Sexual life in ancient Greece : with thirty-two full-page plates

INTRODUCTION

an exultant creed of sensuality. Hence, apart from certain isolated exceptions, the great thinkers of Greece have also recognized the right of sensual enjoyments ; indeed, have even claimed them as a matter of course as a happiness of man. Not until he was an old man did Sophocles (Plato, Republic, i, 329¢) pronounce the well-known judgment that old age is to be praised, since it sets us free from the servitude of sensuality; as will be shown later, the great poet’s ideas on the subject were essentially different.

Athenzus (Ath., xii, 510b), who quotes this view of the aged Sophocles, then reminds us of an opinion of Empedocles, according to which mankind once knew no other goddess save the goddess of love, in whose honour they celebrated the festivals of life.

THE OMNIPOTENCE OF SENSUALITY IN GREEK LIFE

Even the gods, as early as the times of the Homeric poems, succumb to the desire for sexual gratification. To be able to assist the Greeks in their desperate struggle, Hera resolves to charm her husband, Zeus, by wantonness. She adorns and attires herself most carefully, as is described by Homer (J/iad, xiv, 153), who takes pleasure in breadth: of detail, but, not content with that, she also borrows from Aphrodite, under a false pretext, “ the magic girdle of love and longing, which subdues the hearts of all the gods and of mortal dwellers upon earth.” Aphrodite obeys the sublime queen of heaven, “and loosed from her bosom the broidered girdle, wherein are fashioned all manner of allurements ; therein is love, therein is longing and dalliancebeguilement that steals the wits of the wise.” Thereupon the sublime goddess repairs to Hypnos, the god of sleep, whom she requests to lull Zeus to sleep after she has enjoyed the pleasures of love with him, that she may have a free hand to help the Greeks.

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