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

SaTyric Drama. PANTOMIME. BALLET

to speak as follows: ‘‘ But, most excellent sir, how can one forgive you, and what must anyone think of you, who have enjoyed a learned education, and have a moderate knowledge of philosophy, when one sees you abandon the noblest studies and the company of the wise men of old, sitting down and letting your ears be soothed with the pipes, while you are looking at an effeminate man, who swaggers about in a soft female dress, and with most lustful songs and movements represents the most notorious women of antiquity, the Phzdras, Parthenopes, Rhodopes, and whatever may be the names of such wanton wretches, at the same time piping and trilling, and beating time with his feet.” And later : “ Truly, it only wanted that—that I with my long beard and grey hairs should find myself amongst a heap of foolish women and insane men, applauding the wanton contortions of the limbs of a wretched good-for-nothing fellow, and that I should have shouted ‘Bravo! Bravissimo!’ with indecent transports of delight.”

Among the subjects here mentioned by Lucian also occur those dealing with incest, such as the love-affair of Demophon (called Acamas wrongly by Lucian) and his sister Phyllis; of Phaedra with her step-son Hippolytus ; of Scylla with her father Minos. Of course, in Greece homosexual motives were not lacking; of intrigues with boys, which were danced upon the stage, Lucian names the story of Apollo and Hyacinthus. The enumeration of the scenes, which were presented in pantomime, fills several pages in Lucian; we see that nearly all the erotic motives of Greek mythology (of which there is an astonishingly large number) were employed in pantomime.

Under the cloak of mythology even love-scenes with animals were represented. The best-known is the pantomimus Pasiphaé (Lucian, De Saltat., 49 ; Suetonius, Nero, 12; Martial, Spectacula, 53 Bahrens, Poete Latini Minores, Vv, p. 108). As the

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