Part 3 (2/2)

Lucian represents, of course, a late period of Attic life. But his picture of the perfect boy completes, and in some points supplements, that of Aristophanes. Callicratidas, in the _Dialogue on Love_, has just drawn an unpleasing picture of a woman, surrounded in a fusty boudoir with her rouge-pots and cosmetics, perfumes, paints, combs, looking-gla.s.ses, hair-dyes, and curling irons. Then he turns to praise boys:[104]

”How different is the boy! In the morning, he rises from his chaste couch, washes the sleep from his eyes with cold water, puts on his chlamys,[105] and takes his way to the school of the musician or the gymnast. His tutors and guardians attend him, and his eyes are bent upon the ground. He spends the morning in studying the poets and philosophers, in riding, or in military drill. Then he betakes himself to the wrestling-ground, and hardens his body with noontide heat and sweat and dust. The bath follows and a modest meal. After this he returns for awhile to study the lives of heroes and great men. After a frugal supper sleep at last is shed upon his eyelids.”

Such is Lucian's sketch of the day spent by a young Greek at the famous University of Athens. Much is, undoubtedly, omitted; but enough is said to indicate the simple occupations to which an Athenian youth, capable of inspiring an enthusiastic affection, was addicted. Then follows a burst of rhetoric, which reveals, when we compare it with the dislike expressed for women, the deeply-seated virile nature of Greek love.

”Truly he is worthy to be loved. Who would not love Hermes in the palaestra, or Phbus at the lyre, or Castor on the racing-ground?

Who would not wish to sit face to face with such a youth, to hear him talk, to share his toils, to walk with him, to nurse him in sickness, to attend him on the sea, to suffer chains and darkness with him if need be? He who hated him should be my foe, and who so loved him should be loved by me. At his death I would die; one grave should cover us both; one cruel hand cut short our lives!”

In the sequel of the dialogue Lucian makes it clear that he intends these raptures of Callicratidas to be taken in great measure for romantic boasting. Yet the fact remains that, till the last, Greek paiderastia among the better sort of men implied no effeminacy.

Community of interest in sport, in exercise, and in open-air life rendered it attractive.[106]

”Son of Eudiades, Euphorion, After the boxing-match, in which he beat, With wreaths I crowned, and set fine silk upon, His forehead and soft blossoms honey-sweet; Then thrice I kissed him all beblooded there; His mouth I kissed, his eyes, his every bruise; More fragrant far than frankincense, I swear.

Was the fierce chrism that from his brows did ooze.”

”I do not care for curls or tresses Displayed in wily wildernesses; I do not prize the arts that dye A painted cheek with hues that fly: Give me a boy whose face and hand Are rough with dust or circus-sand, Whose ruddy flesh exhales the scent Or health without embellishment: Sweet to my sense is such a youth, Whose charms have all the charm of truth: Leave paints and perfumes, rouge, and curls, To lazy, lewd Corinthian girls.”

The palaestra was the place at Athens where lovers enjoyed the greatest freedom. In the _Phaedrus_ Plato observes that the attachment of the lover for a boy grew by meetings and personal contact[107] in the gymnasiums and other social resorts, and in the _Symposium_ he mentions gymnastic exercises, with philosophy, and paiderastia, as the three pursuits of freemen most obnoxious to despots. aeschines, again describing the manners of boy-lovers in language familiar to his audience, uses these phrases: ”having grown up in gymnasium and games,”

and ”the man having been a noisy haunter of gymnasiums, and having been the lover of mult.i.tudes.” Aristophanes, also, in the _Wasps_,[108]

employs similar language: ”and not seeking to go revelling around in exercising grounds.” I may compare Lucian, _Amores_, cap. 2, ”you care for gymnasiums and their sleek oiled combatants,” which is said to a notorious boy-lover. Boys and men met together with considerable liberty in the porches, peristyles and other adjuncts to an Attic wrestling-ground; and it was here, too, that sophists and philosophers established themselves, with the certainty of attracting a large and eager audience for their discussions. It is true that an ancient law forbade the presence of adults in the wrestling-grounds of boys; but this law appears to have become almost wholly obsolete in the days of Plato. Socrates, for example, in the _Charmides_, goes down immediately after his arrival from the camp at Potidaea into the palaestra of Taureas to hear the news of the day, and the very first question which he asks his friends is whether a new beauty has appeared among the youths.[109]

So again in the _Lysis_, Hippothales invites Socrates to enter the private palaestra of Miccus, where boys and men were exercising together on the feast-day of Hermes.[110] ”The building,” he remarks, ”is a newly-erected palaestra, and the entertainment is generally conversation, to which you are welcome.” The scene which immediately follows is well known to Greek students as one of the most beautiful and vivid pictures of Athenian life. One group of youths are sacrificing to Hermes; another are casting dice in a corner of the dressing-room. Lysis himself is ”standing among the other boys and youths, having a crown upon his head, like a fair vision, and not less worthy of praise for his goodness than for his beauty.” The modesty of Lysis is shown by the shyness which prevents him joining Socrates' party until he has obtained the company of some of his young friends. Then a circle of boys and men is formed in a corner of the court, and a conversation upon friends.h.i.+p begins.

Hippothales, the lover of Lysis, keeps at a decorous distance in the background. Not less graceful as a picture is the opening of the _Charmides_. In answer to a question of Socrates, the frequenters of the palaestra tell him to expect the coming of young Charmides. He will then see the most beautiful boy in Athens at the time: ”for those who are just entering are the advanced guard of the great beauty of the day, and he is likely to be not far off.” There is a noise and a bustle at the door, and while the Socratic party continues talking Charmides enters.

The effect produced is overpowering:[111]--

”You know, my friend, that I cannot measure anything, and of the beautiful I am simply such a measure as a white line is of chalk; for almost all young persons appear to be beautiful in my eyes. But at that moment when I saw him coming in, I confess that I was quite astonished at his beauty and his stature; all the world seemed to be enamoured of him; amazement and confusion reigned when he entered; and a troop of lovers followed him. That grown-up men like ourselves should have been affected in this way was not surprising, but I observed that there was the same feeling among the boys; all of them, down to the very least child, turned and looked at him, as if he had been a statue.”

Charmides, like Lysis, is persuaded to sit down by Socrates, who opens a discussion upon the appropriate question of _Sophrosyne_, or modest temperance and self-restraint.[112]

”He came as he was bidden, and sat down between Critias and me.

Great amus.e.m.e.nt was occasioned by everyone pus.h.i.+ng with might and main at his neighbour in order to make a place for him next to them, until at the two ends of the row one had to get up, and the other was rolled over sideways. Now I, my friend, was beginning to feel awkward; my former bold belief in my powers of conversing with him had vanished. And when Critias told him that I was the person who had the cure, he looked at me in such an indescribable manner, and was going to ask a question; and then all the people in the palaestra crowded about us, and, O rare! I caught a sight of the inwards of his garment, and took the flame. Then I could no longer contain myself. I thought how well Cydias understood the nature of love when, in speaking of a fair youth, he warns someone, 'not to bring the fawn in the sight of the lion to be devoured by him,' for I felt that I had been overcome by a sort of wild-beast appet.i.te.”

The whole tenor of the dialogue makes it clear that, in spite of the admiration he excited, the honour paid him by a public character like Socrates and the troops of lovers and of friends surrounding him, yet Charmides was unspoiled. His docility, modesty, simplicity, and healthiness of soul are at least as remarkable as the beauty for which he was so famous.

A similar impression is produced upon our minds by Autolycus in the _Symposium_ of Xenophon.[113] Callias, his acknowledged lover[114] had invited him to a banquet after a victory which he had gained in the pancration; and many other guests, including the Socratic party, were asked to meet him. Autolycus came, attended by his father; and as soon as the tables were covered and the seats had been arranged, a kind of divine awe fell upon the company. The grown-up men were dazzled by the beauty and the modest bearing of the boy, just as when a bright light is brought into a darkened room. Everybody gazed at him, and all were silent, sitting in uncomfortable att.i.tudes of expectation and astonishment. The dinner party would have pa.s.sed off very tamely if Phillipus, a professional diner-out and jester, had not opportunely made his appearance. Autolycus meanwhile never uttered a word, but lay beside his father like a breathing statue. Later on in the evening he was obliged to answer a question. He opened his lips with blushes, and all he said was,[115] ”Not I, by gad.” Still, even this created a great sensation in the company. Everybody, says Xenophon, was charmed to hear his voice, and turned their eyes upon him. It should be remarked that the conversation at this party fell almost entirely upon matters of love. Critobulus, for example, who was very beautiful and rejoiced in having many lovers, gave a full account of his own feelings for Cleinias.[116]

”You all tell me,” he argued, ”that I am beautiful, and I cannot but believe you; but if I am, and if you feel what I feel when I look on Cleinias, I think that beauty is better worth having than all Persia. I would choose to be blind to everybody else if I could only see Cleinias, and I hate the night because it robs me of his sight. I would rather be the slave of Cleinias than live without him; I would rather toil and suffer danger for his sake than live alone at ease and in safety. I would go through fire with him, as you would with me. In my soul I carry an image of him better made than any sculptor could fas.h.i.+on.”

What makes this speech the more singular is that Critobulus was a newly-married man.

But to return from this digression to the palaestra. The Greeks were conscious that gymnastic exercises tended to encourage and confirm the habit of paiderastia. ”The cities which have most to do with gymnastics,” is the phrase which Plato uses to describe the states where Greek love flourished.[117] Herodotus says the barbarians borrowed gymnastics together with paiderastia from the h.e.l.lenes; and we hear that Polycrates of Samos caused the gymnasia to be destroyed when he wished to discountenance the love which lent the warmth of personal enthusiasm to political a.s.sociations.[118] It was common to erect statues of love in the wrestling-grounds; and there, says Plutarch,[119] the G.o.d's wings grew so wide that no man could restrain his flight. Readers of the idyllic poets will remember that it was a statue of Love which fell from its pedestal in the swimming-bath upon the cruel boy who had insulted the body of his self-slain friend.[120] Charmus, the lover of Hippias, erected an image of Eros in the academy at Athens which bore this epigram:--

”Love, G.o.d of many evils and various devices, Charmus set up this altar to thee upon the shady boundaries of the gymnasium.”[121]

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