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Theocritus Used Two Archaic Debated the Relative Merits of Women Terms: for Lover Eispnelas (Inspirer], Em- and Boys

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Theocritus Used Two Archaic Debated the Relative Merits of Women Terms: for Lover Eispnelas (Inspirer], Em- and Boys (later copied by the Carthaginians) of 300 he finally won that of Ptolemy 11, the pairs of lovers, which defeated Sparta at founder of the Museum and Library that Leuctra (371 B.c.) and Mantinea (362 B.c.] together with his munificent patronage and liberated Messenia, ending Spartan made Alexandria the intellectual center of hegemony. Epaminondas was slain at the Hellenistic monarchies. In the famous Mantinea with his second emrnenos (be- controversy about the Argonauts, he sided loved) bravely falling at his side. During with Callirnachus against Apollonius of the three-comered struggle that ensued Rhodes, both of whom resided in Alexan- between a leaderless Thebes, a crippled dria and sang of pederasty. Sparta, and an Athens that had not fully Though set in Sicily, his bucolic recovered from the Peloponnesian War, poems were written after he moved to the Persians interfered and Macedonians en- east, perhaps while he tarried on Cos. He croached. The Greeks were defeated at composed his mimes mostly in Alexan- Chaeronea in 338 B.c., when the Sacred dria. Like most other Hellenistic poets, he Band died fighting to the last man, and preferred short, polished, erudite, contrived even Philip of Macedonia, the victor, paid poems. He often chose exotic or at least tribute to their valor: "Let no man speak novel themes and made fresh observations evil of such heroes." and descriptions. Besides pastoral hetero- Plutarch, a hereditary Theban sexual love, he dramatized the love of noble who held a priesthood at Delphi, Heracles for Hylas. Eight of his thirty recorded the careers of notable pederasts Idylls, the authorship of two of which is in his Parallel Lives of Famous Greeks uncertain, treat boy love exclusively. and Romans, and his Dialogues on Love Theocritus used two archaic debated the relative merits of women terms: for lover eispnelas (inspirer], em- and boys. ployed in Alcman, and for beloved the The ancient city of Thebes pos- non-Dorian Thessalian aites, (inspired), sessed two gymnasia, one dedicated to employed by Alcman tomeafl "pretty girl" Heracles, the other to Iolaus, often regar- in the feminine. The idyll on Hylas (XIII), ded in classic times as his erornenos. At Heracles' beloved, gave Theocritus an op- the latter place pairs of male lovers were portunity to express his personal feel- accustomed to pledge their troth. About ings on boy-love. It is not just mortals, but three miles outside the city lay the Kabeir- the immortals as well, who suffer the ion, the shrine of a mystery cult revolving pangs of love. Heracles is determined to around the god Kabeiros and his Pais educate the curly-haired boy with whom ("boy"); here modem archeologists have he is enamoured, to make a brave and foundvotive offerings depicting aman and renowned man of him, and to bring him up a boy, who is often portrayed holding an as a father would his son. animal4 traditional courtship gift. In Idyll XXIX Theocritus gives advice to a boy that follows strictly the BIBLIOGRAPHY. Nancy H. Demand, lines earlier drawn by Theognis: the youth Thebes in the Pifth Century, Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982. is urged to be faithful to his lover, not to William A. Percy play the coquette or exploit his admirer in a venal manner. Youth is fleeting, but with manhood love will yield to a solid THEOCRITUS(CA. and enduring friendship. Idyll XXX de- 301-c~.260 B.c.) picts a man who has reached the age that Hellenistic philologist and poet. disqualifies him for conquests in love, but A native of Syracuse, he sojourned in cannot suppress the passion that he feels southern Italy and Cos, but having failed for a boy who, whilenot particualrly hand- to win the patronage of Hiero of Syracuse, some, has undeniable personal charm. This THEOGNIS 4 piece may well contain genuine autobio- beloved boy who appears in many of the graphical elements. poems, may be genuine. With a clear aris- The two idylls in which shep- tocratic bias, Theognis berated the boy, herds and goatherds compete in song whom he was trying to improve, for flirta- about their pederastic loves differ: in W it tions and infidelities. Full of advice on is poets disguised as shepherds who dis- friendship, loyalty, and other conduct play their rival skill, in V the speech be- befitting a gentleman, Theognis is often longs to genuine rustics, direct and even taken as the model for the supposed old- slightly coarse. Idyll VIII, which may not fashioned one-to-one erotic relationship belong to Theocritus, presents two youths used as the basis forpaideia (instruction]. at the very onset of puberty, one in love Theognis' collection of maxims, of which with a boy, theotherwithagirl.Thispoem the last 158 deal exclusively with boy- therefore treats homosexual love between love, served in antiquity as a manual of early adolescent agemates, which in the ethical conduct. The poet could not fail to eyes of at least some Greeks was perfectly "fawn on" the boy so long as the boy's legitimate. Inspired by the poetic tradition cheekwas beardless. Others, however, find of male love begun by Ibycus, Anacreon, his constant carping and complaints, his and Pindar, Theocritus' work proves that reproaches to ungrateful or self-interested the old motifs and values of paiderasteia boys, distasteful, especially in comparison remained alive, at least in literature, into with the free love advocated by his the Hellenistic era. contemporaries Ibycus and Anacreon. Called by some the father of gnomic po- BIBLIOGRAPHY. Fdlix Buffikre, Eros etry, Theognis [whom Sir Kenneth Dover adolescent; la pbdbrastie dans la Grke antique, Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1980; unconvineingly dubs the most important Hans Licht, Sexual Life in Ancient early pederastic poet), taught ethics and Greece, London: Routledge & Kegan statecraft in a context of male love, and Paul, 1932. otherwise emphasized the intellectual William A. Percy and moral formation of the youth as well. His verse thus reflected the role of ped- THEOGNIS erasty in the golden age of Hellenic civili- zation. In elegies that he composed to be (n.CA. 544-541 B.c.) sung accompanied by the flute at sympo- Creek elegiac poet. Many of the sia, he claimed (probably an interpolation 1,390 lines, often cited in later works and after the fact) that his verse had given inscribed on vases, attributed to him are Cyrnus immortality, and that youths at but slightly altered versions of verses by symposia would always sing of him: "Woe Tyrtaeus, Solon, and other early poets, is me! I love a smooth-skinned lad who along with repetitions that seem to come exposes me to all my friends, nor am I from a different hand. In addition, refer- loath; I will bearwith many things that are ences to people and events in the Theog- sore against my liking, and make it no nidea extend from 580 to 490, and the secret; for 'tis no unhandsome lad I am surviving verses differ from those cited by seen to be taken with." the tenth-century Greek lexicon of Suda. Consequently, the extant works seem to BIBLIOGRAPHY. Kenneth Dover, Greek be a highly popular Athenian collection Homosexuality, Cambridge, MA: made in the fifth century to be sung at Harvard University Press, 1978; Thomas symposia, and it is difficult to tell which J. Figueira and Gregory Nagy, eds., Thwgnis of Megara: Poetry and Polis, ones originated with Theognis himself. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University The gnomology (collection of Press, 1985. maxims) addressed to Cyrnus, the poet's William A. Percy .
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