Studies in the psychology of sex. Vol. 1, Sexual inversion / by Havelock Ellis and John Addington Symonds / by Havelock Ellis.
- Havelock Ellis
- Date:
- 1897
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Studies in the psychology of sex. Vol. 1, Sexual inversion / by Havelock Ellis and John Addington Symonds / by Havelock Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.
233/324 page 213
![lover of Hippias, erected an image of Eros in the Academy at Athens which bore this epigram : 7roifaAo//,77xai/' €0009 cot toVS' ISpvaaro /3co/aov Xap/xo? C7rt (TKL€poL<; rep/xacn yvfxvacriov.] Love, god of many evils and various devices, Charmus set up this altar to thee upon the shady boundaries of the gymnasium. Eros, in fact, was as much at home in the gymnasia of Athens as Aphrodite in the temples of Corinth; he was the patron of paiderastia, as she of female love. Thus Meleager writes: d Kv7rpis 6r)\ua yvvaiKOfxavrj cj)X6ya (3dkk€C apcreva 81 avros Eptos i/xepov d violet.2 The Cyprian queen, a woman, hurls the fire that maddens men for females ; but Eros himself sways the love of males for males. Plutarch, again, in the Erotic dialogue, alludes to vEpws, 'Acf)poSiTf]<; /jl7] 7rapovcr7j<5, Epcog xwP^ 'A^poSiT^? (Eros, where Aphrodite is not ; Eros apart from Aphrodite). These facts relating to the gymnasia justified Cicero in saying Mihi quidem haec in Graecorum gymnasiis nata consuetudo videtur : in quibus isti liberi et concessi sunt amoves. He adds, with a true Roman's antipathy to Greek aesthetics and their flimsy screen for sensuality, Bene ergo Ennius, flagitii principium est nudare inter cives corpora.* To me, indeed, it seems that this custom was generated in the gymnasiums of the Greeks, for there those loves are freely indulged and sanctioned. Ennius there- fore very properly observed that the beginning of vice is the habit of stripping the body among citizens. The Attic gymnasia and schools were regulated by strict laws. We have already seen that adults were not supposed to enter the palaestra ; and the penalty for the infringement of this rule by the gymnasiarch was death. In the same way schools had to be shut at sunset and not opened again before daybreak; nor was a grown-up man allowed to frequent them. The public chorus-teachers of boys were obliged to be above the age of forty.4 Slaves who presumed to make 1A then., xiii, 609 D. 2 Mouo-a 7rai8i/07, 86. 3 Compare the Atys of Catullus: Ego mulier, ego adolescens, ego ephebus, ego puer, Ego gymnasi fui fios, ego eram decus olei. 4 See the law on these points in JEsch. adv. Timarchum.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2041996x_0235.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
