A Problem in Greek Ethics Part 8

[78] _Ibid._, vol. i. p. 327.

[79] Athen., xiii. 601 A.

[80] See the fragments of the _Myrmidones_ in the _Poetae Scenici Graeci_, My interpretation of them is, of course, conjectural.

[81] Lucian, _Amores_; Plutarch, _Eroticus_; Athenaeus, xiii. 602 E.

[82] Possibly aeschylus drew his fable from a non-Homeric source, but if so, it is curious that Plato should only refer to Homer.

[83] _Symph._, 180 A. Xenophon, _Symph._, 8, 31, points out that in Homer Achilles avenged the death of Patroclus, not as his lover, but as his comrade in arms.

[84] Cf. Eurid., _Hippol._, l. 525; Plato, _Phdr._, p. 255; Max. Tyr., _Dissert._, xxv. 2.

[85] See _Poetae Scenici_, _Fragments of Sophocles_.

[86] _Eroticus_; p. 790 E.

[87] Ath., p. 602 E.

[88] _Tusc._, iv. 33.

[89] See Athenaeus, xiii. pp. 604, 605, for two very outspoken stories about Sophocles at Chios and apparently at Athens. In 582, e, he mentions one of the boys beloved by Sophocles, a certain Demophon.

[90] Plato, _Parm._, 127 A.

[91] Pausanias, v. 11, and see Meier, p. 159, note 93.

[92] This, by the way, is a strong argument against the theory that the _Iliad_ was a post-Herodotean poem. A poem in the age of Pisistratus or Pericles would not have omitted paiderastia from his view of life, and could not have told the myth of Ganymede as Homer tells it. It is doubtful whether he could have preserved the pure outlines of the story of Patroclus.

[93] Page 182, Jowett's trans. Mr. Jowett censures this speech as sophistic and confused in view. It is precisely on this account that it is valuable. The confusion indicates the obscure conscience of the Athenians. The sophistry is the result of a half-acknowledged false position.

[94] Page 181, Jowett's trans.

[95] See the curious pa.s.sages in Plato, _Symp._, p. 192; Plutarch, _Erot._, p. 751; and Lucian, _Amores_, c. 38.

[96] Quoted by Athen, xiii. 573 B.

[97] As Lycon chaperoned Autolycus at the feast of Callias.--_Xen.

Symp._ Boys incurred immediate suspicion if they went out alone to parties. See a fragment from the _Sappho_ of Ephippus in Athen., xiii.

p. 572 C.

[98] Line 137. The joke here is that the father in Utopia suggests, of his own accord, what in Athens he carefully guarded against.

[99] Page 222, Jowett's trans.

[100] _Clouds_, 948 and on. I have abridged the original, doing violence to one of the most beautiful pieces of Greek poetry.

[101] Aristophanes returns to this point below, line 1,036, where he says that youths chatter all day in the hot baths and leave the wrestling-grounds empty.

[102] There was a good reason for shunning each. The Agora was the meeting-place of idle gossips, the centre of chaff and scandal. The shops were, as we shall see, the resort of bad characters and panders.

[103] Line 1,071, _et seq._

[104] Caps. 44, 45, 46. The quotation is only an abstract of the original.

[105] Worn up to the age of about eighteen.

[106] Compare with the pa.s.sages just quoted two epigrams from the _Mousa Paidike_ (Greek _Anthology_, sect. 12): No. 123, from a lover to a lad who has conquered in a boxing-match; No. 192, where Straton says he prefers the dust and oil of the wrestling-ground to the curls and perfumes of a woman's room.

[107] Page 255 B.

[108] 1,025.

[109] _Charmides_, p. 153.

[110] _Lysis_, 206, This seems, however, to imply that on other occasions they were separated.

[111] _Charmides_, p. 154, Jowett.

[112] Page 155, Jowett.

[113] Cap. i. 8.

[114] See cap. viii. 7. This is said before the boy, and in his hearing.

[115] Cap. iii. 12.

[116] Cap. iv. 10, _et seq._ The English is an abridgment.

[117] _Laws_, i. 636 C.

[118] Athen., xiii. 602 D.

[119] _Eroticus_.

[120] Line 60, ascribed to Theocritus, but not genuine.

[121] Athen., xiii. 609 D.

[122] _Mousa Paidike_, 86.

[123] Compare the _Atys_ of Catullus: "Ego mulier, ego adolescens, ego ephebus, ego puer, Ego gymnasi fui flos, ego eram decus olei."

[124] See the law on these points in _aesch. adv. Timarchum_.

[125] Thus Aristophanes, quoted above.

[126] Aristoph., _Ach._, 144, and _Mousa Paidike_, 130.