Abuse of Boys in the Ancient Greece and Rome

"The distrust of reason is perhaps the most significant trait of fascism."
-- William Ebenstein, Today's Isms, 1967

Among gay writers and activists today there is a troubling tendency to idealize Hellenic Greece, a society which was heavily influenced, if not dominated, by a male homosexual elite. For example, Michael Hattersley has authored a glowing account about the "gay king" Alexander and has described Hellenic Greece as "the most gay-friendly society in history." ¹ This requires critical scrutiny from scholars and ethicists who do not share the pro-gay bias.

Such scrutiny needs to begin with a brief mention of astrology and those who believe in it. They are currently celebrating the idea that we are entering an astrological "New Age" which they call the "Age of Aquarius." In an astonishing collapse of academic standards, this mystical notion has even been embraced by a PhD dissertation accepted by the University of Oklahoma anthropology department. Within gay/lesbian culture, there is a special meaning attached to the "New Age" idea. It is rooted in the ancient Greek myth of Ganymede.

An adequate understanding of the Ganymede story requires a brief look at the general environment of ancient Greece, a society based upon misogyny, militarism, imperialism, and slavery. A homosexual male elite also enjoyed a privileged position in ancient Greece, but its members by no means conformed to the common stereotype of effeminacy. On the contrary, they were especially effective in the use of violence, and were consequently the best soldiers. Enjoying high status in a militaristic society, they were able to institutionalize the practice of pederasty (man-to-boy sex) and have their way with boys as young as twelve.

Ganymede was believed to be a beautiful boy abducted by the bisexual God Zeus and taken to Mount Olympius for a homosexual relationship. The abduction is represented in The Rape of Ganymede a painting completed in 1700 by Anton Domenico Gabbiani. As the story goes, Zeus' jeolous wife Hera raised objections. Bowing to her will, Zeus transformed the boy into the constellation Aquarius. Writing for the Encyclopedie van de Mythologie, Mia Gibson states that "Zeus' torrid affair with Ganymede was a religious justification for homosexuality within the Greek culture."

This viewpoint is shared by Barbara Walker, who compiled The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. Simultaneously, the creation of the Ganymede myth reflected the reduced power of Greek women. Walker continues: ²

He became cupbearer to the Gods, replacing Hebe who was the virgin aspect of Mother Hera. Thus the dispenser of immortality was made male instead of female.

In Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State , Karl Marx's collaborator Friedrich Engels denounced the ancient Greeks for "the abominable practice of pederasty" and for degrading "their gods and themselves with the myth of Ganymede." It appears likely that the myth came into existence as a reflection of the social power of the male homosexual elite and its need to construct a religious belief system to reinforce the sexual abuse of children while at the same time minimizing the social and political power of women.

In contemporary gay culture the "Age of Aquarius" is an inside joke in celebration of homosexual pedophilia. Bringing the joke to the surface, planners of the 1998 Gay and Lesbian Festival in Auckland, New Zealand, used the Age of Aquarius and the Ganymede story as official themes. (When I first posted this article, I inserted a link to an Auckland website announcing this parade. For some reason unknown to me, the website was taken down after I referenced it.)

Gay Professor Endorses Pederasty

Has the popularization of the Aquarian idea empowered pederasts to promote their agenda in contemporary society? A clue in answer to this question is given by William Armstrong Percy, a gay history professor at the University of Massachusetts. Percy is the author of a book entitled Pederasty and Pedagogy in Ancient Greece. A reviewer for the book has this to say:

Pederasty was from the beginning both physical and emotional, the highest and most intense type of male bonding. These pederastic bonds, Percy believes, were responsible for the rise of Hellas and the 'Greek miracle': in two centuries the population of Attica, a mere 45,000 adult males in six generations, produced an astounding number of great men who laid the enduring foundations of Western thought and civilization.

Percy would have us believe that all the wonders of civilization are owed to the fact that Greek homosexuals were allowed to exploit children sexually. Further, in The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide he writes that "for the Greeks a sexual relationship between an adolescent male and an adult male could under the proper circumstances involve the youth in a loving and supportive union." He admits that the "adolescent" males might have been as young as twelve. ³ That such trash could come from a history professor at a prestigious university is nothing less than appalling.


A More Realistic View

In a commentary published by The Boston Globe, Richard Hoffman discusses the lawsuit brought against the North American Man-Boy Love Association, a gay pedophile group, by the parents of Jeffrey Curley. In 1997, at age 10, Curley had been murdered by two child molesters alleged to have been influenced by NAMBLA literature. Describing NAMBLA's propaganda tactics, he writes:

Be prepared for much talk about "the glory that was Greece," but do not expect to hear the truth that the consorts of these ancestral "boy-lovers" were slave children, or that their masters were the elite of a phallic hierarchy as misogynist as any that has ever existed. Like propagandists everywhere, NAMBLA plunders the past for anything it can use to forge a ratifying myth. The NAMBLA version of classical Greece is an ideologically driven infomercial.

More Gay Praise for Ancient Greece

Within contemporary gay culture there are other writers and activists who celebrate ancient Greece. Michael Hattersley's article, published in The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review offers generous praise to Alexander the Great. ¹ Imposing Greek culture everywhere he went, in terms of the amount of land conquered Alexander was the most successful imperialist the world had ever known at that time.

And why does Hattersley make a celebration of Alexander's vast conquests? Alexander, he writes, was "the greatest of gay heroes." His rule, says Hattersley, resulted in the most "gay-friendly society in human history." Hattersley believes that Alexander was kind to those he conquered, because he always "implanted much higher standards of culture." Indeed, in deference to these "high standards," the gentle imperialist Alexander captured and destroyed Thebes and sold its inhabitants into slavery. Hattersley writes that Alexander's mentor, Aristotle, "believed that Greeks had nothing to learn from other cultures."

Alexander the Child Molester

Gay writer Paul Russell, author of The Gay 100, provides additional interesting information about Alexander, who never lost a battle in eleven years of warfare. ⁴ Alexander also had a sexual relationship with a boy, Bagoas, who was apparently a slave. Russell, seemingly wishing to avoid explicit reference to this sordid state of affairs, writes that Alexander "acquired" the boy from the defeated Persian Darius.

It is interesting to observe how these gay writers express such deep admiration for pederasts, imperialists, and military conquerors, while simultaneously affirming the contempt which masculine homosexual males display for effeminacy. Concluding his chapter on Alexander, Russell writes:

Alexander has been...one of those beacons by which gay people have been able to locate themselves in the world. Furthermore, his example has always offered a persuasive rebuttal to the stereotyped equation of male homosexuality and effeminacy... a fighting man who loved men.

The Gay Emperors of Rome

Hattersley also offers praise for three homosexual Roman emperors of the second century AD: Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus. He writes that their time was "the greatest and most humane period of ancient Rome" and that they "emulated Alexander and Hellenism in their philosophy and governance."

Overlooked by Hattersley in his joyful assessment is the fact that one of the most brutal entertainment forms ever known to humanity, gladiatorial combat, was thriving in Rome at the time these gay emperors were enjoying their rule. The contests did not only involve men killing each other but also killing animals or being killed by them. Many of the gladiators were slaves or prisoners of war. The Coliseum became the arena for gladiator combat, and its construction was completed eighteen years before Trajan assumed the throne in 98 AD. Trajan experienced stimulation from blood, violence, death, tormented animals, and male muscularity -- all of which were on display for his pleasure during gladiator events. Trajan's perverse passion appears to have arisen from a mix of voyeurism and bestiality inflamed by the torch of homoerotic sadism. Information available at the Bates College website suggests that his appetite for sordid forms of excitement was infinite and that cruelty to animals ignited a special source of arousal for him:

The slaughter of wildlife in these contests were astonishing. Hundreds in a day was routine. At the games held by Trajan when he became Emperor, 9,000 were killed. Today we are appalled by the scale of wanton destruction.

Researchers for the Getty Museum also suggest that modern Americans would be troubled by the violence of Roman entertainment during the days of Trajan, who sponsored gladiator contests and animal fights to celebrate his military victories. Another deplorable event taking place under the rule of the "humane" Trajan was the execution of St. Ignatius by having him thrown to the lions.

An Unflattering View of Hadrian

Russell provides information by which we can assess the "humane" deeds of the homosexual emperor Hadrian, who followed Trajan. Hadrian came to power in the midst of suspicion that he had murdered Trajan, who died only two days after adopting Hadrian and thus making him heir to the throne. Hadrian had four Roman Senators killed in order to silence these accusations. Also noteworthy is the fact that he crushed a Jewish revolt in Palestine in 135 AD.

Following the example of the "gay-friendly" Hellenic Greeks, Hadrian was also a child molester. Of course, gay author Russell does not describe him that way, but does inform us that Hadrian had a sexual relationship with a boy named Antinous, who was only 13 when it was initiated. After Antinous mysteriously drowned in the Nile, speculation emerged that his death was a suicide undertaken as an escape from the clutches of the "humane" Hadrian. Russell, who is an English professor at Vassar, finds no reason to condemn Hadrian for his sexual use of a boy. On the contrary, he describes Hadrian and Antinous as "one of the greatest pairs of lovers in the history of the world."

Rape of Male Slaves by Greek Homosexual Patriarchs

Along with supposedly elevating "standards of culture," Hattersley heaps praise on the imperialist conqueror Alexander for increasing "human freedom and dignity." A good example of these "high standards" which gay writers admire in ancient Greece might be found in the writings of Michel Foucault, who is considered to be an intellectual leader in gay literary circles. Confirming that butch homosexual males in ancient Greece feared being feminized in their sexual relations, he observes that the use of male slaves helped resolve this problem:⁵

Even the Greeks had a problem with being the passive partner in a love relationship. For a Greek nobleman to make love to a passive male slave was natural, since the slave was by nature an inferior; but when two Greek men of the same social class made love it was a real problem because neither felt he should humble himself before the other.

Today homosexuals still have this problem. Most homosexuals feel that the passive role is in some way demeaning. S & M [sadomasochism] has actually helped alleviate this problem somewhat.

Of supreme interest is Foucault's belief that men captured by military conquest were “by nature” inferior and therefore suitable for the “female” role in anal intercourse. He appears to rely on this to justify their enslavement for sexual exploitation by privileged homosexual men in Athenian society. The passage simultaneously betrays the general contempt for womanhood among homosexual men along with Foucault’s own tolerance of slavery and rape.

The idea of sadomasochism is nothing more than academic window-dressing used in a shallow attempt to dignify the gays' inner craving for violence and domination. Of Foucault, Russell writes:

"Limit experiences," like sadomasochism particularly interested him. On that subject, he said, "I don't think that this movement of sexual practices has anything to do with the disclosure of the uncovering of S/M tendencies deep within our unconscious. I think that S/M is much more than that; it's the real creation of new possibilities of pleasure..."

The Homosexist Patriarchy

Returning to the myth of Ganymede, Mia Gibson writes that, according to Apollodorus, "this myth emphasized the victory of patriarchy over matriarchy." She continues:

This [myth] showed that men did not need women to exist, therefore they did not need the attentions of women. The philosopher Plato used this myth to justify his sexual feelings towards his all male pupils.

Plato also was the author of The Symposium a dialogue among six Greek males praising the God Eros. Yves Bonnefoy writes: ⁶

The sexual relationship to which all of the participants [in The Symposium] without exception gave the highest value is uncontestedly the sexual relation between masculine partners. . . .Sexual relations between male and female partners come second, in that this type of relationship, beyond allowing for sexual satisfaction, assures the procreation of children. Finally, in last place is the relationship between female partners. . .

While the male homosexual elite maintained its grip on Greek society, women were excluded from public life and were considered of little value for anything other than sexual satisfaction and breeding. Feminists and lesbians who believe that gay males are their allies in the struggle against "heterosexist patriarchy" are encouraged to rethink their position. Their real enemy might very well be the kind of homosexist patriarchy which enjoyed a high degree of political power in "gay-friendly" ancient Greece.

According to gay writer Felice Picano, some feminists are aware of the dangers of allowing a gay male elite to establish hegemeny over the rest of society. While accusing them of spreading fear about the "so-called 'gay clone agenda,' " he gives an adequate summary of their viewpoint: ⁷

I recall a private conversation in which feminists outlined to me their notion of what an ideal "gay male world" would be like. In this scenario, women have even less respect and less power than in our current misogynistic set-up, because aside from a few women allowed in as decoration, women would simply have no raison d'être except as breeding machines.

Homosexuality and the Judaeo-Christian Tradition

The evidence reviewed in this paper suggests that homosexual male elites routinely abused boys and male slaves when the ancient world was being dominated by Greeks and Romans. The search for relief from this oppression may have been a big factor in the eventual establishment of the Judaeo-Christian ethic, with its condemnation of homosexuality.

This hypothesis is tacitly suggested in a 1933 article in The Nation by Ludwig Lewisohn, who observed that the Nazi movement was "in fact and by certain aspects of its avowed ideology drenched through and through with homo-erotic feeling and practice." ⁸ He also wrote that the Nazis identified with the ancient Greeks and were "well-purged of Judaeo-Christian inhibitions" while "returning to the noble practices of their Greek ancestors," although encumbered by "an obscure feeling of guilt inherited from 1,500 years of apparent submission to the Judaeo-Christian ethic."

References

1. Michael Hattersley, "The Gayness of King Alexander ," The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review 5, no. 4 (Fall 1998)

2. Barbara Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets (HarperSanFrancisco, 1983)

3. William A. Percy III, "Greek Pederasty Revisited," The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, May-June 2001 (Vol VIII, No. 3)

4. Paul Russell, The Gay 100 (New York: Citadel, 1995)

5. Michel Foucault, Ethics Subjectivity and Truth, Vol. I (New York: The New Press, 1997), p. 152.

6. Yves Bonnefoy, Mythologies (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1991), p. 470

7. Felice Picano, "Effeminacy in Pre-Stonewall America," The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review 5, no. 4 (Fall 1998)

8. Ludwig Lewisohn, "The New Kultur," The Nation, June 21, 1933, p. 695.

About the Author

Michael P. Wright was graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a BA in political science and MA in sociology. His professional record includes research in a variety of areas including health science, energy economics, American Indian history, and computer software development for health risk assessment. He has on several occasions appeared before Oklahoma legislative committees in the capacity of expert witness. Wright has also been the recipient of four federal grants from the Small Business Innovation Research program of the US Public Health Service. In this capacity part of his tasks included study of diagnostic error.
Wright is listed in the 24th and 25th editions of Who's Who in the South and Southwest, published by Marquis, and the 17th edition of the British directory Men of Achievement. He has been published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (Sept/Oct. 1997), the Journal of the American Medical Association (letter, Mar 24/31, 1993), and AIDS Education and Prevention (fall 1991). Additionally, his work has been presented in the proceedings of the Oklahoma Symposium on Artificial Intelligence (November 1993, Oklahoma State University), and he has been a guest opinion writer for the San Francisco Chronicle (May 24, 2000).