Was Plato gay? And Socrat? Who unrstands philosophy....? - Any Qutns

Contents:

• WAS PLATO THE ONLY GREEK GAY?
• PLATO DO COLORADO: WERE THE ANCIENT GREEKS MORN GAYS?
• WAS PLATO GAY? AND SOCRAT? WHO UNRSTANDS PHILOSOPHY….?

WAS PLATO THE ONLY GREEK GAY?

In the current ntroversi over homosexualy and gay rights, much attentn has been voted to the example of ancient Greece. However, a vague imprsn also exists that, prr to s reprsn by Christiany, homosexualy enjoyed an untroubled, even honored, place classil tim, particularly Athens.

For the purpose of ntemporary polemics, Athenian achievements polics, art, and philosophy have been voked as powerful proof that public acceptance of homosexualy, far om ditg a cle our civilizatn, might actually promise humanistic renewal. The ancient Athenians celebrated homosexualy, and Athens, spe slavery and phallocracy, was one of the tly great human muni. For example, the fall of 1993, distguished historians of ancient Greece and ement moral philosophers appeared a su brought by var dividuals (cludg celebri like Marta Navratilova) agast the state of Colorado for s nstutnal amendment which overturned municipal gay-rights ordanc.

At stake was the qutn of whether legal rtrictns on homosexual nduct rt on a ratnal basis or, rather, are the product of mere prejudice or Christian theology, particularly, as Nsbm’s affidav put , “of a philosophil and moral tradn associated wh one branch of Christiany: Roman Catholicism. Neverthels, appears that when we ligate over homosexualy now, the nam of Socrat, Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, and Demosthen may bee — if not as mon our mouths as hoehold words — almost as mon as referenc to Ksey, He, and Masters and Johnson. A subject as plex as homosexualy and Greek society, when studied closely will, of urse, reveal subtleti and differenc that are not ptured by rough historil characterizatn.

PLATO DO COLORADO: WERE THE ANCIENT GREEKS MORN GAYS?

On the one hand, the current assumptn that homosexual sire was mon and accepted wh certa social class ancient Athens is right — anyone who has ever read Plato’s Symposium knows that.

On the other hand, the claim that homosexual liftyl as currently practiced were also mon and accepted is wrong — or at bt highly misleadg — and should be known to be such by any reful stunt of the ancient world. Social mor Athens did not ndone sual sex wh multiple partners; moreover, longterm, monogamo homosexual unns, where they were tolerated, did not exactly have equal stat wh heterosexual marriage and fai.

WAS PLATO GAY? AND SOCRAT? WHO UNRSTANDS PHILOSOPHY….?

Dover, the most ement livg historian on this subject, and an open sympathizer wh current liberalizg tennci, wr his book, Greek Homosexualy: “On growg up, any Greek muny, the eromenos [the younger, passive object of the attentns of the erast, an olr male] graduated om pupil to iend, and the ntuance of an erotic relatnship was disapproved, as was such a relatnship between evals. Two of Plato’s dialogu, the Symposium and the Phaeds, are most often ced by those who argue that the Greeks thought homosexual activy noble.

While the popular and éle moraly may have ambiguoly accepted some homosexual activy, Plato was cled to thk that homosexual acts would viate the ial good of same-sex love. Dover — and stated that, general, the Greeks only worried when someone played the passive homosexual role over a whole lifetime. In the begng of Plato’s Symposium, we read a matter-of-fact statement by a homosexual lover named Psanias, which no other participant the dialogue disput:.

One of the assumptns that li behd statements like the is that there is no reciprol sire as we fd morn gay relatnships. A few scholars have tried to make the se that Plato took no fal posn himself, but was merely tryg to sort out the proper kds of behavr the life-changg experience of homosexual romance. In a private letter to John Fnis, Kenh Dover stated tegorilly: “It is certaly my opn that the Socrat of Plato and Xenophon nmned homosexual pulatn as such, and did not nfe the prohibn to any particular relatnships.