El encuadre de la mediación en los conflictos disciplinarios

21

Homoerotic themes abound in Greek lyric poetry from the seventh to the early fifth centuries b.c.e., and this material provides our earliest literary evidence. As with all literary and artistic works, one must take into account that the texts are not a direct transcription of social realities, but are ideal-ized projections. Nevertheless, they reflect an aristocratic culture in which homosexual relations were at home in the symposium, athletics, and even civic/religious ritual.

The earliest surviving lyric poetry is by Archilochus, active on the islands of Paros and Thasos in the first half of the seventh century b.c.e. Although he actually wrote in a variety of meters, he is usually called an “iambic” poet, because that meter was especially associated with the harsh satire and in-vective for which he is best known. Archilochus’ poetic persona presumes to represent the grumblings of the common man against the wealthy and powerful; his attacks on practitioners of same-gender love (1.1–3) should perhaps be understood in this context.

Alcman was a choral poet of the late seventh century, active in Sparta, which at that time may have been a very different society from the austere, rigidly disciplined military state known in later Greek history. He is most fa-mous for his “maidens’ songs.” A papyrus preserves a large portion of one (1.4): the style appears obscure, allusive, and gossipy. The poem gives the impression of having been composed for a specific performance by a par-ticular group of girls, but the names could be ritual pseudonyms assumed by different choruses. Critics have not implausibly supposed the perfor-mance to be part of a female initiation ceremony or cult, perhaps celebrat-ing a union of the two most prominently featured girls, Hagesichora and Agido. A marital context may also be indicated by the narration of a Spar-tan myth about Castor and Polydeuces’ quest to marry the daughters of

Leucippus. If the initiatory interpretation of this complex poem is correct, it could provide evidence for lesbian unions as a ritualized preparation of adolescent girls for later heterosexual marriage. In this case, the girls seem to be age-equals.

This type of ceremonial initiation in advance of marriage may also be the context for the nearly contemporary poems by Sappho of Lesbos, many of which treat female homoeroticism in explicit terms. Sappho certainly did not view herself as offering an alternative to heterosexual marriage; she was herself married and had a daughter named Cleis. Some of her poems seem to have been choral wedding hymns celebrating heterosexual marriage (1.8, 1.22), often in a bawdy and suggestive way (1.21, 1.24); others explore a young girl’s feelings over the loss of virginity (1.18, 1.19, 1.20, 1.23). The poems seem resigned to the inevitability of the women being separated, no matter how great their love (see especially 1.9, 1.16, 1.17), but recognize that a bond of sweet memories of pleasant times spent together will con-tinue to unite them (1.13, 1.14, 1.16, 1.17). 1.14 identifies Sappho’s rela-tionship quite clearly as one with a young girl; 1.5 implies that Sappho’s young beloved is someone who has not yet learned what it is like to be a pur-suing agent in a love relationship, but who soon will. These female relation-ships therefore seem to conform to the same age-differential pattern as was common with male pederasty.

Some critics see the context of Sappho’s social circle as musical and edu-cational rather than initiatory; several older critics even went so far as to deny any physical involvement with the girls she addresses. One recent critic has speculated that there existed a society of female symposia on archaic Lesbos similar to male drinking parties, but there is no convincing parallel for such an institution anywhere in Greece. Wine and banquet imagery play comparatively little role in Sappho’s poetry. The world she evokes is rather one of outdoor freedom amid the splendor and sensual delights of an open and bountiful Nature. In this realm her sensibilities and fineness of expres-sion excel those of any male counterpart.

Anacreon and Ibycus were both associated with the court of Polycrates, the tyrant who ruled Samos from about 535 to 522 b.c.e. and was an illus-trious patron of the arts. Anacreon’s poems (1.29 –34) tend to be witty and epigrammatic. Ibycus’ work (1.35 –36) at its best can be richly sensuous and lyrical. Testimonia tell us that he also wrote narrative poems telling of the mythological loves of Zeus for Ganymede and Talos for Rhadamanthys (frr. 289, 309 PMG). Like Sappho, both poets stress the lover’s sense of helplessness and lack of self-control.

The same theme is featured in Theognis’ many epigrams addressed to the boy Cyrnus. The Theognid collection (1.37– 83) is one of our most exten-sive samples of Greek shorter verse, indeed the only one, aside from Pindar’s odes for athletes, to survive as an actual manuscript, rather than as

frag-mentary papyri or quotations preserved by other authors. However, it is considered by many critics not to be the work of a single poet, but to repre-sent several generations of wisdom poetry gathered together at Megara and attributed to the name of “Theognis,” who may or may not have been an ac-tual poet of the sixth century. What can be said about this corpus is that it presents a unified persona and set of attitudes, particularly in regard to the pederastic theme: cynical, quarrelsome, resentful, ever ready to accuse, but nevertheless helplessly devoted. Most of the poems in the corpus are not specifically amatory, but are social, political, or ethical precepts transmitted to Cyrnus as part of his formation into an adult Megarian aristocrat in The-ognis’ own image. TheThe-ognis’ ever-gnawing suspicion of Cyrnus’ promiscu-ous flirtations with less worthy men may function as an allegory for his anx-iety that the Megarian body politic has deserted aristocrats like himself in favor of an endless succession of “new men,” whose wealth is based on trade and commerce. The pederastic, pedagogical, and political levels are all mu-tually imbricated in this collection.

From Simonides of Ceos (556 – 468 b.c.e.) we have an intriguing new fragment (1.84) in which he imagines himself, possibly in the afterlife, in the embraces of the fair young Thessalian prince Echecratidas. That pederas-tic motifs could be employed without embarrassment in praise of the rich and mighty is also suggested by a fragment of Ibycus (fr. 282[a] PMG, not in this collection) in which the physical beauty of the young Polycrates is praised and compared to that of the heroes at Troy. Pindar of Thebes (518 – c. 440 b.c.e.) wrote as one of his earliest commissions a choral ode for the adolescent athlete Hippocleas (1.86), in which he also praises the Thes-salian prince Thorax, who was apparently the boy’s lover and patron.

Even though Pindar declared that pederastic poems written out of per-sonal devotion to a boy are now passé (Isthmian 2.1–11), he found ample opportunity to incorporate pederastic themes into his poetry. Admiration for the naked bodies of youthful athletes is a leitmotif throughout Pindar’s encomiastic work. One of the most significant Pindaric texts is 1.87, achoral ode for Hieron, the ruler of Syracuse, which narrates the myth of Poseidon’s love for the boy Pelops. The myth clearly exhibits an initiatory structure and significance: the boy’s pederastic interlude with Poseidon is presented as enabling his later marriage to Hippodameia, and proves to be the critical transition between his childhood in Lydia and his claim to adult stature as a superior athletic competitor who can vanquish Hippodameia’s cruel and tyrannical father.

To summarize, archaic Greek lyric generally describes age-differential pederastic relations, although there is some evidence for relations or at-tractions among age-equal youths in Alcman (1.4), Theognis (1.41, 1.65), and Pindar (1.86). Only one text seems unequivocally to describe attraction to a slave (Anacreon 1.29), but Anacreon’s Cleobulus or Ibycus’ Euryalus

could also very well be slaves. Older lovers frequently describe themselves as at the mercy of their beloved or even captivated, but their disadvantage is sometimes counterbalanced by warnings that youth’s glory is brief or that time will soon put the beloved in a position like their own (1.5, 1.41, 1.62, 1.63, 1.67). Significantly, we find nascent in these poets a consciousness of sexual preference as something distinctive: different people enjoy different erotic pleasures, and boy-love is not universal (Archilochus 1.1; Theognis 1.73, 1.77, 1.78; Pindar 1.85, 1.86).

Bibliographical Note

On archaic Greek lyric and homosexuality generally, see Buffière (1980) 239 –77, E. Cantarella (1992) 12–16, and especially Percy (1996) 95–184, although the last is sometimes prone to press the evidence too far.

On homosexual themes in Archilochus, see Burnett (1983) 74 –75.

For the interpretation of Alcman’s First Maidens’ Song as a same-sex be-trothal, see Gentili (1988) 73–77, drawing on the important work of Calame (1997), especially 207– 63, concerning the poem’s initiatory character; Ca-lame, however, sees the homosexual element as a bond between the chorus-leader and younger girls of the chorus. See, in addition, the detailed com-mentary on the poem in Calame (1983), and the remarks of Lasserre (1974) 5–10, 30 –33. Parker (1993) 325–31 insists that the erotic language of this poem pertains only to relationships among the age-equal chorus members themselves. Others have seen the context of the poem as entirely hetero-sexual, either as a wedding hymn for Hagesichora (Griffiths [1972]) or as an advertisement of the girls’ attractiveness to a male audience (Clark [1996], Stehle [1997] 30 –39, 73– 88). On the relation of the myth to the rest of the poem, see Robbins (1994) and Too (1997).

For the theory that Sappho was engaged in a voluntary female initiation process, see Hallett (1979), Burnett (1983) 209 –28, Gentili (1988) 77– 89, and Calame (1997) 249 –52. For Sappho’s circle as educational, see Merkel-bach (1957). For a critical history of these and other constructions of Sap-pho’s social context, see Parker (1993); however, his own view of a society of age-equal relationships amid female symposia is no less speculative and is attacked by Lardinois (1994). For a good general introduction to Sappho’s work, see Williamson (1995); for a more personal view from a Marxist/femi-nist perspective, see du Bois (1995). See also Burnett (1983) 229 –313 and Snyder (1997) for readings of the major poems. For a collection of sev-eral important articles, all previously published, see Greene (1996a). In ad-dition to these, see Svenbro (1984) on 1.5, 1.7, and 1.9; Greene (2002) on 1.5, 1.7, and 1.16; Wills (1967) and Race (1989) on 1.7; Privitera (1969), Devereux (1970), McEvilley (1978), and Latacz (1985) on 1.9; Carey

1. The scholiast who quotes this fragment takes “horn-molder” as a reference to a man who braids his long hair into a pointed “horn,” an affected archaic hairstyle, but Archilochus may also mean this phrase in an obscene sense (horn = penis). In either case, the line may be meant as a parody of the first line of Homer’s Iliad.

(1978) and Hague (1984) on 1.17. On Sappho’s later reputation and liter-ary influence, see De Jean (1989), Greene (1996b), and Prins (1999).

On erotic themes in Anacreon, see Goldhill (1987) and Gentili (1988) 89 –104. On transvestism and possible satire against effeminates, see Slater (1978), Brown (1983), and S. D. Price (1990), but it is unclear whether the fragment in question (fr. 388 PMG) has anything to do with homosexuality.

On Theognis’ pederastic poems, see Lewis (1985) and Edmunds (1987).

Vetta (1980) provides extensive commentary on all the poems of “book 2”

(see 1.44). Hunter (1993b) and Mace (1996) discuss Simonides, 1.84.

For Pindar’s use of erotic motifs to celebrate boy victors in his epini-cian odes, see von der Mühll (1964), Lasserre (1974) 17–20, Crotty (1982) 92–103, Instone (1990), Steiner (1998) 136 – 42, and Hubbard (2003).

N. Nicholson (2000) shows how these motifs are extended to adult patrons as well. N. Nicholson (1998) shows how expressions of pederastic desire in Pindar and Theognis confirm authorial assertions of truth and sincerity.

On 1.85 and 1.86, see Hubbard (2002). On innovative and traditional ele-ments in the Pelops myth of 1.87, see Kakridis (1930), Köhnken (1974), and Howie (1983). On its application to the praise of Hieron, see Cairns (1977) and Burgess (1993). For its initiatory structure and significance, see Sergent (1986) 57–78 and Hubbard (1987). Gerber (1982) provides a de-tailed commentary.

On the Harmodius song, see Ehrenberg (1956) and the items noted in the bibliographical note of chapter 2.

1.1 Archilochus, fragment 25.1–5 West

The following fragment comes from a tattered papyrus first published in 1954. Itali-cized words are editorial conjecture.

. . . man’s nature is not the same,

But each man delights his heart in something different.

. . . cock pleases Melesander,

. . . pleases the shepherd Phalangius.

No prophet other than I tells this to you.

1.2 Archilochus, fragment 117 W Sing of Glaucus the horn-molder.¹

2. This could be a reference to Archilochus’ attacks on the daughters of Lycambes. Ac-cording to legend, one of the daughters was engaged to the poet until her father broke off the engagement. But given the emphasis on the women’s own volition and their juxtaposition with male kinaidoi, this could also be a reference to lesbianism.

3. Hagesichora, whose name means “leader of the chorus/dance.”

1.3 Archilochus, fragment 294 W

The following are not the actual words of Archilochus but a quotation from the late oracle-critic Oenomaus, invoking Archilochus’ familiar subject matter.

What do you bid us to do, if we are to appear worthy of your hospitality?

Are we, in the style of Archilochus, in metrical form, to revile women who don’t wish to marry us²and grab hold of perverts (kinaidoi), since they are by far the basest among all other base men?

1.4 Alcman, First Maidens’ Song 34 –101

This song was probably performed in Sparta by a female chorus (or two semichoruses) led by Hagesichora and Agido. Some commentators consider it to be an initiation rite, perhaps even a betrothal of the two chorus leaders. The poem is preserved on a papyrus that breaks off abruptly after v. 101. The first thirty-three lines are very fragmentary:

they seem to narrate a story from Spartan mythology, the killing of the ten sons of King Hippocoon by their cousins Castor and Polydeuces, who were rival suitors for the same pair of maidens. V. 34 begins by justifying the act.

. . . they suffered unforgettably

After contriving evil deeds— 35

There is a vengeance of the gods—

But he is blessed, who with wisdom Weaves his day to the end

Without tears. And I sing

Of Agido’s radiance: I see 40

Her as the sun, which Agido Calls as witness to shine

For us. Yet for me either to praise

Or blame her, the glorious chorus leader³

In no way allows, but she herself 45

Stands out just as if someone Should set among the herds a horse,

4. An ancient note in the papyrus says this refers to afternoon dreams of a man who sleeps in the shade of a rock; other commentators think that the Greek word may be a dialectal vari-ant for “winged” dreams.

5. I.e., Venetian: the flatlands of the northern Adriatic were a famous horse-raising area in antiquity.

6. The “Doves,” a cluster of six stars visible just before dawn in the late spring sky: some commentators take this as a metaphorical name for Hagesichora and Agido (who are imagined as outshining the rest of the chorus), while others take it as the name of a rival chorus.

7. An exceptionally bright star: the comparison intensifies the brilliance attributed to the Peleiades, which are actually much fainter.

8. The Greek word may also mean “plow,” which would be an appropriate offering if this cer-emony is part of a spring fertility ritual. But robes were common offerings to goddesses as well.

9. Probably the dawn goddess, to be identified with Aotis in v. 88. The chorus’ fight with the Peleiades could be meant to represent the battle between night and dawn.

10. Probably a bracelet or armlet.

11. This and the following names may be those of the other chorus members. Aenesim-brota may be the chorus trainer.

Sturdy, prize-winning, thunderhoofed, From dreams beneath the rock.⁴

Don’t you see? The racer 50

Is Enetic,⁵but the hair Of my cousin

Hagesichora blooms Like pure gold,

And her silver face— 55

Why should I tell you clearly?

Here is Hagesichora,

But the second after Agido in beauty

Will run as a Kolaxian horse with an Ibenian:

For these Peleiades,⁶rising through ambrosial 60

Night like the star Sirius,⁷

While we bring the robe⁸to Orthria,⁹ Fight with us.

Neither could such an abundance

Of purple exist as to defend us, 65

Nor an intricate snake¹⁰ All gold, nor Lydian Headband, the delight Of dark-eyed girls,

Not Nanno’s hair,¹¹ 70

Nor even divine Areta,

12. See n. 9.

13. Probably a metaphor for victory in choral competition. Compare the battle metaphor of v. 63.

14. In a four-horse chariot team, the trace-horse was the one on the outside and oppo-site to the direction of turns in the course; it therefore had to be the strongest and swiftest of the four horses. Here, it is probably a metaphor for the chorus leader, just like the navigator in v. 95.

15. Divine temptresses who lured sailors to shipwreck with their beautiful songs.

16. This chorus apparently consisted of ten girls—Hagesichora, Agido, and perhaps the eight named in vv. 70 –76. The sense of the ten being equal to eleven may be that Hagesichora is so good as to take the place of two.

Not Sylacis and Clesisera;

Nor once at Aenesimbrota’s will you say:

“Oh that Astaphis be mine,

May Philylla look over 75

And Damareta and desired Ianthemis”—

But Hagesichora overwhelms me.

For isn’t lovely-ankled Hagesichora here?

She remains beside Agido 80

And praises our feasts.

O gods, receive their prayers:

From gods come success And fulfillment. Chorus leader,

I would speak—myself a girl 85

Screeching in vain, an owl From a rafter—still I want most To please Aotis,¹²since she has been The healer of our toils;

But through Hagesichora young women 90

Enter into desired peace.¹³ For . . . by the trace-horse¹⁴ . . . . And on a ship one must

Listen above all to the navigator. 95

Yet she is not more musical Than the Sirens:¹⁵

They are goddesses, but instead of eleven These ten girls sing;¹⁶

17. A fabled river in Asia Minor.

18. This is a typical convention of Greek prayers called a hypomnesis, a reminder of past ser-vices either by the supplicant to the divinity or vice versa.

She sings like a swan on the streams 100

Of Xanthus.¹⁷The one with alluring golden hair . . .

1.5 Sappho, fragment 1 Voigt

This text is probably a complete poem in the genre of a “cletic hymn,” summoning a god’s presence.

On the throne of many hues, immortal Aphrodite, Child of Zeus, weaving wiles—I beg you

Not to subdue my spirit, Queen, With pain or sorrow,

But come—if ever before¹⁸ 5

Having heard my voice from far away You listened, and leaving your father’s

Golden home you came

In your chariot yoked with swift, lovely

Sparrows bringing you over the dark Earth, 10

Thick-feathered wings swirling down From the sky through mid-air, Arriving quickly—you, Blessed One, With a smile on your unaging face

Asking again what I have suffered 15

And why I am calling again

And in my wild heart what did I most wish To happen to me: “Again whom must I persuade Back into the harness of your love?

Sappho, who wrongs you? 20

For if she flees, soon she’ll pursue;

She doesn’t accept gifts, but she’ll give;

If not now loving, soon she’ll love Even against her will.”

Come to me now again, release me from 25

This pain, everything my spirit longs To have fulfilled, fulfill, and you

Be my ally.

19. An alternate name for Aphrodite, the love goddess, derived from her birth on the is-land of Cyprus.

20. Her husband, Menelaus, the king of Sparta.

1.6 Sappho, fragment 2 V Come to me from Crete to this holy

1.6 Sappho, fragment 2 V Come to me from Crete to this holy