Sexual life in ancient Greece : with thirty-two full-page plates

THE THEATRE

1. /ESCHYLUS

Of the dramas of /Eschylus which we know only from incidental quotations, we may here mention the Laius by reason of the love of boys shown by its content. It was the first piece of a tetralogy, with which the poet won the first prize in the 78th Olympiad (467 B.c.) under the archon Theagenides ; the other pieces were Cdipus, the _ Seven against Thebes, and the Satyric drama Sphinx.

Of the Laius unfortunately only two unimportant glosses of words are preserved; yet we are in a position to state something in regard to the plot. There is much to be said for the conjecture that the love of Laius for the boy Chrysippus, the beautiful son of Pelops, formed the background for the further tragic destiny of the unhappy king. Indeed, according to many traditions, Laius was considered by the Greeks to be the founder of the love of boys. We may also add the information according to which Pelops, the father robbed of his boy, pronounced that fearful curse upon the robber, which then, descending gloomily from generation to generation, dominated the son and grandchildren of Laius, until it found its end in the death of Edipus, who after a long life full of sorrow was cleared from sin by the powers of heaven. Here one must avoid a grave error, into which in fact many, otherwise well acquainted with antiquity, have fallen. The father is not driven to the curse because Laius loved a boy and was intimate with him, consequently not by the “unnatural nature” of his passion, as might be assumed considering the modern views upon pederasty; but simply and solely because Laius steals the boy, and abducts him against his father’s wish : it is not the perverted direction of his impulse that makes Laius guilty, but the violence employed by him. Certainly, rape is generally the usual beginning of all sexual intercourse in primitive ages, and we know that the abduction of women

134