I'm studying Ancient History again at the university, it isn't a compulsory subject and it talks about specifically about sex, power and religion in Greece and Rome. As it isn't a compulsory subject, people from other courses can enroll. So there are some design, Portuguese, journalism, law and biology students (the thing would be funnier if there were some people from Medical school)
Anyway... the funny (or disgusting) part is that people think that Greece is the gay paradise of the ancient world. I don't really know how that happens, maybe it's fault of high school teachers but it's the image people have from ancient Greece is that everyone could have sex anywhere and that every man was homossexual. But that didn't really happened.
They had moral codes, different from ours, but they had. You couldn't be caught havig sex in the street, you would be punished by losing your citizenship and that's the biggest shame for a ancient greek. Paederasty had an educational value, the younger is learning to be a citizen by learning to control himself, there wasn't any sexual act, the poor boy couldn't have an erection because if he can't control himself there he wouldn't be able to control himself at the assembly.
The thing could be even funnier when the thing is talking about Lesbos Island and Safo. You know... brazilian lexicon contributes with this prejudice since the word "safado" that means in English "shameless" or "pervert" comes from Safo.
I don't really believe in "Historia Magistra Vitae", History's utility isn't really learn from the past. But I do believe that many values had changed for worse. Modern society have forgotten about temperance and constancy, we've forgotten about becoming better people, of growing our minds better than our bodies.
I'll quote Plato and I apologize myself because I haven't found this quote in English so I had to translate from Portuguese.
Anyway... the funny (or disgusting) part is that people think that Greece is the gay paradise of the ancient world. I don't really know how that happens, maybe it's fault of high school teachers but it's the image people have from ancient Greece is that everyone could have sex anywhere and that every man was homossexual. But that didn't really happened.
They had moral codes, different from ours, but they had. You couldn't be caught havig sex in the street, you would be punished by losing your citizenship and that's the biggest shame for a ancient greek. Paederasty had an educational value, the younger is learning to be a citizen by learning to control himself, there wasn't any sexual act, the poor boy couldn't have an erection because if he can't control himself there he wouldn't be able to control himself at the assembly.
The thing could be even funnier when the thing is talking about Lesbos Island and Safo. You know... brazilian lexicon contributes with this prejudice since the word "safado" that means in English "shameless" or "pervert" comes from Safo.
I don't really believe in "Historia Magistra Vitae", History's utility isn't really learn from the past. But I do believe that many values had changed for worse. Modern society have forgotten about temperance and constancy, we've forgotten about becoming better people, of growing our minds better than our bodies.
I'll quote Plato and I apologize myself because I haven't found this quote in English so I had to translate from Portuguese.
"And it is bad that popular lover that loves the body more than the soul; because he isn't constant by loving an object that isn't constant as well."
Plato - The feast or On love.
Plato - The feast or On love.
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