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.
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ReplyDeleteShowing again two things
ReplyDeleteChristianity is vastly superior to anything else.
If only people who claimed to be christian practiced it.
I thought the Spartans disapproved of that pederast business that their Athenian neighbours were into but I could be wrong?
ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, 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.)