Lysis,
Phaedrus, and Symposium : Plato on Homosexuality (Great Books in
Philosophy) by
Plato, Benjamin Jowett (Translator), Eugene O'Connor
"And
when the other is beside him, he shares his respite from anguish;
when he is absent, he likewise shares his longing and being longed
for, since he possesses that counterlove which is the image of
love, though he supposes it to be friendship rather than love, and
calls it by that name" (from the Phaedrus). The nature of
love and friendship and their varying manifestations have
stimulated philosophical interest for centuries. How should we
understand such concepts as: the beloved, physical beauty, the
beauty that transcends the physical, and the power of love between
men as the ancient Greeks understood it? In these three dialogues,
the Lysis, Phaedrus, and Symposium, Socrates, the gadfly of
Athens, searches for the truth about love and friendship. In doing
so, he reveals how his Athenian contemporaries regarded homosexual
love as an educative, aesthetic, and social force.
One
Hundred Years of Homosexuality : And Other Essays on Greek Love
(The New Ancient World Series) by David
M. Halperin
Halperin's subject is the
erotics of male culture in ancient Greece. Arguing that the modern
concept of "homosexuality" is an inadequate tool for the
interpretation of these features of sexual life in antiquity,
Halperin offers an alternative account that accords greater
prominence to the indigenous terms in which sexual experiences
were constituted in the ancient Mediterranean world. Wittily and
provocatively written, Halperin's meticulously drawn windows onto
ancient sexuality give us a new meaning to the concept of
"Greek love."
"the
most significant study of Greek homosexuality since the pioneering
work of K.J. Dover...This rich and stimulating book has something
to offer to the general reader of Homer and Plato as well as to
the specialized theorist of human sexuality. Halperin's research
is very much on the cutting edge of classical studies and is sure
to be an influence in the field for years to come.." -- Classical
World
"the
single most important contribution to the interpretation of gay
history in nearly a decade." -- Outweek
"Carries
out, with careful scholarly arguments and a judicious,
wide-ranging use of evidence, the project Foucault mapped out in
the second volume of his History of Sexuality . . . Clear and
incisive, these essays are probably the best available
introduction for the general reader to the issues raised by
Foucault's work." -- Martha
Nussbaum, TLS
Pederasty
and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece by William Armstrong
Percy III
"A major contribution to the scholarship on
Greek homosexuality. Percy's command of the primary sources is
exemplary, and his handling of the vast array of scholarship on
this subject is well informed and judicious." -- Beert C.
Verstraete, Acadia University, Nova Scotia
"The first study in English to give a
detailed account of this crucial formative period. Its wealth of
new documentation and challenging new hypotheses will inaugurate a
significant debate on an important topic." -- Louis Crompton,
author of Byron and Greek Love: Homophobia in Nineteenth
Century England
Combining impeccable scholarship with
accessible, straightforward prose, Pederasty and Pedagogy in
Archaic Greece argues that institutionalized pederasty began
after 650 B.C., far later than previous authors have thought, and
was initiated as a means of stemming overpopulation in the upper
class.
William A. Percy III maintains that Cretan sages
established a system under which a young warrior in his early
twenties took a teenager of his own aristocratic background as a
beloved until the age of thirty, when service to the state
required the older partner to marry. The practice spread with
significant variants to other Greek-speaking areas. In some places
it emphasized development of the athletic, warrior individual,
while in others both intellectual and civic achievement were its
goals. In Athens it became a vehicle of cultural transmission, so
that the best of each older cohort selected, loved, and trained
the best of the younger.
Pederasty was from the beginning both physical
and emotional, the highest and most intense type of male bonding.
These pederastic bonds, Percy believes, were responsible for the
rise of Hellas and the "Greek miracle": in two centuries
the population of Attica, a mere 45,000 adult males in six
generations, produced an astounding number of great men who laid
the enduring foundations of Western thought and civilization.
