Pathological Heterosexuality and Other Male Anxieties
Abstract
Women’s esteem mattered little to most Greek men and they regarded as effeminate any man whose heterosexual desires put him in a position of dependency or passionate devotion to women, a phenomenon that may be called ‘pathological heterosexuality.’ While heterosexual desire had a proper place and appropriate forms in Classical Athens, excessive attention to women was seen as blameworthy and un-masculine incontinence. Greek anxieties in this regard pertained to at least five issues: (1) being overly influenced in one’s actions by a wife or concubine, (2) allowing oneself to be manipulated by a courtesan, especially if it involved waste of resources, (3) rape, (4) seduction of an unmarried girl, and worst of all, (5) adultery with an already married woman. Although pederasty became a ground of suspicion against elite opponents in late 5th and 4th century democratic discourse in Athens, none of these five manifestations of sexual excess were particularly pertinent to that practice. This chapter examines each of these five pathologies of heterosexual desire in detail, first from the symbolic perspective of Greek myth, and then with evidence from the era of recorded history, particularly as yielded by the textual genres of Greek oratory and comedy.
Abstract
Women’s esteem mattered little to most Greek men and they regarded as effeminate any man whose heterosexual desires put him in a position of dependency or passionate devotion to women, a phenomenon that may be called ‘pathological heterosexuality.’ While heterosexual desire had a proper place and appropriate forms in Classical Athens, excessive attention to women was seen as blameworthy and un-masculine incontinence. Greek anxieties in this regard pertained to at least five issues: (1) being overly influenced in one’s actions by a wife or concubine, (2) allowing oneself to be manipulated by a courtesan, especially if it involved waste of resources, (3) rape, (4) seduction of an unmarried girl, and worst of all, (5) adultery with an already married woman. Although pederasty became a ground of suspicion against elite opponents in late 5th and 4th century democratic discourse in Athens, none of these five manifestations of sexual excess were particularly pertinent to that practice. This chapter examines each of these five pathologies of heterosexual desire in detail, first from the symbolic perspective of Greek myth, and then with evidence from the era of recorded history, particularly as yielded by the textual genres of Greek oratory and comedy.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface VII
- Contents IX
- List of Figures XI
- Texts and Abbreviations XIII
- Introduction 1
- The Ophthalmology of Lovesickness: Poetry, Philosophy, Medicine 23
- Performance and Pragmatics of Erotic Poetry in Archaic and Classical Greece: A Pathology of Sexualities? 47
- Pathological Erôs in the Euripidean Fragments: Aeolus, Cretans, and Protesilaus 65
- Pathological Heterosexuality and Other Male Anxieties 83
- Xenophon and the Pathology of Erôs 101
- The Pathology of Love in Ovid’s Metamorphoses 119
- In Sickness or in Health? Love, Pathology, and Marriage in the Letters of Acontius and Cydippe (Ovid’s Heroides 20–1) 135
- Pathological Love in the ‘Open’ or ‘Fringe’ Novels 159
- Appendix: An Anthology of the Pathologies of Love 179
- List of Contributors 195
- Bibliography 197
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface VII
- Contents IX
- List of Figures XI
- Texts and Abbreviations XIII
- Introduction 1
- The Ophthalmology of Lovesickness: Poetry, Philosophy, Medicine 23
- Performance and Pragmatics of Erotic Poetry in Archaic and Classical Greece: A Pathology of Sexualities? 47
- Pathological Erôs in the Euripidean Fragments: Aeolus, Cretans, and Protesilaus 65
- Pathological Heterosexuality and Other Male Anxieties 83
- Xenophon and the Pathology of Erôs 101
- The Pathology of Love in Ovid’s Metamorphoses 119
- In Sickness or in Health? Love, Pathology, and Marriage in the Letters of Acontius and Cydippe (Ovid’s Heroides 20–1) 135
- Pathological Love in the ‘Open’ or ‘Fringe’ Novels 159
- Appendix: An Anthology of the Pathologies of Love 179
- List of Contributors 195
- Bibliography 197
