Greek Homosexuality (book)
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''Greek Homosexuality'' (1978; second edition 1989; third edition 2016) is a book about
homosexuality in ancient Greece In classical antiquity, writers such as Herodotus, Plato, Xenophon, Athenaeus and many others explored aspects of homosexuality in Greek society. Among some elite circles this often took the form of pederasty, involving an adult man with an ado ...
by the classical scholar
Kenneth Dover Sir Kenneth James Dover, (11 March 1920 – 7 March 2010) was a distinguished British classical scholar and academic. He was president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, from 1976 to 1986. In addition, he was president of the British Academy f ...
, in which the author uses archaic and classical
archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
and
literary Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, plays, and poems. It includes both print and digital writing. In recent centuries, ...
sources to discuss ancient Greek sexual behavior and attitudes. He addresses the iconography of vase paintings, the speeches in the law courts, and the comedies of
Aristophanes Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Ancient Greek comedy, comic playwright from Classical Athens, Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. The majority of his surviving play ...
, as well as the content of other literary and philosophical
source text A source text is a text (sometimes oral) from which information or ideas are derived. In translation, a source text is the original text that is to be translated into another language. More generally, source material or symbolic sources are ob ...
s. The first modern scholarly work on its topic, ''Greek Homosexuality'' received some negative reviews but was enormously influential, helping to shape the views of other classicists. Dover has been praised for discussion of sexual practices such as intercrural copulation.


Summary

In the preface Dover writes that the aim of the work is: "To describe those phenomena of homosexual behaviour and sentiment which are to be found in Greek art and literature between the eighth and second centuries B.C., and so to provide a basis for more detailed and specialised exploration (which I leave to others) of the sexual aspects of Greek art, society and morality." In the Preface he furthermore argued that ‘heterosexual’ and ‘homosexual’ were not antithetical terms, but that homosexuality was a sub-division of the ‘quasi-sexual’ or ‘pseudo-sexual’. The conclusions drawn are that the Greeks regarded homosexuality in general to be natural, normal, and salutary, and their actual practices were circumscribed by cultural norms. In the case of the ancient Greeks – specifically the
Athenians Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...
– the book claims that the sexual roles of the lovers were sharply polarized. Dover concludes that the Greeks conceived of same-sex relations primarily as intergenerational and identifies the terms for the roles of the two male lovers, '' erastes, "the lover,"'' that is, the older active partner, and ''
eromenos In ancient Greece, an ''eromenos'' was the younger and passive (or 'receptive') partner in a male homosexual relationship. The partner of an ''eromenos'' was the ''erastes'', the older and active partner. The ''eromenos'' was often depicted as b ...
, "the beloved",'' indicating the adolescent male beloved. Basing himself on the work of Sir 
John Beazley Sir John Davidson Beazley (; 13 September 1885 – 6 May 1970) was a British classical archaeologist and art historian, known for his classification of Attic vases by artistic style. He was professor of classical archaeology and art at the U ...
, Dover divides the evidence of surviving vase painting depicting these types of relationships into three types. Some show the ''erastes'' offering a gift to the ''eromenos''. Others depict the "up and down" gesture – the ''erastes'' attempting to fondle the ''eromenos'' while, with the other hand, he is turning his head to look into his eyes. The third group, usually older black-figure vases, show the couple engaging in interfemoral intercourse or, in a couple of instances,
anal intercourse Anal sex or anal intercourse principally means the insertion and thrusting of the erect penis into a person's anus, or anus and rectum, for sexual pleasure.Sepages 270–271for anal sex information, anpage 118for information about the clitoris ...
. Traditionally, the young beloved, when he reached the age of manhood – indicated in the iconography by his growth of a beard – would switch roles and become a lover himself, seeking out a younger male for a love relationship. Later in life he was expected to marry and produce new citizens for the state. To fail to switch roles was considered unmanly and irresponsible, and Dover points out the mockery that
Aristophanes Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Ancient Greek comedy, comic playwright from Classical Athens, Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. The majority of his surviving play ...
(a very popular and successful Athenian comic playwright) inflicted in passing, in several plays, on a certain Athenian citizen who was notorious for his persistence in the role of beloved long after reaching his maturity. With regard to the record of cases in the law courts, Dover concentrates primarily on a certain case initiated by the orator
Demosthenes Demosthenes (; ; ; 384 – 12 October 322 BC) was a Greek statesman and orator in ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide insight into the politics and cu ...
. Demosthenes had been in an embassy sent to the neighboring state of Macedonia which had not only failed to achieve its mission, but was widely suspected of having accepted bribes from king Phillip to abandon their mission. Upon the return to Athens, Demosthenes initiated a prosecution of his fellow ambassadors for bribery in an attempt to avoid being indicted himself. The defendants successfully had the charges dismissed on the grounds that one of Demosthenes' co-plaintiffs, Timarchos, had been a boy prostitute and had thereby lost his rights as an Athenian citizen, becoming ineligible to bring suit in Athenian courts. Dover extensively quotes from the records of the trial to demonstrate, among other things, that while the Athenians attached no stigma to same sex relations ''per se'', they did adhere to certain conventions; in this case, that no citizen could be permitted to sell his sexual favors, which they regarded as the proper function of a slave, not a free man.


Reception

''Greek Homosexuality'' received some negative reviews. Nevertheless, the book had an enormous impact on the study of homosexuality in ancient Greece, partly because of Dover's credentials as an historian and a philologist. It influenced scholars such as the philosopher
Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...
, and the classicists David M. Halperin,
John J. Winkler John Jack Winkler (11 August 1943 in St. Louis – 26 April 1990 in Stanford, California) was an American philologist and Benedictine monk. Winkler studied classical studies at Saint Louis University from 1960 to 1963 and then went to England, wh ...
, and Eva Cantarella. Eva C. Keuls praised Dover for giving explicit discussions of subjects such as anal sex and intercrural copulation. The historian
Peter Gay Peter Joachim Gay ( né Fröhlich ; June 20, 1923 – May 12, 2015) was a German-American historian, educator, and author. He was a Sterling Professor of History at Yale University and former director of the New York Public Library's Center for ...
commended ''Greek Homosexuality'' as a "model of scholarship". The philosopher
Roger Scruton Sir Roger Vernon Scruton, (; 27 February 194412 January 2020) was an English philosopher, writer, and social critic who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy, particularly in the furtherance of Conservatism in the United Kingdom, c ...
dismissed it as "trivialising". Dover later granted that some of his claims in the first edition of ''Greek Homosexuality'' about the meaning of Greek words had been wrong. Halperin called the work "the first modern scholarly study" of its subject and "a triumph of empirical research", and identified it as one of the key intellectual influences on his '' One Hundred Years of Homosexuality'' (1990). Halperin argued that the publication of the work in 1978, together with the appearance of the English translation of Foucault's ''
The History of Sexuality ''The History of Sexuality'' () is a four-volume study of sexuality in the Western world by the French historian and philosopher Michel Foucault, in which the author examines the emergence of "sexuality" as a discursive object and separate spher ...
'', marked the beginning of a "new era in the study of the history of sexuality". The critic
Camille Paglia Camille Anna Paglia ( ; born April 2, 1947) is an American academic, social critic and Feminism, feminist. Paglia was a professor at the University of the Arts (Philadelphia), University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1984 until ...
disputed Halperin's characterization of ''Greek Homosexuality'', observing that while it was a valuable book on Greek pederasty, it was not an "intellectual" work and aside from Dover's discussion of intercrural copulation contained relatively little that was surprising. Cantarella has criticized some of Dover's conclusions, concluding that there was no restriction on anal intercourse in pederastic relationships, a claim rejected by the classicist Bruce Thornton. Critical discussions of Dover's work include those by David Cohen in ''Law, Sexuality and Society'' (1991) and Thornton in ''Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality'' (1997). The philosopher
Martha Nussbaum Martha Nussbaum (; Craven; born May 6, 1947) is an American philosopher and the current Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, where she is jointly appointed in the law school and the philos ...
described ''Greek Homosexuality'' as the "best historical account of Greek sexual customs". ''Greek Homosexuality'' was republished in a third edition, containing a foreword by Mark Masterson and James Robson discussing the book and its influence, in 2016.


References


Bibliography

* {{cite book, last = Dover, first = K. J., title = Greek Homosexuality, year = 1989, publisher = Harvard University Press, isbn = 978-0674362703, url = https://archive.org/details/greekhomosexuali00dove_0 1978 non-fiction books 1970s LGBTQ literature Ancient history of homosexuality Books about LGBTQ history Books by Kenneth Dover English-language non-fiction books Gay history Harvard University Press books LGBTQ history in Greece Pederasty in ancient Greece LGBTQ literature in the United States