A clarification on Athenian Laws concerning male homosexuality.
(because this particular small thing is often misunderstood, due to inability to accurately translate specific ancient greek terms into english, or lack of comprehension of context.)
In classical athens, there was a very specific set of laws, concerning ONLY male athenian citizens (so slaves, women and metics were not subject to it). These laws said that a male athenian citizen who engages in intercourse with another man IN EXCHANGE FOR PAYMENT, was not allowed to do certain things, such as hold positions of power or speak in the assembly. There were also potential penalties (not described in detail) for the person hiring an athenian citizen for this purpose. Again, this is often misunderstood, so I have to repeat, this was only when it was done in exchange for some sort of payment/recompense. The word used for these men is of the same root as εταιρα, which was the female counterpart. It is often mistranslated, there’s a whole thing I could go on explaining about the different types of prostitution terms, but basically there was a distinction between prostitute and courtesan/escort/whatever you’d call them in english.
Also, this law did not forbid this, and it was not a prosecutable offense by itself. The offense was if one such man disobeyed the limitations set by the law, and it’s unclear to me what the deal was with the person who paid.
SO yeh. Next time someone says there were laws against homosexuality in classical athens, here’s a helpful article of a guy explaining this much better than me, and goes into more detail about all the weird intricacies of the legal system, as well as the laws set in place to protect boys from grown men:
and here’s our original source about these laws:
Bronze ox shaped wine vessel, China, Spring and Autumn period, 6th-5th century BC
from The Shanghai Museum
(Source: shanghaimuseum.net, via antinous-please-come-back)
Every time you post about Alcibiades i am like "sir he is so hot i would join sides back and forth with him" 😅
:)
[emerges from a pool of blood and viscera]
hi i just wrote a paper on manhood in the iliad and i didn’t get to write about everything i wanted to because me and my project partner were too mentally ill about the iliad already and there was a page limit so now i have so many words about the way men will define themselves in times of war and how those aspects which are most important to their character get amplified and how their relationships to their fathers are so defining of how they view themselves as men and also how men will form bonds beyond simple companionship and how they need each other and AURGHHHHHAHFA AFLAJD [explodes]
silly alcibiades animation because I wanted to make something completely self-indulgent before going back to work
Some Athens vibes from today as I was running errands.
I took the first picture because in the background you have this semi-abandoned building with this hanging, torn banner thing, then in front of it you have one of the neoclassical buildings of the polytechnic university peaking out, and on the top right you have the “without electricity” sign on the trolley bus lines.
Then the bottom one, I just liked the light shining through the glass building’s windows, and the blending of different building styles all together. Also, do you see the seagulls?