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

MaLeE HOMOSEXUALITY

in the greatest honour.”” Under King Darius also eunuchs were given positions at the Persian court ; Babylon and the rest of Asyria were obliged to send him as tribute besides 1,000 talents of silver also 500 castrated boys.

The town of Lebadea in Beotia, unimportant in itself, was famous for the very old, highly sacred dream-oracle of Trophonius. Pausanias, who had himself questioned the oracle, tells us in detail (ix, 39, 7) the various preparatory steps, which, after the venerable ceremonial, were prescribed to one who desired information from the oracle. Among other things he was conducted to the stream Hercyna that flows through a valley, “ where two boys from the town, about thirteen years of age, who are called “‘ Herme ”’, anoint him with oil and bathe and perform all kinds of services for him such as boys perform.” ‘The name is perhaps to be explained by the fact that Hermes was the patron god of boys and youths, for which reason no Greek gymnasium was without an altar and statue of the friendly god.*

A pretty epigram of Nicias in the Anthology of Planudes describes how boys crown the statue of Hermes in the gymnasium, “ who stands there as the patron of the charming gymnasium, with evergreen, hyacinths, and violets.”

From the last Evotika of Clearchus of Soli in Cyprus the following sentiment is preserved : “No flatterer can be a constant friend, for time detracts from the lie of him who pretends to friendship. But the true lover is a flatterer of love for the sake of the bloom of youth and beauty.”

1 According to Plutarch, Numa, 7, the boy who assisted the priest of Jupiter at the sacrifice was called Camillus, ‘‘ as Hermes also as a helper was often called Kadmilos (KaSpiios) by the Greeks”; cf. Servius on Virgil, 42n., xi, 543, and 558, and Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, i, 917. It is interesting to note that in the Acts (xiv, 12) after Paul had healed one who had been “‘ a cripple from his mother’s womb ”’ at Lystra,

the enthusiastic multitude regarded him as Hermes (Mercury) who had come down to earth.

498