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

PROSE

who has put together the following “ Zeus loved Ganymede; Apollo Cinyras, Zacynthus, Hyacinthus, Phorbas, Hylas, Admetus, Cyparissus, Amyklas, Troilus, Branchus, Tymnius, Parus, Potuieus, and Orpheus; Dionysus loved Laonis, Ampelus, Hymeneus, Hermaphroditos, and Achilles ; Asclepius loved Hippolytus; Hephzstus Peleus ; Pan Daphnis ; Hermes Perseus, Chryses, ‘Therses, and Odryses ; Heracles Abderus, Dryops, lokastus, Philoktetes, Hylas, Polyphemus, Hemon, Chonus, and Eurystheus.”

From this list, which contains the names of but a few lovers among the gods, one gets a glimpse of the astonishing number of pzedophil motifs in the mythology of Greece.

2. JOKE AND Jest, BasED ON HOMOSEXUALITY

Hitherto we have treated the Greek love of boys from its serious side, but the well-known saying of Horace—that “‘ nothing prevents one from telling the truth with a smile on one’s lips ”’, is true of the ephebophilia of the Greeks as well as of other forms of the phenomena of human life. ‘There was also cause for many witticisms, a large number of which have been preserved. Since naturally it is not the spiritual content of love, but in a much higher degree its sensual impulse that is the target of jest and joke, I can here only reproduce a few of the sometimes very ingenious witticisms that have come down to us.

The word cinedus (kinaidos), already explained, gradually became the nickname for those half-men, who by their feminine behaviour and gestures, by painting the face and other tricks of the toilet, incurred general contempt. A satire in the Anthology (xi, 272) says of them: “ They do not want to be men and yet were not born women ; they are no men, since they allow themselves to be used as

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