Classical Mythology
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4 MYSTERY AND DETECTIVE FICTION ence, they are all such good examples of with his attributes and passions. Since the genre that they reach a much broader paiderasteia was institutionalized in Greek cross-section of readers. Many other mys- civilization, boy-loving gods and heroes teries intended for gay audiences (usually figure prominently in Greek mythology, of a far less professional character] have in contrast with the suppression of the appeared. Gay and lesbian characters are homoerotic theme in the Judeo-Christian also much more prominent in the general scriptures. mystery fiction of the two decades after The Loves of the Gods. Zeus, the 1970 in both theunited States andBritain, father of the gods, is renowned principally their numbers far too numerous to men- for his love of the Phrygian boy Ganymede, tion. Such well known authors as Ian Flem- the fairest of mortals, whom the god car- ing, Ngaio Marsh, Ruth Rendell, Josephine ried off to make him his cup-bearer. By the Tey, John MacDonald, and Amanda Cross time of Pindar Ganymede is enshrined as have included both lesbian and gay charac- the eromenos, the beloved boy of his heav- ters in their novels. In most cases the gay enly patron. In earlier myth Ganymede is characters are far more well-rounded and abducted by a whirlwind, but from the emotionally balanced individuals than fourth century B.C. onward he is seized by those created in earlier decades. Zeus in the form of an eagle. This later The success of mystery novels became a common theme of literature and with gay male detectives has also led to an art, despite the unlikelihood that an eagle increase in novels with lesbian characters could carry an adolescent boy in its talons. and at least one series with a lesbian detec- The name Ganymede was also extended in tive. Three novels by Heron Carvic pub- time to any handsome boy with a male lished between 1968 and 1971 featuring lover and protector. Moreover, Ganymede Miss Seeton as the detective have lesbian never ages; he is the mythical embodi- characters, as do three mysteries by Peter ment of the puer aeternus, the pederast's Dickinson published between 1972 and dream of the beloved lingering forever in 1976, and three well-received works of P. the prime of his adolescent beauty. An- D. James publishedbetween 1971 and 1980, other theme that appears in the following including Death of an Expert Witness. The centuries is the rivalry of Ganymede and well known mystery novelist Robert Parker Hera, which suggests that in the Greek wrote about lesbian characters and the household theeromenos and the wife could lesbian subculture in his 1980 work Look- find themselves competing for the ing for Rachel Wallace. In the early 1980s, husband's favors. Ultimately the opposi- Vicki P. McConnell started a series of tion served for debates over the merits of whodunit novels featuring the lesbian homosexuality (boy-love)and heterosexu- detective Nyla Wade. ality (woman-love].By contrast, Zeus has See also Novels and Short Fic- no heavenly mistress; his amorous adven- tion. tures with mortal women are conducted James B. Levin solely on earth. The pederastic affairs of the other MYTHOLOGY,CLASSICAL gods, while mentioned sporadically in The concept of mythology in classical literature, never attained the Greek civilization refers not merely to the celebrity of Zeus' passion for Ganymede. gods, but to the demigods as well-the However, Poseidon, according to Pindar, heroes renowned in song and story. Nine- preceded Zeus in loving Pelops, the son of teenth-century German scholars, revers- Tantalus, the ancestor of the Atrides. ing the formula that "God created man in Tradition had it that his father cut the boy his image," held that man had created the into pieces and served him to the gods, but gods in his own image, endowing them only Demeter, famished and distraught, MYTHOLOGY, CLASSICAL 9 consumed a shoulder. The godsrecognized promised to grant the favor on his return, him and repaired his body with a shoulder but in the meantime Polymnus died. of ivory, of which the city of Elis boasted Dionysus then carved a branch of a fig tree that it had the relic. Pindar himself re- in the form of a phallus and thrust it into jected the myth that ascribes cannibalism the tomb, thus symbolically performing to the gods and instead had the boy carried the sexual act that would have gratified off by Poseidon in a golden chariot. Later the deceased. the boy invoked the aid of thegod of thesea Heros. The story of Laius and as recompense for his amorous favors. Oedipus has a pederastic background that Apollo, himself of exquisite is often overlooked or suppressed in mod- beauty, had one unhappy affair after an- em treatments of the myth, including the other-twenty in all--even if, aspaideras- psychoanalytic derivatives. The first au- tes, he was worshipped as the ideal and thor who treated this affairwas Pisander of patron of man-boy love, and his image Cameiros, who lived late in the seventh accompanied those of Hermes and Her- century B.C.Laius, bannished from Thebes aclesin every Creekgymnasium. Themost by Zethus and Amphion, took refuge at prominent of his erornenoi were Cyparis- the court of Pelops, where he fell in love sus and Hyacinth. The former was the son with Chrysippus, the son of his host and of Telephos who dwelt on the isle of Ceos. the nymph Axioche, and abducted him. The boy was especially fond of the tame Defiled by Laius, Chrysippus took his own stag with golden horns who was his com- life with his sword. Because the Thebans panion at play. On a hot summer day the did not punish the perpetrator of this out- boy accidentally killed his pet with his rage, Hera avenged the crime by sending javelin, and wishing to die, he had himself them the Sphinx. Pelops for his part ut- transformed into a cypress in order to tered the fateful curse on.Laius: that he sympathize eternally with the grief of would have a son who would "kill his others. father, marry his mother, and bringruin on Hyacinth had a tragic death when his native city." In the tragedy of Euripides struck by a discus thrown by the god while entitled Chrysippus, Laius is made to the two were playing on the shores of the express his pederastic desires openly, while river Eurotas. In Ovid'sversion of the story in a later version of the story, Laius' mo- Apollo is driven to despair when he sees tive for becoming a boy-lover is exactly to that he is powerless to heal the wound, yet avoid having the son who would fulfill he exclaims: "My only crime is that of such a dire curse. In Plato1s Laws, 836, having loved!" Laius is held to be the inventor of ped- Dionysus, the god of the vine, is erasty, while before him the law "in ac- given a lover named Ampelos, who is the cord with nature" had forbidden such rela- vine itself. First treated by Ovid, this epi- tions. The deeper meaning of the legend sode was further elaborated by Nonnus of suggests that the Greeks were ambivalent Panopolis in the Dionysiaca, where in the on the subject of sexual aggression be- course of a march to India Ampelos is tween males: Laius'violence against Chry- carried off by a homicidal bull, but is re- sippus is avenged, in accordance with the born metamorphosed into the fruit of the principle of the lex talionis, by the mur- vine. derous act of his own son that Sigmund Another story reflecting the Freud chose as the symbol of the rivalry of homosexualaspect of ancient fertility rites the son with the father, the conflict be- has Dionysus, to descend into the nether tween the youngergeneration and the older world, ask the way of a peasant named one. Oedipus compounds his crime by Polymnus, who as a reward wished to be marrying his own mother Jocasta in viola- penetrated anally by the god. Dionysus tion of the incest taboo. 4 MYTHOLOGY, CLASSICAL Hercules, the very model of the sexes. But Hermes and Aphrodite granted Greek hero, is the lover of Hylas, whom he the wish of Hermaphroditus by giving it teaches everything that he needs to fulfill the magical property of turning every man the ideal of the noble warrior, including who bathed in it into a semivir, an effemi- the military arts that the young squire had nate half-man. In Hermaphroditus the to master in order to play his role in com- Greek mentality expressed its conscious- bat. His most faithful companion, how- ness of the androgynous unconscious of ever, is Iolaos, the son of Hercules' twin human beings who worship in an artisti- brother Iphicles. In the version of Hercu- cally refined and perfected guise as the les' combat with Cycnos, in the Aspis of good spirit of the household and private pseudo-Hesiod, Hercules is clad in the life. The importance of Hermaphroditus conventional costumeof thewarrior of the for plastic and pictorial art was enormous: period, while Iolaos is to him the "dearest after the fourth century B.C. rooms in of mortals," just as Patroclus was to private houses, gymnasia, and baths were Achilles. Iolauswas to bechosen by Edward adorned with statues or painting repre- Carpenter as the title of his 19i)2 anthol- senting him, and especially beautiful are ogy of homoerotic passages from world the numerous sleeping hermaphrodites literature. that have survived from antiquity. Openly Orpheus figures in the list by sensual and even obscene are the depic- virtue of his having invented male love tions of Hermaphroditus having sexual after losing Euridice; his eromenos was connection with Pan orwith Satyrs, shown Calais, the son of Boreas, who had also in a half or wholly completed embrace.