Xenophon on male love

Classical Quarterly

Volumn 49, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 74-99

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EID: 30044435460     PISSN: 00098388     EISSN: 14716844     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/cq/49.1.74     Document Type: Review

References (36)

1. C. Hindley, 'EROS and military command in Xenophon', CQ 44 (1994), 347-366.
2. Both Sir Kenneth Dover and Michel Foucault, from their different viewpoints, handle the material in this way. See K. J. Dover, Greek Homosexuality (London, 1978);
3. M. Foucault, The History of Sexuality, vol. 2: The Use of Pleasure, trans. R. Hurley (Harmondsworth, 1986).
4. The relationship of Sokrates to the tradition about him over many areas of interest has been much illuminated by the volume of essays edited by P. A. Vander Waerdt, The Socratic Movement (Ithaca and London, 1994).
5. E. Cantarella, Bisexuality in the Ancient World, trans Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin (New Haven and London, 1992), pp. 63f.
6. B. S. Thornton, EROS: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality (Boulder, 1997), pp. 103, 202f.
7. On the wider literary background for the power of Aphrodite/Eros, see James Davidson, Courtesans and Fishcakes (London, 1997), pp. 159ff.
8. Also, for the meaning of 'nature', see K. J. Dover, Greek Popular Morality in the Time of Plato and Aristotle (Indianapolis, 1994), pp. 88-95.
9. On the ambivalence of the masculine grammatical gender, see R. Kühner and B. Gerth, Ansführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, Satzlehre, Erster Teil (Vierte Auflage, Hannover, 1955), §371.1, p. 82.
10. Cf. Mem. 2.1.5, where would-be adulterers are counselled (in the interest of avoiding awkward entanglements) to resort to a prostitute In both passages the masculine participle may include women, but were readily available: see D. M. Halperin, 'The democratic body: prostitution and citizenship in Classical Athens', in One Hundred Years of Homosexuality (New York and London, 1990), pp. 88-112.
11. The description of Iason is found in the speech of the admittedly partial Poludamas of Pharsalos, possibly Xenophon's informant on Thessalian affairs (cf. G. Cawkwell, Introduction to Xenophon: A History of My Times, trans. R. Warner [Harmondsworth, 1979, p. 26].
12. on which see J. J. Winkler, The Constraints of Desire (New York and London, 1990), p. 53.
13. The nature of the elder Aristippos' teaching is obscure: cf. W. K. C. Guthrie, Socrates (Cambridge, 1971), pp. 170ff.
14. See also Tarrant's discussion of 'moderate hedonism' in Xenophon's presentation of Sokrates (pp. 121ff.). For the importance of political involvement in the discussion with Aristipppos, and the role of self-control in this sphere, cf. D. K. O'Connor, 'The erotic self-sufficiency of Socrates', in Vander Vaerdt (n. 2), pp. 159-163: 'Aristippus' indifference to politics rather than his hedonism is Socrates' primary target' (p. 160).
15. here must surely be masculine. Not only is it picked up by in the following line, but the whole ensuing discussion revolves around boys, and its conclusion (§13) generalizes the message in explicitly masculine terms Given the context, one must also allow for the influence of the - inscriptions on vases: of Robinson and Fluck's list of 283 'love-names' (give or take one or two of doubtful gender) only about 34 (12%) are female. See D. M. Robinson and E. J. Fluck, A Study of the Greek Love-names (Baltimore, 1937).
16. Cf. G. Herman, Ritualised Friendship and the Greek City (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 58f.
17. The circumstances of Xenophon's marriage are obscure. E. Delebecque (Essai sur la Vie de Xénophon [Paris, 1957], p. 124) dates it to 399 or 398;
18. J. K. Anderson (Xenophon [London, 1974], p. 162) places it some time after 399 B.C.
19. Vivienne Gray draws attention to this characteristic of Xenophon's style, both in his historical writing and his more philosophical works. (V. Gray, The Character of Xenophon's Hellenica [London, 1989], pp. 76f.
20. Cf. O. Gigon, Konimentar zwn erslen Buch von Xenophons Memorabilien, Schweizerische Beiträge zur Altertumswissenschaft, Heft 5 [Basel, 1953], p. 110).
21. Further examples of Xenophon's sense of humour are collected in S. E. Bassett, 'Wit and humor in Xenophon', Classical Journal 12 (1917), 565-574.
22. J. D. Denniston, The Greek Particles (2nd edn, rev. K. J. Dover, Oxford, 1950; repr. Bristol, 996),p.209,§(x).
23. Guthrie (n. 29), pp. 147-64.
24. Cf. Plato, Symposium 184a, 185a;
25. Aristophanes, Wealth 153-9;
26. On the complex problems surrounding the relationship between the two dialogues on this subject, see K. J. Dover, 'The date of Plato's Symposium', Phronesis 10 (1965),
27. reprinted in K. J. Dover, The Greeks and their Legacy (Oxford, 1988).
28. See also K. J. Dover, Plato: Symposium (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 95f. (Pausanias);
29. C. Hindley, 'Law, society and homosexuality in Classical Athens (Comment)', Past & Present 133 (1991), p. 172 (Pausanias and Lusias 3); above, pp. 76f. (Autolukos).
30. Cf. V. J. Gray, 'Xenophon's Hiero and the meeting of the Wise Man and Tyrant in Greek literature', CQ 36 (1986), 115-123 at 117.
31. G. J. D. Aalders, 'Date and intention of Xenophon's Hiero', Mnemosyne, 4th ser. 6 (1953), 213f.
32. See Jean Hatzfeld, 'Note sur la date et l'objet du Hiéron de Xénophon', REG 59 (1946), 54-70;
33. This is important evidence for the Greek recognition of a distinction between hubristic and hubris-free sexual relations (though the word is not used). On in the sphere of sexual activity generally, see N. R. E. Fisher, Hybris (Warminster, 1992).
34. Xenophon: Hiero the Tyrant and Other Treatises, trans. R. Waterfield with introductions and notes by P. Cartledge (Harmondsworth, 1997), p. 12.
35. Lac.Pol. 2.12. Xenophon's conception of Sokratic would require a separate essay, but reference may be made to two recent studies of 'education through love' in the Sokratic tradition: C. H. Kahn, 'Aeschines on Socratic eros', and D. K. O'Connor, 'The erotic self-sufficiency of Socrates: a reading of Xenophon's Memorabilia' (both in Vander Waerdt, n. 2).
36. (On Xenophon's claims to memory, cf. D. Clay, in Vander Waerdt [n. 2], p. 42, n. 43.)