[148] Matignon, in Archives d’anthropologie criminelle, xiv. 42, 43, 52.
[149] Ibid. p. 44.
[150] Karsch, op. cit. p. 99.
[151] Jwaya, in Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen, iv. 266, 270 sq.
The laws of the ancient Scandinavians ignored homosexual practices; but passive pederasts were much despised by them. They were identified with cowards and regarded as sorcerers. The epithets applied to them—argr, ragr, blandr, and others assumed the meaning of “poltroon” in general, and there are instances of the word arg being used in the sense of “practising witchcraft.” This connection between pederasty and sorcery, as a Norwegian scholar justly points out, helps us to understand Tacitus’ statement that among the ancient Teutons individuals whom he describes as corpore infames were buried alive in a morass.[152] Considering that drowning was a common penalty for sorcery, it seems probable that this punishment was inflicted upon them not, in the first place, on account of their sexual practices, but in their capacity of wizards. It is certain that the opprobrium which the pagan Scandinavians attached to homosexual love was chiefly restricted to him who played the woman’s part. In one of the poems the hero even boasts of being the father of offspring borne by another man.[153]
[152] Tacitus, Germania, 12.
[153] ‘Spuren von Konträrsexualität bei den alten Skandinaviern (Mitteilungen eines norwegischen Gelehrten),’ in Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen, iv. 245, 256 sqq.
In Greece pederasty in its baser forms was censured, though generally, it seems, with no great severity, and in some states it was legally prohibited.[154] According to an Athenian law, a youth who prostituted himself for money lost his rights as a free citizen and was liable to the punishment of death if he took part in a public feast or entered the agora.[155] In Sparta it was necessary that the “listener” should accept the “inspirator” from real affection; he who did so out of pecuniary considerations was punished by the ephors.[156] We are even told that among the Spartans the relations between the lover and his friend were truly innocent, and that if anything unlawful happened both must forsake either their country or their lives.[157] But the universal rule in Greece seems to have been that when decorum was observed in the friendship between a man and a youth, no inquiries were made into the details of the relationship.[158] And this attachment was not only regarded as permissible, but was praised as the highest and purest form of love, as the offspring of the heavenly Aphrodite, as a path leading to virtue, as a weapon against tyranny, as a safeguard of civic liberty, as a source of national greatness and glory. Phaedrus said that he knew no greater blessing to a young man who is beginning life than a virtuous lover, or to the lover than a beloved youth; for the principle which ought to be the guide of men who would lead a noble life cannot be implanted by any other motive so well as by love.[159] The Platonic Pausanias argued that if love of youths is held in ill repute it is so only because it is inimical to tyranny; “the interests of rulers require that their subjects should be poor in spirit, and that there should be no strong bond of friendship or society among them, which love, above all other motives, is likely to inspire.”[160] The power of the Athenian tyrants was broken by the love of Aristogeiton and the constancy of Harmodius; at Agrigentum in Sicily the mutual love of Chariton and Melanippus produced a similar result; and the greatness of Thebes was due to the Sacred Band established by Epaminondas. For “in the presence of his favourite, a man would choose to do anything rather than to get the character of a coward.”[161] It was pointed out that the greatest heroes and the most warlike nations were those who were most addicted to the love of youths;[162] and it was said that an army consisting of lovers and their beloved ones, fighting at each other’s side, although a mere handful, would overcome the whole world.[163]
[154] Xenophon, Lacedæmoniorum respublica, ii. 13. Maximus Tyrius, Dissertationes, xxv. 4; xxvi. 9.
[155] Aeschines, Contra Timarchum, 21.