Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Fornication soon

For those disappointed that there is no new post yet - all 3 of you - things are busy at work and personally.

But I am working on a post about how early Stoics were not very "stoic" at all about sex, and how odd it seems that a pornographic painting of Zeus and Hera played a role in justifying their views.

This is what happens when you have an hour to kill at St Lucia, as I did last Saturday, and you go to the University library and notice a book on the shelf entitled: The Making of Fornication: Eros, Ethics, and Political Reform in Greek Philosophy and Early Christianity.

More to come...

Update:  it just occurred to me that story of the sexual grooming of a young student by an old sports coach of St Kevin's College which featured on last night's 4 Corners (and it was a very sordid case) was the sort of stuff which [some] Greek philosophers would have thought was actually appropriate; almost noble.   Ancient Greece was a very different place, and one that it's hard to get your head around.

Update 2:  OK, my update should be qualified, as I reminded myself about the massive contradictions in ancient Greek writings about how homosexuality was viewed - including those around the nature of the teacher/mentor and student relationships.  I am sure I read this article many years ago, and linked to it in a post.  

4 comments:

GMB said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Not Trampis said...

Showing again two things


Christianity is vastly superior to anything else.

If only people who claimed to be christian practiced it.

Jason Soon said...

I thought the Spartans disapproved of that pederast business that their Athenian neighbours were into but I could be wrong?

Steve said...

I don't know for sure, but it seems to be a matter of controversy as to the degree to which Spartans may have differed from Athenians in their view of pederasty.

Anyway, the topic of the post I will soon write is about sex more generally, and the surprising "free love"-ish views of Stoicism's founder, Zeno. (Later Stoics because more restrained in their views, apparently.)