Homosexuality in Ancient Greece

Symposium, scene from the diver's grave in Paestum

The evidence of homosexuality in ancient Greece is abundant. Same-sex love in ancient Greece is often cited as a prime example of tolerance towards homosexuality in general. However, a detailed examination of the sources provides a more nuanced picture.

The pederasty was accepted clearly socially and sometimes even encouraged. Homosexual relationships between partners of the same position and of the same age were apparently classified as undesirable within the Greek polis world under the influence of Athens, but at least they were tolerated.

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The source material on male homosexuality is relatively rich - in contrast to female homosexuality, which only comes into focus in a few lyrical texts and in relation to the situation in Sparta. There are numerous literary works that deal with the subject. There are documents and pictures of homosexual love.

The literary sources can be divided into five types. There are numerous poems on the subject from the late archaic and early classical periods; the subject is addressed in the Attic comedies; Plato deals with it; the speech of the Aeschines against Timarchus is important evidence, and finally there are numerous Hellenistic poems.

The sources are geographically unevenly distributed. They all come from Athens from the classical period, from all parts of the Greek world from the pre-classical and Hellenistic periods.

In the visual arts, Greek vase paintings should be mentioned above all.

literature

There are numerous poems from the Hellenistic and Roman times on the subject of love for boys. Above all, Straton von Sardis should be mentioned here, many works of which have been preserved in the Greek anthology , which often leave little to be desired in terms of clarity.

Male homosexuality

Athens

The situation of homosexuality is relatively clear in the sources of classical Athens. The erotic-sexual connotation of an older man's love for a boy who was in puberty was considered socially legitimate during the archaic and early classical epoch of Athens partially funded. There are numerous poems on the subject of such love relationships. Vase representations show the sexual act, but also the older partner, how he offers presents to the younger. The traditional sources call the older of the two partners the erastes , the younger, adolescent, on the other hand, the eromenos ; the classical Hellenic pederasty probably also included educational claims and aspects, so the youth should by the love relationship with his older friend aretä , d. H. Acquire “male virtue” in the ancient Greek sense. In addition to martial skills, courage and social prestige, this also included educational aspects relating to rhetoric, mythology and history. In older research, Erich Bethe pointed out that this form of institutionalized boyfriend love was mainly practiced in the upper class and that the eromenoi were usually between the ages of 12 and 18. “On the other hand, same-sex relationships between adult men and men with [Athenian] citizenship rights were socially frowned upon during the classical epoch of Greece and were considered 'dishonorable' for the men concerned”; however, they do not appear to have been prosecuted.

The Aeschines' first speech is a particularly important document on same-sex love among men. Timarchus is accused of prostituting himself at a young age. That said, he mostly played the passive part in relationships. The fact that he was charged with this is clearly shown by the negative evaluation of sexual passivity among freeborn men or men who have been given the civil rights of the polis and have outgrown boys. Sexually passive, free, adult men with Athenian citizenship were - analogous to the situation in other Greek cities - referred to as kinaidoi , which denotes the sexual passivity of freeborns in an ethically negative way, in the sense of the adjectives "feminine" , "Shameful" and / or "shameless". Elke Hartmann explains: “Anyone who coveted men who had outgrown the age of an eromenos was ridiculed as effeminate.” The social rejection of sexual contact between adult men and men who have the citizenship of the polis may also result from the fact that one of the Both men involved in such a sexual relationship would more or less inevitably have taken on the passive sexual role, which is incompatible with the honor of Athens as a citizen, and thus had to display the behavior of a kinaido . The Romans derived their term cinaedus, which is also aimed at the sexual passivity of free men in a negative sense, probably in Hellenistic times from the Greek word kinaidos (see Wikipedia article Homosexuality in ancient Rome ).

Under Athenian law it was not allowed for an Athenian citizen to prostitute himself; Working as a male prostitute could even lead to the loss of civil rights and influence for an Athenian. For metics and slaves - since they are not afflicted with the honor standards associated with Athens' citizenship - it was socially entirely possible to take on the sexually passive role in same-sex contacts without social reprisals, and so it is hardly surprising that most male prostitutes in Athens were strangers (Metoks) or male slaves. In analogy to the legal regulation of the requirements for adult citizens of Athens, the prostituting metics were forbidden to “hold offices and speak in the council or in the popular assembly”.

The active partner during sexual intercourse was accepted because he was considered male, the passive partner was then morally condemned if he was a free Athenian man and this supposedly feminine behavior was shown, with the older partner in one Relationship ideally the active, the younger partner should be the passive part - either in the context of a pederastic relationship or between free Athenians on the one hand and metics or slaves on the other. Especially in comedies, the passive, apparently effeminate partners were made a mockery, but it was also due to the fact that sexuality was ridiculed. As Thomas K. Hubbard explains, individual types of sources, particularly from the time of the Athenian democracy (after 462 BC), such as some Attic comedies or political speeches, not only testify to a general moral rejection of the sexual passivity of free citizens, but also to those up to the currently accepted form of the “traditional-classical” paiderastia in a negative light, namely as an “aristocratic” institution that ultimately leads to the alleged “effemination” and “corruption” of the young people concerned, who thus disqualify themselves as future leaders of city politics. However, since such verdicts occur almost only in sources that are primarily aimed at the broad middle and lower classes of the Athenian demos and adopt an “anti-aristocratic” stance, such blanket negative assessments are primarily against the background of domestic political ones Faults in Athens during the second half of the 5th century BC BC and early 4th century BC To see.

In order to preserve the honor of the younger, passive part in paiderastic relationships, in the context of boyhood love between free male members of the polis, anal intercourse was at least officially dispensed with and rather thigh intercourse was preferred. Various sources show that this does not necessarily correspond to reality. In the vase painting, for example, thigh intercourse is shown , while in the comedy anal intercourse is thematized, but partly in a way that intends to expose the characters portrayed in terms of sexual ethics. In addition, Hubbard points out that same-sex love relationships seem to have been tolerated even if the partners involved were pubescent ephebes or adolescent youths who were of the same age, in whose relationship the otherwise important "age gap" apparently played no role between the partners. There seems to have been a greater tolerance of love affairs among male adolescents than was the case with free citizens of the polis who had outgrown adolescence.

Other parts of the Greek polis world

Judging other parts of the Greek world and the pre-classical period is more complicated because the sources are less abundant. For the Dorians ( Sparta , Corinth , Crete ) the sources paint a somewhat different picture. The sources seem to prove a general acceptance for these places even among men of the same age, whereby the paiderastia of the Greek-classical form was also often practiced in Sparta, Corinth and Crete . In the course of the agoge , d. H. the upbringing and training of Spartan youth, love for boys probably played an important role in Spartan culture; Wolfgang Schuller even speaks of the fact that this manifestation of same-sex eroticism was "constitutive for the Spartan and Cretan social structure". (Compare with this the section Doric boy love in the Wikipedia article Sparta ). In research it is sometimes pointed out that "in some Greek Poleis the forms of love between erastoi and eromenoi, which are characterized by same-sex eroticism, were particularly intensely practiced and widespread within society", "especially in Sparta or Crete". Overall, however, the source situation turns out to be more difficult compared to the Athenian situation, since the reports about the paiderastia among the Spartans and Cretans mostly come from Athens and, especially in the case of Spartas, attempt to show the Spartan community in a rather negative light .

There are also black-figure vases depicting an older man being penetrated by a younger one. Here one finds the opposite of what is propagated in the written sources. These images show other ideas than those common in classical Athens.

In Thebes around 378 BC. The holy band formed. It was an elite military force that consisted exclusively of male lovers. The army existed until 338 BC. In that year it was destroyed in the battle of Chaironeia by the troops of Philip II of Macedonia and his son Alexander up to 46 men. These couples also consisted of a younger and older partner.

In Crete, where the erastes the sources said as philetor was called, existed within the paiderastischen practices a form of boys bride kidnapping . The relatives of the young man's oikos were informed by the philetor at least three days in advance that he intended to kidnap the boy. If, in the eyes of the relatives of the young Eromenos, the man had sufficient virtues in the sense of aretä , then they only pretended to persecute the philetor in the agreed kidnapping; If, on the other hand, he appeared unsuitable for them, they snatched the boy away from him and prevented the paiderastic relationship that had begun . The philetor and the young lover, also called parastathes in Crete , then spent two months together in the country. After the end of this initiation period, the lover presented the young parastathes with a cow and military equipment; the ox was consecrated to the god Zeus and eaten in the circle of the boy's oikos . This Cretan variant of the Paiderastia appeared to the Athenians of the classical period to be particularly archaic.

Achilles and Patroclus

In the Iliad play Achilles and Patroclus a special role. Although the work does not explicitly state that the relationship was both sexual in nature, there was a deep emotional relationship between the two. Plato was the first to address them as lovers. In Homeric poetry they are represented as having equal rights. In classical times, however, this seems to have caused discomfort, and there have been various attempts to see one or the other as the younger or the older, with the assignments varying. However, other traditions saw them simply as good friends.

Many same-sex couples have been passed down from ancient Greece. Among them are Euripides and Agathon as well as Alexander the Great and Hephaistion , but this has been disputed sporadically in historical research; likewise, non-historians have now and then denied a presumed same-sex relationship between Alexander and Hephaistion.

The Kingdom of Macedonia

Although there is still no consensus in current research as to whether the Macedonian language is a Northwest Greek dialect or just an idiom closely related to Northwest Greek, the gender history of ancient Macedonia is still part of the general gender history of ancient times for two weighty reasons Greece: on the one hand because of the latest since the 5th century BC The strong cultural and linguistic influences of the Hellenic world on Macedonia, which began in BC, on the other hand because of the close and unmistakable interlocking of the fate of Macedonia with Greek history since Philip II and Alexander the Great.

Similar to the Greek polis world south of Mount Olympus, same-sex love between males was widespread in ancient Macedonia and was largely socially accepted. By analogy with the practices of the Greek heartland Widespread in Hellas manifestation of went into Macedonia "young men [...] emotional ties to boys, which were not judged by whether they had a sexual component, or not." Paiderastia understood as an erotically connotated relationship between an adult, free man and an adolescent, also personally free Ephebe in the maturity age, was also in Macedonia during the 6th to 3rd century BC. In contrast to the Athenian situation or the conditions in the Greek cities in Macedonia under Attic influence, love relationships between adult free men were also valued and accepted. As in the Greek motherland, these homoerotic relationships were above all an upper class phenomenon: "Numerous members of the ruling class were said to have male loves, including Philip II and Alexander."

Sections of the Macedonian nobility grouped themselves in the form of “male alliance” organized followers around the Macedonian king or Macedonian tribal princes - this was an essential structural element of the Macedonian army constitution since the 5th century BC. In these “male societies”, which are referred to as hetairoi in the ancient sources , same-sex sexual relationships played an amalgamating role, integrating the following associations: “The Macedonian nobility may behave less discreetly [than the citizens of the Greek polis south of Olympus] to have. Greek gossip attributed the usual pleasure boys to them, and King Archelaus was said to have kissed the poet Euripidis. When the pamphleteer Theopompos returned from a visit to Philip's court, he was viciously indulging in the homosexuality of the Macedonian aristocrats, whom he dismissed as hetairai, not hetairoi: prostitutes, not comrades-in-arms. Although he was distrusted because of his savage abuse, it is more likely that he went too far in his claims and not entirely made them up. If that is true, then Alexander may have grown up in a court where the conventions of old age were less valid and homosexuality was practiced with increased determination. ” Pedro Barceló characterizes the circles of the Macedonian nobility and in particular the court of Philip II of Pella as one "Coarse, competition and fame-driven environment [...], in which aesthetic and sensual pleasures, including same-sex love, alternated with bloodshed."

Same-sex prostitution and extreme promiscuity, on the other hand, as well as same-sex rape, were rejected from a sexual ethical point of view and were regarded as dishonorable by those affected.

Historical research largely agrees that King Philip II of Macedonia, in addition to his numerous sexual relationships with women - he had a. a. several wives - also had sexual contacts with men, especially courtiers. The later Greek and Latin authors Marcus Iunianus Iustinus , Curtius Rufus and Athenaios von Naukratis also report in their writings of erotic connotations between his son Alexander and the Macedonian nobleman Hephaistion and the Persian courtier Bagoas. The majority of current researchers consider the aforementioned intimate relationships between Alexander and these two historical persons to be probable, despite a few dissenting votes. Alexander's private life is similar to Philip's private life in that both Macedonian rulers presumably not only had sexual relations with men, but also had several wives and female lovers in parallel. As Hermann Bengtson emphasizes, polygamy was widespread in the Macedonian upper class and was probably also considered legitimate in terms of sexual ethics.

With fundamental changes in the Macedonian gender relations, in particular with the gradual suppression of the classical Greek paiderastia and the accepted sexual relations between adult, free or noble men in favor of an increase in ethically tolerated sexual contacts between masters (i.e. slave owners) on the one hand and male slaves on the other in Hellenistic times, i.e. since the early 3rd century BC To be expected.

Chronological development

As William A. Percy elaborates in his work Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece , the Greek paiderastia established itself as a social institution with an erotic connotation around 650 BC. BC, perhaps starting from Crete, in the cities of the Greek heartland. In its sexually connotated form, described above (see analysis: Athens), following Percy as “traditional” or “classic”, paiderastia flourished in the Greek cities of Athens and Sparta, Corinth and Thebes until the first half of the fifth Century. Thomas K. Hubbard points out that various pieces of evidence in the sources from the mid-5th century B.C. BC (vase paintings, Athenian comedies, political speeches) suggest that with the final breakthrough of democracy in Athens in the period after 462 BC The "classical-traditional" form of the paiderastia had been largely displaced from public life, since the urban middle and lower classes of the population of Athens used the paiderastia mentality-historically with the exclusive lifestyle of the aristocratic, who had just been disempowered and which had dominated the old Areopagus up to now Upper class. Since this upper class stood in the perception of the Athens demos for the political concept of the oligarchy , the traditional paiderastia as a supposed “symbol” of this aristocratic oligarchy was also rejected by the broader sections of the population. In this context, Hubbard speaks of the marginalization of Pederasty during the second half of the fifth and early fourth centuries BC. In Athens.

Percy points out, however, that the paiderastic customs, especially in the context of the symposium and private-intimate poetry, did indeed exist after 462 BC. Chr. In Athens had actually been shifted into the discreet framework of the private life of the upper class and disappeared from the public sphere, but that there could be no question of a judicial criminalization or of a complete breakdown of the paiderastic customs even in the democratic epoch of Athens. Since about 380 BC Then, according to Hubbard - beginning with the "initial spark" of Plato's symposium in terms of the history of ideas - a "rehabilitation" of paiderastia in the public space of the Athenian polis took place. With this program, however, Plato did not simply revive the “traditional-classical” paiderastia of sexual provenance in his early work , but instead transferred the pederastic relationship between erastes and eromenos into the concept of “platonic love”, conceived as an emotional-spiritual, educational-cultural Characterized love affair between lover and loved one, renouncing to act out genital sexuality. In Athens and the cultural zone of the Greek heartland, which was under Attic influence, this “platonic-chaste” paiderastia became the “same-sex” ideal of the fourth and early third centuries BC. At the same time, Hubbard points out that in his late work the Nomoi , Plato used the old-style “traditional-classical” paiderastia associated with sexual intercourse from the conception of his “ideal community” - as such a political utopia that emerged in the polis world of the fourth century BC . BC had no concrete legal or political consequences - wanted to see banished.

After the death of Alexander the Great, gender-historical relationships changed again fundamentally with a view to same-sex intimate relationships within the Greek-speaking and Hellenic-influenced world: Overall, there is a gradual suppression of both the classic and traditional paiderastia in Thebes, Crete and Corinth as well as tolerated sexual relationships between adult men in Macedonia and partly in the Doric area, but ultimately also the ideal of the "platonic-chaste" paiderastia between free people in the sense of the "symposium" of Plato. These manifestations of homoerotic and homosocial relationships between males, which originated in the archaic and classical phases of Greek history, were replaced by the beginning of the 3rd century BC. Chr. Sex relations between free, Hellenistic masters (slave owners, customers of enslaved prostitutes) on the one hand and male slaves or enslaved lust boys on the other, increasingly tolerated in terms of sexual ethics. This gradual, gender-historical upheaval affected both the cultural areas of the Hellenistic Diadochian empires (Hellenistic Macedonia, Pergamon, Seleucid Empire, Ptolemaic Empire) and the Greek heartland. Ultimately, it was these Hellenistic forms of same-sex sexual relations between masters and slaves that the Romans encountered when they started dating from the end of the 3rd century BC. Were increasingly involved in the political quarrels of the Hellenistic-Greek world.

Female homosexuality

There are few sources on female homosexuality. Sparta erotic relationships are, after all, older assigned to younger women, one of the part of the educational system Agoge of male adolescents may have played similar role with a view of female adolescents, while the theme in Athens appears to have been rather ignored or was perhaps even taboo.

However, there is plenty of evidence of same-sex love among women in the poetry of Sappho , the poet from the island of Lesbos , although here too it was about the love of a somewhat older woman for younger ones. These relationships were obviously accepted. Apparently it was only portrayed in a rather negative light under the influence of Athenians in the classical period.

See also

• pederasty
• Homosexuality in Greece , modern times
• Homosexuality in ancient Rome
• Homosexuality among the ancient Celts

literature

• Ernst Baltrusch : Sparta. History, society, culture. 2nd edition, Munich 2003.
• Pedro Barceló : Alexander the Great. Gestalten der Antiquity, edited by Manfred Clauss. Darmstadt 2007.
• Hermann Bengtson : Philip and Alexander the Great. The founders of the Hellenistic world. 2nd edition, Munich 1997.
• Erich Bethe : Dorian boy love, its ethics and its idea. In: Andreas Karsten Siems (ed.): Sexuality and eroticism in antiquity. (= Ways of Research, Vol. 605) 2nd edition, Darmstadt 1994, pp. 17-57.
• Michael Brinkschröder: Sodom as a symptom. Same-sex sexuality in the Christian imaginary - a history of religion. Berlin / New York 2006.
• Elizabeth D. Carney: Woman in Alexander's Court. In: Joseph Roisman (ed.): Brill's Companion to Alexander the Great. Boston / Leiden 2003, pp. 227-252.
• Paul Cartledge: The Politics of Spartan Pederasty. In: Andreas Karsten Siems (ed.): Sexuality and eroticism in antiquity. Ways of Research, Vol. 605, 2nd edition. Darmstadt 1994, pp. 385-416.
• David B. Dodd: Atheanian Ideas about Cretan Pederasty. In: Thomas K. Hubbard (ed.): Greek Love Reconsidered. New York 2000, pp. 33-41.
• Kenneth Dover : Homosexuality in Ancient Greece. CH Beck, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-406-07374-3 .
• Robin Lane Fox : Alexander the Great. Conqueror of the world. Translated from the English by Gerhard Beckmann, 2nd edition. Stuttgart 2004.
• Hans-Joachim Gehrke : Alexander the Great. 4th edition. Munich 2005.
• Hans-Joachim Gehrke : Violence and Law. The social and political order of Crete in the Archaic and Classical Period. In: Klio 79, 1997, pp. 23-68.
• David F. Greenberg : The Construction of Homosexuality. Chicago 1988.
• David Halperin : One Hundred Years of Homosexuality: And Other Essays on Greek Love. Routledge, 1989, ISBN 0-415-90097-2 .
• Elke Hartmann : Art. Homosexuality , in: Der Neue Pauly. Encyclopedia of Antiquity , Vol. 5. Stuttgart / Weimar 1998, Col. 703–707.
• Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth : The Oxford Classical Dictionary . Third edition. Oxford University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-19-866172-X .
• Thomas K. Hubbard (ed.): Greek Love Reconsidered , New York 2000.
• Thomas K. Hubbard: Homosexuality in Greece and Rome. A Sourcebook on Basic Documents in Translation. University of California Press, Los Angeles 2003, ISBN 0-520-23430-8 .
• Suzanne Lilar : Le couple. Grasset, Paris 1963 (English Aspects of Love in Western Society, with a foreword by Jonathan Griffin , McGraw-Hill, New York 1965, LC 65-19851).
• Andreas Mohr: Spouses, male societies, cult transvestites. On the gender history of Germanic speaking gentes from the first to the seventh centuries. Frankfurt a. Main 2009.
• Harald Patzer: The Greek love for boys. Meeting reports of the Scientific Society at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt a. M, Vol. 29, 1. Wiesbaden 1982, pp. 1-131.
• William Armstrong Percy : Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece. University of Illinois Press, 1996, ISBN 0-252-02209-2 .
• JM Rainer: On the problem of atimia as a loss of civil rights, especially with male homosexual prostitutes. In: Revue Internationale des Droits de l'Antiquité , 33, 1986, pp. 89-114.
• Carola Reinsberg : marriage, hetarianism and boy love in ancient Greece. Munich 1989.
• Wolfgang Schuller: Greek History. 5th edition. Munich 2002.
• Andreas Karsten Siems (ed.): Sexuality and eroticism in antiquity. Ways of Research, Vol. 605, 2nd edition. Darmstadt 1994.
• William W. Tarn : Alexander the Great . Vol. I, Narrative ; Vol. II, Sources and Studies . Cambridge 1948.
• Bruce Thornton : Eros: the Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality. Westview Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8133-3226-5 .
• Hans-Ulrich Wiemer: Alexander the Great. Munich 2005.
• John J. Winkler: The Constraints of Desire: The Anthropology of Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece. New York 1990.
• Victoria Wohl : Love Among the Ruins: the Erotics of Democracy in Classical Athens. Princeton University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-691-09522-1 .

Web links

• James Davidson: Mad about the boy , The Guardian, November 10, 2007 - On the view of homosexuality among the Greeks over the centuries and the different views among the individual Greek polis.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Carola Reinsberg: Marriage, Hetarianism and Boy Love in Ancient Greece. Munich 1989, pp. 165-167, 170-178.
2. ^ David Greenberg: The Construction of Homosexuality. Chicago 1988, pp. 147-151.
3. ^ Carola Reinsberg: Ehe, Hetärentum and Knabenliebe in ancient Greece , pp. 170-178.
4. ↑ Erich Bethe: The Doric boy love, its ethics and its idea. In: Andreas Karsten Siems (ed.): Sexuality and eroticism in antiquity (Paths of Research, Vol. 605), 2nd edition. Darmstadt 1994, pp. 34-38.
5. ^ Andreas Mohr: Spouses, male associations, cult transvestites. On the gender history of Germanic speaking gentes from the first to the seventh centuries. Frankfurt a. Main 2009, p. 87.
6. ↑ Erich Bethe: Die Dorische Knabenliebe, their ethics and their idea , p. 24.
7. ↑ Andreas Mohr: Married couples, male associations, cult transvestites , p. 89.
8. ^ ^{A b} Thomas K. Hubbard: Homosexuality in Greece and Rome. A Sourcebook on Basic Documents in Translation. Los Angeles 2003, pp. 6-7.
9. ^ John J. Winkler: The Constraints of Desire: The Anthropology of Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece. New York 1990.
10. ↑ Elke Hartmann: Art. Homosexuality , in: Der Neue Pauly. Encyclopedia of Antiquity , Vol. 5. Stuttgart / Weimar 1998, Col. 704.
11. ^ Thomas K. Hubbard: Homosexuality in Greece and Rome, p. 7.
12. ↑ JM Rainer: On the problem of atimia as a loss of civil rights, especially in male homosexual prostitutes. In: Revue Internationale des Droits de l'Antiquité , 33 (1986), pp. 89-114.
13. ↑ ^{a b} Elke Hartmann: Art. Homosexuality , Col. 705.
14. ^ Thomas K. Hubbard: Homosexuality in Greece and Rome , pp. 8-9.
15. ↑ Thomas K. Hubbard: Homosexuality in Greece and Rome , pp. 5-6.
16. ↑ Fundamental to this: Paul Cartledge: The Politics of Spartan Pederasty. In: Andreas Karsten Siems (ed.): Sexuality and eroticism in antiquity (Paths of Research, Vol. 605), 2nd edition. Darmstadt 1994, pp. 385-416.
17. ^ Ernst Baltrusch: Sparta. History, society, culture. 2nd edition, Munich 2003, p. 68: “In this way, the young Spartiate spent his entire youth with his peers and under the supervision of older men - a breeding ground for love for boys. [...] It was her job to hold the 'lover' responsible for the development of the beloved boy. The core of this tradition is certainly that the older Spartans, tutors or godparents comparable, had to take responsibility for individual boys, especially since the parents took a back seat in their upbringing. The emphasis on physical training and also on 'well-being' undoubtedly promoted love for boys. In view of its widespread use in the Spartan educational system, later authors then concluded that it was a Lycurgian instruction. "
18. ↑ Wolfgang Schuller: Greek History. 5th edition. Munich 2002, p. 80.
19. ↑ Andreas Mohr: Married couple, male associations, cult transvestites , pp. 87–88.
20. ↑ Kenneth Dover: Homosexuality in Ancient Greece. Munich 1983, pp. 192-194.
21. ^ M. Kilmer: Painters and Pederasts: Ancient Art, Sexuality, and Social History. In: M. Golden, P. Toohey: Inventing Ancient Culture. London / New York 1997, pp. 36-49, ISBN 0-415-09960-9
22. ↑ Kenneth Dover: Homosexuality in Ancient Greece , p. 192.
23. ↑ David B. Dodd: Atheanian Ideas about Cretan pederasty. In: Thomas K. Hubbard (ed.): Greek Love Reconsidered. New York 2000, pp. 33-41.
24. ↑ Erich Bethe: Die Dorische Knabenliebe , pp. 27–31.
25. ↑ See in summary: David B. Dodd: Atheanian Ideas about Cretan Pederasty , pp. 33–41.
26. ↑ The most important representative of this minority position is William W. Tarn: Alexander the Great . Vol. I, Narrative ; Vol. II, Sources and Studies . Cambridge 1948.
27. ↑ BBC: Bisexual Alexander Angers Greeks
28. ↑ See the representation in the section on antiquity (approx. 1400 BC to 600 AD) in the Wikipedia article Macedonia
29. ^ Hermann Bengtson: Philip and Alexander the Great. The founders of the Hellenistic world. 2nd Edition. Munich 1997, pp. 13-51.
30. ↑ Pedro Barceló: Alexander the Great. Shape of antiquity. Edited by Manfred Clauss. Darmstadt 2007, p. 50: "Homosexuality was not uncommon in the Hellenic-Macedonian world, and homoerotic relationships were widely accepted by society."
31. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Wiemer: Alexander the Great. Munich 2005, p. 75.
32. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Wiemer: Alexander the Great. P. 75: "Macedonia seems to have differed from the rest of Greece in this respect only in that such relationships could last longer than was considered appropriate elsewhere and were not necessarily associated with an age gap between the partners."
33. ^ Carola Reinsberg: Marriage, Hetarianism and Boy Love in Ancient Greece. Pp. 212-213.
34. ↑ ^{a b} Pedro Barceló: Alexander the Great. P. 50.
35. ↑ Herman Bengtson: Philip and Alexander the Great. Pp. 36 ff., 93-98.
36. ↑ Robin Lane Fox: Alexander the Great. Conqueror of the world. Translated from the English by Gerhard Beckmann. 2nd Edition. Stuttgart 2004, p. 62.
37. ↑ Pedro Barceló: Alexander the Great. P. 51.
38. ↑ Robin Lane Fox: Alexander the Great. P. 62.
39. ↑ That it was considered extremely defamatory to have been raped as a free or noble man, goes from the circumstances of the murder of King Philip II in 336 BC. BC. The murderer of Philip, his former lover and bodyguard Pausania, had been raped by the grooms of another noble named Attalus at his behest. Angry that King Philip did not bring the sex offender to justice, even though Pausanias had brought an action against Attalus with the king, the victim decided to murder the king in revenge. The fact that Philip was indignant about this act clearly shows that same-sex rape, despite all other basic tolerance towards homoerotic connections, was abhorred in classical Macedonia. Probably for political reasons Philip did not punish Attalus; apparently this would have been possible under Macedonian customary law. For the course of events and the sources of this case, cf. Hermann Bengtson: Philip and Alexander the Great. Pp. 114-115.
40. ↑ Elizabeth D. Carney: Woman in Alexander's Court. In: Joseph Roisman (Ed.): Brill's Companion to Alexander the Great. Boston, Leiden 2003, p. 243: “Alexander's father was notorious not only for his many marriages and heterosexual affairs, but also for his sexual relationships with men, one led to his murder.”
41. ↑ Alexander Demandt: Alexander the Great. Life and legend . Munich 2009, p. 236 f.
42. ↑ Elizabeth D. Carney: Woman in Alexander's Court. In: Joseph Roisman (Ed.): Brill's Companion to Alexander the Great. Leiden, Boston 2003, p. 243.
43. ^ William W. Tarn: Alexander the Great . Vol. I, Narrative ; Vol. II, Sources and Studies . Cambridge 1948.
44. ↑ Robin Lane Fox: Alexander the Great. Pp. 61-63.
45. ↑ Helmut Berve: The Alexander Empire on a prosopographical basis. Volume 2. Munich 1926, p. 169 ff.
46. ↑ Hans-Joachim Gehrke: Alexander the Great . 5th edition, Munich 2008, p. 20.
47. ↑ Elizabeth D. Carney: Woman in Alexander's Court. Pp. 242-243.
48. ^ Hermann Bengtson: Philip and Alexander the Great. Pp. 210-212.
49. ^ Hermann Bengtson: Philip and Alexander the Great. P. 12: “The number of women who were legitimate or illegitimate wives of Philip is great. One can only understand this if one assumes that polygamy was the norm. It is true that the Greeks regarded Philip's private life as a scandal of the first order, but not a single voice was raised against him in Macedonia;
50. ↑ Michael Brinkschröder: Sodom as a symptom. Same-sex sexuality in the Christian imaginary - a history of religion. Berlin / New York 2006, p. 323.
51. ↑ William A. Percy: pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece. Chicago 1996, pp. 53-72.
52. ↑ Thomas Hubbard: Homosexuality in Greece and Rome , pp. 14-15.
53. ↑ William A. Percy: pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece. Vol. 2, p. 11.
54. ↑ Thomas Hubbard: Homosexuality in Greece and Rome , p. 15.
55. ^ Thomas Hubbard: Homosexuality in Greece and Rome , p. 9.
56. ↑ Michael Brinkschröder: Sodom as a symptom , p. 323.
57. ↑ Andreas Mohr: Married couple, male associations, cult transvestites , pp. 89–90.
58. ↑ Ernst Baltrusch: Sparta , p. 68: "For the young girls too, particularly close relationships with their 'teachers' have been handed down."
59. ↑ An overview of the songs of the Sappho is offered by Max Treu : Sappho: Lieder. Greek and German. 6th edition. Munich 1979.
60. ↑ Utexas.edu Hubbard ( Memento of the original dated December 6, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
61. ↑ pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece