[48]. Politics, II. Quoted after Havelock Ellis and I. A. Symonds, Das konträre Geschlechtsgefühl, Leipzig, George H. Wiegands Verlag, 1896.
[49]. Die dorische Knabenliebe (Ihre Ethik and ihre Idee), Rheinisches Museum f. Philologie (Neue Folge), vol. 69, 1907.
The authors prove that boy love in Hellas was introduced by the Dorians. Although traces of the custom are found also among the Ionians, boy love, like knighthood, became fashionable in Greece through the Dorians. “It was permitted only to the free citizen, the knight, while slaves were forbidden to indulge in the practice often under penalty of death. The practice was regulated by strict rules and became a state institution. In Sparta, Crete, Thebes the training for (arety) ἀρεθή, among the dominant class was based on pederasty. The lovers in Sparta were held to a strict accountability for their ‘companions’ who became attached to them from their 12th year; so that they and not their youthful companions were punished for any shameful act on the part of the latter.” “The battlefield at Chaironeia was covered with the lovers ... lying in pairs.” In Crete the choice of boy lovers assumed the form of bridal theft. The lover advised the boy’s family of his intention of stealing the boy. If the family did not like the “match” it tried to avoid the capture of the boy. The higher the lover’s social position the greater was the honor felt by the boy and his family. The chosen one was afterwards sent home carrying gifts....
In fact, at Thebes, Thera and in Crete such unions even enjoyed religious sanction. “The engagement of the lovers or rather their physical union certainty occurred under the protection of some god or hero at Thera and at Thebes. At Thebes we find the language unmistakably clear in the high archaic field inscriptions of the Seventh Century, chiselled in large letters upon the holy promontory near the City, at a distance of 50–70 meters from the temple of Apollo Karneios and on the holy site dedicated to Zeus. They read as follows: “On this holy place, under protection of Zeus, Kerion has consummated his union with the son of Bathykles and proclaiming it proudly to the world dedicates to it this imperishable memorial. And many Thereans with him, and after him, have united themselves with their boys on this same holy spot.””
At Crete it was considered a shame for a boy to possess no knightly lover. On the other hand it was a great honor for a boy to be wanted by many lovers.
For the lovers and for the boys these relations had an excellent effect. Each was inspired to do his best in order to prove his mettle and be ἀγαθός ανήρ (agathoi anyr). The heroic tales even took note of this love. The wondrous deeds of a Herakles were carried out in honor of the male lover Eurystheus. Repelling a wooing knight was considered ignominious,—a blot on one’s honor. Plutarch relates the story how Aristodamus struck down with his sword an obstinate boy: “Man gerät unwilkürlich in die Sprache unseres ritterlichen Ehrenkomments,”—states Bethe.
With that act the knight transferred his ἀρετή (arety), knighthood, upon the boy. It had a symbolic meaning. Among the Spartans the pæderast was called εἰοπνήλας (eiopnylas), from εἰοπνειν (eiopnein), meaning, the one who blows something in (the inblower). But what was it that the pederast blew into the boy? Clearly the πνευμα (pneuma), the soul, a belief which has come down from the oldest period (Bible) surviving to this day in Christianity. According to primitive conceptions the soul of man resided in his various secreta and excreta. Urine, fæces, blood and semen were magical substances inasmuch as they contained the life principle. With his male seed the Dorian endowed his boy with knightly prowess. (Similarly the savages in New Guinea drink the urine of the chieftain in order to acquire his skill and strength. Bethe mentions numerous similar instances.) The semen was regarded as the seat of the soul.
Bethe points out also that the liver, the heart and more particularly the phallus were similarly identified with the soul. The reader is referred to the original study for further details.
The remarkable notion of blowing one’s soul into another a posteriori, is traced by the author to primitive beliefs. Animals showed no objection to these love-offerings; and men who ascribed magical properties to urine and fæces undoubtedly lacked any feeling of revulsion against these excreta.... Since the anus was looked upon as the portal for angry demons, why should not the benevolent magical power of heroes be introduced the same way?
“The notion which led to the development of pæderasty as a State Institution among the Dorians, could not long endure. It had to give way finally.... But boy love persisted as a widespread custom and stood throughout antiquity and throughout the whole extent of Greek culture as a necessary feature of decent superior Greek citizenship. The Christian church fought the heathen custom from the beginning and was the first to drive pæderasty from Christian society; unable to root it out by spiritual means, it adopted criminal punishment in the year 342.”