A Problem in Greek Ethics Part 7

[28] Cap. xxiii. p. 768, 53. Compare Max. Tyr., _Dissert._, xxiv. 1. See too the chapter on Tyrannicide in Ar. Pol., viii. (v.) 10.

[29] Clough's trans., vol. v. p. 118.

[30] _h.e.l.lenics_, bk. ix. cap. xxvi.

[31] Suidas, under the heading _Paidika_, tells of two lovers who both died in battle, fighting each to save the other.

[32] See, for example, _aeschines against Timarchus_, 59.

[33] Trans. by Sir G. C. Lewis, vol. ii. pp. 309-313.

[34] _Symp._ 182 A.

[35] i. 132.

[36] _De Rep._, iv. 4.

[37] I need hardly point out the parallel between this custom and the marriage customs of half-civilised communities.

[38] The general opinion of the Greeks with regard to the best type of Dorian love is well expressed by Maximus Tyrius, _Dissert._, xxvi. 8.

"It is esteemed a disgrace to a Cretan youth to have no lover. It is a disgrace for a Cretan youth to tamper with the boy he loves. O custom, beautifully blent of self-restraint and pa.s.sion! The man of Sparta loves the lad of Lacedaemon, but loves him only as one loves a fair statue; and many love one, and one loves many."

[39] _Laws_, i. 636.

[40] _Pol._, ii. 7, 4.

[41] Lib. 13,602, E.

[42] It is not unimportant to note in this connection that paiderastia of no ign.o.ble type still prevails among the Albanian mountaineers.

[43] The foregoing attempt to reconstruct a possible environment for the Dorian form of paiderastia is, of course, wholly imaginative. Yet it receives certain support from what we know about the manners of the Albanian mountaineers and the nomadic Tartar tribes. Aristotle remarks upon the paiderastic customs of the Kelts, who in his times were immigrant.

[44] See above, Section V.

[45] It appears from the reports of travellers that this form of pa.s.sion is not common among those African tribes who have not been corrupted by Musselmans or Europeans.

[46] It may be plausibly argued that aeschylus drew the subject of his _Myrmidones_ from some such non-Homeric epic. See below, Section XII.

[47] 182 A. Cp. _Laws_, i. 636.

[48] _Eroticus_, xvii. p. 761, 34.

[49] See Plutarch, _Pelopidas_, Clough, vol. ii. p. 219.

[50] Clough, as quoted above, p. 219.

[51] The connection of the royal family of Macedon by descent with the aeacidae, and the early settlement of the Dorians in Macedonia, are noticeable.

[52] Cf. Athenaeus, x. 435.

[53] Hadrian in Rome, at a later period, revived the Greek tradition with even more of caricature. His military ardour, patronage of art, and love for Antinous seem to hang together.

[54] _Dissert._, xxvi. 8.

[55] See Athen., xiii., 609, F. The prize was armour and the wreath of myrtle.

[56] _Symp._ 182, B. In the _Laws_, however, he mentions the Barbarians as corrupting Greek morality in this respect. We have here a further proof that it was the n.o.ble type of love which the Barbarians discouraged. For _Malakia_ they had no dislike.

[57] Bergk., _Poetae Lyrica Graeci_, vol. ii. p. 490, line 87 of Theognis.

[58] _Ibid._, line 1,353.

[59] _Ibid._, line 1,369.

[60] _Ibid._, lines 1,259-1,270.

[61] _Ibid._, line 1,267.

[62] _Ibid._, lines 237-254. Translated by me in _Vagabunduli Libellus_, p. 167.

[63] Bergk., _Poetae Lyrici Graeci_, vol. ii. line 1,239.

[64] _Ibid._, line 1,304.

[65] _Ibid._, line 1,327.

[66] _Ibid._, line 1,253.

[67] _Ibid._, line 1,335.

[68] _Eroticus_, cap. v. p. 751, 21. See Bergk., vol. ii. p. 430.

[69] See Cic., _Tusc._, iv. 33

[70] Bergk., vol. iii. p. 1,013.

[71] _Ibid._, p. 1,045.

[72] _Ibid._, pp. 1,109, 1,023; fr. 24, 26.

[73] _Ibid._, p. 1,023; fr. 48.

[74] Maximus Tyrius, _Dissert._, xxvi., says that Smerdies was a Thracian, given, for his great beauty, by his Greek captors to Polycrates.

[75] See what Agathon says in the _Thesmophoriazuse_ of Aristophanes.

[76] xv. 695.

[77] Bergk., vol. iii. p. 1,293.