World History of Male Love - Home Page Greek Hall

Passion

Lovers shown in sexual embrace, the older man aroused, the younger dispassionate - the 'approved' convention for pederastic couples. In the background a slave (the boy's pedagogue?) glances away discreetly.* 

*At the time, pedagogues were slaves employed as bodyguards for aristocratic youths, in large measure to protect them from the attentions of men. 

Basel.

Passion

Lovers shown in sexual embrace, the older man aroused, the younger dispassionate — the "approved" convention for pederastic couples. In the background a slave (the boy's pedagogue?) glances away discreetly.*

*At the time, pedagogues were slaves employed as bodyguards for aristocratic youths, in large measure to protect them from the attentions of men.


Basel.


click image to enlarge

Another pelike, a classic example of a particular style of men making love. The scene takes place at a gymnasium - the standard location for physical exercise as well as intellectual pursuits and erotic adventures - as we can tell by the sponge (used for scrubbing down after exercise, together with the strigil, a sickle-shaped metal scraper used to clean the bulk of the oil and dust off the skin) hanging on the wall. The man is absorbed in the passion of the sex, but this time the boyfriend remains impassive, while a slave sitting on the ground averts his gaze. It would be a stretch to call this erotic art, since the whole scene is austere. It's not the sex that strikes us, but the detachment of the men. Everyone is dressed, and the nudity that is proudly displayed in other examples of Greek homoerotic art, here gives way to a very real nakedness of accidentally exposed bodies. This is exactly the kind of art that has given rise to the construction of Greek male love as an imposition of the man upon the boy. Without a doubt it reflects what must have been a reality to some in ancient Greece. But not to others.

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