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

MaLEeE HOMOSEXUALITY

wealth and power. Since the boy refused to be persuaded, he resolved to rape him with violence. He consequently rode at the head of a number of friends and slaves before the house of Melissus and attempted to carry off the boy. But the father and his friends offered a bitter resistance, the neighbours also assisted, and during the struggle between the two parties the lad was dragged hither and thither, was fatally injured, and died. But the father lifted up the boy’s dead body, carried it into the market-place, and showed it to the Corinthians, while he demanded from them that they should punish those who had been guilty of his death. They sympathized with him, but otherwise did nothing. The unhappy father afterwards repaired to the Isthmus and threw himself down from a rock, after he had summoned the gods to take vengeance. Soon afterwards a bad harvest and famine visited the state. The oracle declared that it was the wrath of Poseidon, who would not be appeased, until the death of Actzeon was expiated. When Archias, who was one of those sent to consult the oracle, heard of this, he did not return to Corinth, but sailed to Sicily and founded the city of Syracuse. There, after he had had two daughters, Ortygia and Syracusa, he was murdered by his favourite Telephus.”

Such is the story. Its meaning is clear. ‘The rape of boys must remain a seeming one. ‘To employ violence, if the father is not agreed, becomes a crime, the sin of which the gods themselves avenge, and (herein lies the tragic irony) by the hand of the boy; this follows the Dike of Hybris and agrees with the “ Laws of Gortyn”, which avenge the offering of violence to a boy by severe punishment.

In Thebes the rape of boys was referred to the ancient King Laius who, according to the Theban version, had inaugurated pzderasty by carrying off Chrysippus the son of Pelops and making him

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