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

INTRODUCTION

gaze of visitors. Any one who liked might rush upon this unfortunate herd, and satisfy his lust upon the naked beauty of those exposed to view, before the eyes of all, and certainly of the gods, which they least suspected. But the gods punished this crime, for soon after all these debauchees were struck by lightning. Even at the present day every house in Tarentum has as many memorial stones before the door as the dead who came to it; and when the day of their death returns, the people neither lament the dead, nor pay them the usual honours, but offer sacrifice to Zeus Kataibates pi (Zeus who descends in thunder and lightning).

The city of Massalia (i.e. Marseilles), according to the testimony of several witnesses, was one of the chief seats of homosexuality, whence the proverb, “Ship to Marseilles ! ” (Es Macoadiay mievoeas).

What Athenzeus (Ath., xii, 5260) tells us of the inhabitants of Colophon in Asia Minor is interesting, although perhaps not to be taken literally: that many of them had never seen sunset or sunrise in their lives, since when it rose they were still drunk, and when it set they were drunk again. This is in agreement with the law which, according to the same authority, was still in existence during his time, that flute-players, dancers, and similar ladies of the demi-monde might only be paid for from early morning to midday, and after that only till “the lamps were lighted”, since during the rest of the day everyone was drunk.

We will also give a few specimens of the luxury of individuals in ancient history. First, the epitaph written on himself by the Assyrian king Sardanapalus, already mentioned, if we may believe the testimony of Amyntas (Ath., xii, 529f): ‘““ I have been a king and as long as I saw the light of the sun ; [ have eaten, drunk, and done homage to the joys of love, knowing that the lifetime of men is only short and subject to much change and misfortune, and that others will reap the benefit of the possessions that I leave