Sexual Histories. Lecture 4 Ancient Sexualities

Aims of lecture To illustrate our theme of sex as an historical construct through examining some aspects of Ancient Greek and Roman sex.

1. Introduction: Modern vs ancient sex Sigmund Freud, 1856-1939 The Interpretation of Dreams, 1899 ‘The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.’ Sex and the inner life oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital stages of childhood development Dreams and phallic objects. Non-sexual objects have erotic connotations

Artemidoros of Daldus 2nd century CE Interpretation of Dreams Dreams predict the future. Sexual dreams connote non-sexual outcomes

Key points about ancient sexualities: sex is a political act. It is an expression of social status. one partner was always active or dominant, the other was passive or subordinate. sex acts considered deviant or shameful were those in which the proper hierarchies were reversed

2. Marital sex ‘We have hetairai for our pleasure, concubines for our daily needs, and wives to give us legitimate children and to look after the housekeeping,’ Demosthenes, 4th century BCE, Athens. Women in inferior, particularly in Greece, to slightly lesser extent in Rome (note patria potestas) Marital sex mostly utilitarian, and reflected concern with hierarchies ‘He who evades, by refusing marriage, the miseries that women bring on us, will have no support in the wretchedness of his old age,’ Hesiod, 8th century BCE, Greece

Bas relief carvings of the phallus as a symbol of good fortune, from Pompeii houses

3. Hetairai and prostitutes Socially acceptable. Woman passive, man active Dish, Attic red figure vase, c. 480-460 BCE. Possibly a client with hetaira Dish, Attic red figure vase, c. 480-460 BCE

Erotic wall paintings from Pompeii, c. 1st century CE

4. Female homoeroticism Known but not approved. Tribades (tribein, to rub). Behaviour often seen as ‘monstrous’. A female should be passive. Tribades depicted on a Greek vase.

‘Sapphic’ poetry? ‘I was in love with Attis, once, long ago. To me you seemed a little girl, and not too graceful. You have forgotten me Or else you love some other person more than me. Then love shook my heart like the wind that falls on oaks in the mountains. You came, and I was mad to have you: Your breath cooled my heart that was burning with desire.’ Sappho of Lesbos, 7th or 6th century BCE

5. Male homoeroticism Abundantly portrayed, discussed, and practised in ancient Greece and Rome. Widely but not universally approved. Proper hierarchies must be preserved. Greek pederasty: adult man with boy or youth.

‘The Warren Cup’, Roman, c. 30BCE – c. 30CE ‘The Warren Cup’, Roman, c. 30BCE – c. 30CE. A man has sex with a youth; a youth has sex with a boy

Conclusion Sexuality not at centre of ancient conceptions of self in same way as modern. Primary importance of social and political hierarchies.