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.
238/324 page 218
![In the Plutus] Aristophanes is careful to divide ipu>pa>oi, boys with lovers, into the x/0770-Toi, the good, and the -opvoL2 the strumpets. This distinction will serve as basis for the following remarks. A very definite line was drawn by the Athenians between boys who accepted the addresses of their lovers because they liked them or because they were ambitious of comradeship with men of spirit, and those who sold their bodies for money. Minute inquiry was never instituted into the conduct of the former class; else Alcibi- ades could not have made his famous declaration about Socrates,3 nor would Plato in the Plurdvus have regarded an occasional breach of chastity, under the compulsion of violent passion, as a venial error.4 The latter, on the other hand, besides being visited with universal censure, were disqualified by law from exercising the privileges of the franchise, from undertaking embassies, from frequenting the Agora, and from taking part in public festivals, under the penalty of death. iEschines, from whom we learn the wording of this statute, adds : 5 tovtov piv rov vopov Wijkc irepl twv ptipaKiwv tuw Trpo\upu^ €i<s to. kavruiv (Tto/AaTo. €£a/Au/)Tai'oi'TG>i\ This law he passed with regard to youths who sin with facility and readiness against their own bodies. He then proceeds to define the true nature of craipcta (prostitution), prohibited by law to citizens of Athens. It is this : o yap -rrpo^ iva to?to TvpaTTmv bri u> Se rqv 7rpa$Lv 7rotoi'/xci'os avro) /xot Sokcl tovtio c^o^os eTvai.1' Any one who acts in this way towards a single man, pro- vided he do it with payment, seems to me to be liable to the reproach in question. The whole discussion turns upon the word u«r66<$. The orator is cautious to meet the argument that a written contract was necessary in order to construct a case of ercupcta at law.7 In the statute, he observes, there is no mention of contract or deed in ni53- 2 Hesychius gives 7r6pvo<s as one of the meanings of SrjpiOKOLvos (cp. the notissima fossa of Catullus), and Xenophon, in the Memorabilia (i 6, 13), defines such a person as one who rrjv topav dpyvptov 7roA.et tu> j3ov\.opi€VU). ^Symp., 217. *Phcedr., 256. 5 Page 17. My quotations are made from Dobson's Oratores Attici, vol. xii, and the references are to his pages. 6 Page 30, 7 Page 67.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2041996x_0240.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
