a god as he sits facing you and hears you near as you speak softly and laugh

• in a sweet echo that jolts the heart in my ribs. For now as I look at you my voice is empty and

• can say nothing as my tongue cracks and slender fire quick under my skin. My eyes are dead to light, my ears

Key Terms

• Thiasos – finishing school for girls

• Didaskalos – School Mistress

• Tribades – Homosexual Women (savage, uncontrollable, dangerous)

• Pederasty – Love of Young Boys

• Erōmenoi – Young men loved by adult males

• Erastai – Adult male lovers of boys

• Pais – boys

• Hetairēsis – Prostituting One’s self

• Pornos – Male Prostitute

• Pornē – Female Prostitute

The Persian War, 499-478 BCE

The Athenian Polis

Agora

Mass and Elite in Athens

The Origins of Pederasty

• Homeric Greece: Gender and Sexual Roles are Fluid/ Women are part of the public sphere: Ulysses and Nausicca

• The Rise of City States and the Codification of Law Isolates Women in the Home

• Rites of Passage: Separation, Liminality, Incorporation

• Pederasty and the Making of Citizens

Plato and Aristotle

The Evolution of Historical Thinking on the Subject of Pederasty

• Oldest Explanation: Greek Homosexuality a Function of a Lack of Women

• The Relationship of Martial Societies to Male Love and Bonding

• Males as “Happily Homosexual in Youth and “Happily Heterosexual” as Adults

• The Initiation of Greek Boys into Citizenship, Philosophy, and the Public Sphere

• Socrates and the Elevation of Spiritual Love over Physical Love

So Was it Just About Penetration Between the Thighs?: The Graffiti of Thera

• “Here Krimon had anal intercourse with his pais, the brother of Bathycles”

Courtesans and Prostitutes

• Courtesans were professional companions with skill in the arts of music, dancing, conversation and poetry. Coveted for banquets/symposiums as escorts, they may engage in sex, but they are equivalent to high-priced escorts and call girls today.

• Prostitutes could be and were anything from street walkers to workers in brothels, but their skill sets were confined to sexual acts.

Courtesan and Male Prostitute

The Law of Hetairēsis

• If an Athenian has prostituted Himself, according to the law, he cannot serve as one of the nine archons, not hold any priestly office, nor exercise the function of public advocate or magistrate, either inside or outside the city whether chosen by election or lot. He cannot be dispatched as a herald, or express his opinion, or be associated with public sacrifices of wear the crown, or enter within the purified boundaries of the Agora. If he does any of things after being convicted of hetairēsis, he shall be put to death.

Hetairae

Peloponnesian War

• Pericles and the Two Pronged Strategy

• The Plague of 430 BCE

• The Massacre at Melos, 416-415 BCE

• Shift of Strategy – Alcibiades and Sicily, 415-413 BCE

Tragedy and Comedy