The Gays Flashcards
What does Foucault draw on to suggest a negativity around male homosexuality?
Portraits adn descriptions of ‘effeminate’ men in Roman and Greek literature e.g. Agathon in Thesmophoriazusae; physiognomic treatise describing an effeminatus; Seneca the Elder’s description of sexually licentious and decadent youths.
How does ancient critique of homosexuality differ from modern attitudes?
ancients criticised the desired OBJECT whereas modern attitudes focus in the desiring subject
What did Foucault ID as the key problematization of G homosexuality?
“to delight in and be the subject of pleasure with a boy did not cause a problem for the Greeks; but to be an object of pleasure and to acknowledge oneself as such constituted a major difficulty for the boy”
What was social value of pederasty/homosexuality in G?
elder elite males could use the practice as a means to demonstrate virtue and ethics
What is the case in Against Simon by Lysias? What is the problematization?
Simon accuses an unnamed defendant of entering into a living arrangement contract w a young freedman/slave boy called Theodotus, as part of a romantic/sexual relationship.
Defendant should be living with a wife at his age and such an arrangement with a likely non-citizen is not acceptable.
What homosexual scenes are NOT shown on AR and CL G pottery? Why?
Male slaves + men
Anal sex (only intercrural)
Fellatio between men
Lesbianism
Often this is because arrangements are hard to paint or don’t look good when they can be configured accurately OR the scenes are idealistic and so situs like man and male slave are not desirable.
What is the accusation levelled against Timarchus in Aeschines? Problem?
He had prostituted himself to men in the past.
Relations he was thought to have been involved in were not legitimate pederastic ones but paid for.
What is a suspected example of a pederastic relationship in Homer? Ev?
Achilles and Patroclus
Patroclus, upon his death, referred to as the most dearest to Achilles; Plato (symposium) refers to Patroclus as Achilles’ lover, and uses them both as an example of love.
What does the Apollodorus cup show? What are possible interpretations?
kneeling woman touching the genitals of a standing woman
two hetairai as shown by short hair (Boardman); sympotic vessel used for male pleasure
What did the Lex Scantinia rule? Problems w this law?
Outlawed stuprum against freeborn R youths. POSSIBLY also used to punish adult citizen men who took passive role in homosexual relations.
Law is not properly documented with only a few references (e.g. Suetonius) and not fully understood.
What was acceptable for Imperial Rs in regards to male homosexuality?
R citizen should only take the active role in sex incl only receiving oral.
Penetrated party should be no more than prostitute or slave.
What does Marcus Aurelius say in late 2nd cent abt Theodotus?
thanked the gods he had not touched him
Who was the youth involved in pederastic relations with Hadrian? When did he die? What happened as a result?
Antinous
130 CE, on a trip up the Nile w the emperor/
Imperial cult established for Antinous, unprecedented for an indiv outside of Imperial family, and city founded along Nile coast where the youth died (‘Antinoöpolis’)
Around what proportion of explicit G pottery paintings were on sympotic shapes?
4/5
What changes in the depiction of homosexual relations in G art?
explicit pederastic relationships become more rare after 470 BCE
What is the Sappho 31 section referring to jealousy on the poet’s part aimed at a woman’s husband?
‘He seems fortunate as the gods to men, the man who sits opposite you and listens nearby to your sweet voice and lovely laughter.’
What language does Sappho use in describing sexual feelings towards female subjects?Examples?
physical, almost medical descriptions of arousal
‘ache and anguish’ (fr.1)
‘oppressive anxieties’ (“)
‘heart trembling’ (fr.31)
‘my tongue has snapped’ (“)
hotness of flesh (“)
‘I see nothing’ (“)
‘ears hum’ (“)
‘sweat pours from me’ (“)
whole body trembling (“)
What was the term for the amulets worn by Roman youths? Signif?
bullae
Given v soon after birth and worn until coming of age as a protective item - pouch part, usually made of metal but also could be made of leather/cloth, contained amulets, often phallic; symbolised the boy’s ‘virginity’ and social unacceptability of penetration of him.
What does Foucault say of homosexuality that eliminates lesbianism?
it was a schema of penetration and male domination
What does the Platonic Aristophanes say w respect to origins of sexual orientation?
humans all split in half from a whole to begin with; whole could have been androgynous and thus split ppl are hetero; whole could have been split and thus attracted to homo - refers to both women and men
How does Sappho challenge the nature of Foucault’s understanding of homosexuality in antiquity?
draws on the emotional side to the relationships rather than just the physical
What has led to a distinct lack of female-female heterosex. in evidence from antiquity?
male bias in the evidence and scholarship
What does Xenophon say on homosexuality in Sparta?
such relationships were allowed (esp pederasty) should the desiring subject be attracted to the soul of the desired subject as opposed to merely the appearance of the boy
What does Xenophon record Lycurgus to have ruled on pederastic relationships?
outlawed sexual element in order to create a relationship that better resembled that of brothers or parents and children
What is the problem with depictions of intercrural sex?
at first glance appears to represent what pederastic relationships engaged with (Dover’s interp) but rather appears to be motivated by artistic configuration of scene rather than depicting reality
What does a slave character say on sexual morals in Plautus’ Curculio?
“love whatever you want, as long as you stay away from married ladies, widows, virgins, young men and free boys”
