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

MaLe HOMOSEXUALITY

Porphyrius, (ib., 201) who says that Socrates when a youth of seventeen years was not averse from the love of Archelaus, for at that time he was much given to sensuality, which was later supplanted by zealous intellectual work.

Further, Xenophon makes Socrates say: “ And perhaps I may be able to help you in the search for good and noble boys, since I am given to love ; for whenever I terribly love men I strive with my whole heart that, while loving them, I may in my turn be loved; and desiring them, may in my turn be desired; and that, when desiring to be with them, my society may be sought in return.”

In the Symposion of Plato (177d, 198d) Socrates says: “I profess to understand nothing but loveaffairs ” and “‘ I affirm that I am capable in matters of love ”’, with which several passages in Xenophon’s Symposion (i, 9; ii, 27) agree : e.g. “ I can mention no time, when I was not madly in love with someone’, or when Socrates describes the impression which the young Autolycus makes upon him: ‘As a fire flaming up in the night draws all men’s eyes to him, so the beauty of Autolycus at first captivates all men’s looks, none who looked upon him remaining unmoved in heart.”

The effect produced when Critobulus sat next him is thus described (Xen., Mem., 1, 3, 12) : “° That was a bad thing. I have been obliged to rub my shoulder for five days, as if an animal had stung me, and into my very marrow I thought I could trace the pain such as an animal inflicts.”

Are these the words of a man who has renounced the sensuality of love? It is also clear from the Platonic Alcibiades, i, and Symposion that the beauty of Alcibiades made a violent and lasting impression on Socrates.

Certainly there are several passages in which Socrates not only did not do homage to sensual love of youth, but even tried to dissuade his friends from it. One such passage is contained in a

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