Sexual life in ancient Greece : with thirty-two full-page plates
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
their horses and get home to their wives as soon as they can ’”’.
The Anabasis also, in which Xenophon describes the ill-fated campaign of the younger Cyrus against his brother Artaxerxes and the painful and dangerous retreat of the Greek mercenary army, should be mentioned here, since at least occasionally erotic questions are touched upon: e.g., the love of a man still beardless for a bearded one, the rape of boys and girls, the touching story of Episthenes, the beautiful boy, and their courageous sacrifice, whereby the boy is saved from death (Anabasis, iy OE AAA IN ity IR ony, (Op 33 Vil, 4, 7-10). The CEconomicus, the treatise on the best way to manage a household, has been already mentioned (p. 38) and the charming description of the family life of the recently wedded Ischomachus quoted. In the Hieron also, a dialogue between Simonides and the Sicilian king Hieron, erotic questions are touched upon, to which we shall return later. Lastly, the Cyropedeia (the education of Cyrus), a pedagogic, political romance with a purpose, must be mentioned for the sake of the erotic stories that are introduced, the most enchanting of which is the story of Pantheia and her touching love and faithfulness.
That the works of Greek eloquence, consequently of the orators in the widest extent of the word, furnish contributions to the history of ancient erotic, might at first sight appear very surprising. And yet the fact is that not only are the orators fond of quoting examples and parallels from legend and history to emphasize their views and assertions, but also that many speeches treat legal cases of pronounced sexual character in a natural manner, the most important of which will be briefly discussed here. Thus, we have a speech of Antiphon, which an illegitimate son makes use of to accuse his stepmother of having administered a love-potion to her husband. It is interesting to see the way in which
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