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Greek pseudo‐homosexuality and the ‘Greek miracle’

George Devereux
Published online: 22 Jul 2008.
To cite this article: George Devereux (1968) Greek pseudo‐homosexuality and the ‘Greek miracle’, Symbolae Osloenses:
Norwegian Journal of Greek and Latin Studies, 42:1, 69-92, DOI: 10.1080/00397676808590593
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GREEK PSEUDO-HOMOSEXUALITY AND
THE 'GREEK MIRACLE'
BY
Downloaded by [Moskow State Univ Bibliote] at 16:59 28 November 2013
GEORGE DEVEREUX
INTRODUCTION
Pre-Platonic and, a fortiori, pre-hellenistic Greek homosexuality,
which is the subject of this study, has more often been explained
away than explained.1 Hence, even though perversion is a psychiatric
problem, I know of no attempt to tackle Greek homosexuality
psychoanalytically, perhaps because of the erroneous belief that
psychoanalysis makes things seem worse than they are.2 Yet, if one
faces facts candidly, one usually discovers that they are less monstrous
than the shadows they cast on the wall. Psychiatrically, homosexual
behavior is, in some respects, less pathological than is the psychological
homosexuality idealized by Platon.
The position taken here is that pre-Platonic homosexuality, while
behaviorally real, was psychologically spurious. It was a by-product
1
The great good sense of K. J . Dover ('Eros and Nomos', Univ. London,
Inst. Cl. Stud. Bull, xi (1964) pp. 31-42) is exceptional. Various evasions in:
J. M. Gessner, 'Socrates sanctus αιδεραστής'. Opusc. 1743-5 (new ed. 1877);
J. A. Symonds, A Problem in Greek Ethics, 1901; E. Bethe, 'Die dorische
Knabonliebe', Rh. Mus. lxii (1007) pp. 438-475; E. Carpenter, Intermediate
Types 2, 1919, J . A. K. Thomson, Greeks and Barbarians, 1921; Μ. Η. Ε. Meier
and R. L. de Pogey-Castries, Histoire de l'Amour Grec dans l'Antiquité, 1930;
H. Licht, Sexual Life in Ancient Greece, 1933. Cp. the theory that Sappho was
a schoolmistress.
2
Actually, the psychoanalyst tries to discover how to make 'bad' things
'good'. Sophokles' private (and trivial) Oedipus complex does not interest him;
he tries to understand how and why Sophokles—but not Strepsiades—managed
to turn his private conflict into a masterpiece, by sublimating it, as a botanist
tries to understand how a rose absorbs manure and produces attar of roses.
70 GEOEGB DEVEREUX
of the unfortunate manner in which the Greeks implemented a

psycho-social constellation, whose real fruit was the 'Greek Miracle'.
Greek homosexuality was both a psychiatric and a cultural phenom-
enon. Its interpretation therefore requires the use of both clinical
and sociological.(=ethnological) data. This does not imply that, for
me, the Greeks are half Hottentots and half neurotics. It does imply
that Greeks, Hottentots, and neurotics are equally human; that they
could be neither Greeks nor Hottentots nor neurotics, unless they
were human to begin with. Unless we understand the Greeks first

as human beings we cannot—face Wilamowitz—understand their
Greekness at all. Moreover, if the Greek Experience is not that of
human beings like ourselves, it has no relevance for us and does not
deserve study.
A relentless application of psychoanalytic and ethnological insights
will prove that the average Greek—even the laconizing Athenian
dandy, even the Spartan—was not psychiatrically a pervert, despite
his homosexual behavior. In some respects, he was perhaps even
more heterosexually oriented than modern man. A contemporary
adolescent, courted by adult men, taught to glory in such attentions,
and subjected to homosexual practices would, in most cases, become
a genuine and permanent pervert; in the rest of the cases, he would
become a neurotic. The Greek adolescent, however, ended up as a
non-neurotic, completely (or predominantly) heterosexual adult. In
fact, being an eromenos was viewed by the Greeks as a stage in the
child's development toward masculinity. It was assuredly not the best
way, but it was made necessary by inadequate fathering, as will be
shown below.1 .
Greek homosexuality was both a psychological and a sociological
phenomenon. Insofar as it was individual behavior, it must be
explained psychologically; as a culturally encouraged activity, socio-
logically. Multiple and equally compendious explanations are com-
mon in science.2
1
Why Greek fathering was inadequate is a culture historical problem, which
cannot be discussed here. Iolaos left his weak father Iphiklos and became
Herakles' eromeaos and pupil.
2
If a phenomenon admits of one explanation, it will also admit of other expla-
nations, which account equally well for its peculiarities (H. Poincaré, Electricité
et Optique, 1901). Two sets of postulates from which the same conclusions can be
drawn are equivalent (H. Poincaré, The Foundations of Science, 1913).
Greek Pseudo-Homosexuality and the 'Greek Miracle' 71
The sociological and the psychological explanations of a given

phenomenon stand in a complementarity relationship to each other.1
One can therefore analyze, for example, the life history of a homo-
sexual both sociologically and psychoanalytically, define the conver-
gence of the two explanations, and show that the two discrete sets of
causes and motives reinforce each other.2
The capacity to function homosexually is part of mankind's total
potential ripertoire—as is the (equally abnormal) capacity to have
visions. The neurotic actualizes such potentialities in response to

idiosyncratic needs; the Greeks actualized theirs largely in response
to a cultural mandate.3 This does not mean that the actualization of
an abnormal item of one's total human potential, in response to cul-
tural pressures, is therefore 'normal';4 society often expects its mem-
bers to behave abnortnally and rewards those who comply: the Pythia,
the Bakchai, the berserker, the ghazi, the Grow visionary.
THE NATURE OF A GENUINE PERVERSION

What is significant about a perversion is not a particular form of
behavior, but the fact that this behavior is made necessary and possible
by an underlying perverted fantasy. It cannot be cured by prohibiting
certain acts; what must be abolished is the fantasy underlying it. s
1
G. Devereux, 'The Logical Foundations of Culture and Personality Studies',
Transact. New York Acad. of Sciences, Ser. I I , vii (1945) pp. 110-130; id. "Two
Types of Modal Personality Models', (in) B. Kaplan (ed.), Studying Personality
Cross-Culturally, 1961, pp. 227-241 ( -(in) N. J. and W. T. Smelser (eds.), Per-
sonality and Social Systems, 1963, pp. 22-32).
2
For such a double analysis of the case of a lesbian witch, cp. G. Devereux,
Mohave Ethnopeychiatry and Suicide, 1961, pp. 416-425 ( = (in) Η. Μ. Kuiten-
beck (ed.), The Problem of Homosexuality in Modern Society, 1963, pp: 211-222).
3
Xenophon probably did not succeed in actualizing this potentiality.
Similarly, though having at least one vision was mandatory for a Crow Indian,
one Crow failed to have a vision and had to content himself with a dream. F.
Linderman, American; The Life Story of a Great Indian, 1930.
4
G. Devereux, 'Normal and Abnormal', (in) Anthropological Society of
Washington (ed.) Some Uses of Anthropology, Theoretical and Applied, 1956,
pp. 23-48.
5
Injections of male hormone only increase the sexual drive of the homo-
sexual, without modifying its direction. Also, some neurotics can behave hetero-
sexually only if they concurrently indulge in perverted fantasies.
72 GEORGE DEVERETTX
The focus of any discussion of Greek homosexuality—and of Greek

sexuality in general—must be Greek fantasy, as transmitted to us
in myth and literature. As this study is limited to routine homosexual-
ity, true perverts, who did exist, "will be mentioned only in passing.1
Perversion, in the psychiatric sense, has three basic characteristics.
1) Stability. Perversions—and male homosexuality in particular—
are extremely difficult to cure. Routine Greek homosexuality, however,
was not a stable pattern. The stages of its evolution toward hetero-
sexuality were even culturally standardized: eromenos, erastes, hus-

band.2 Those whose development deviated from this model—the
'effeminate' and the 'boy crazy'—were criticized, ridiculed, and so-
cially penalized.
2) Compulsion. A perversion is a kind of compulsion; the pervert
has as little control over his perversion as the mysophobic has over
his endless hand-washing. Twenty-five years of clinical experience
have convinced me that a perversion is primarily an anxiety alleviat-
ing device and only secondarily an instinctual outlet and a source of
pleasure. The pervert prevented from practicing his perversion
(=compulsion), first experiences anxiety; only later on does he also
experience sexual frustration. The opposite is true of normal persons
who are denied heterosexual outlets. I know of no data indicating
that the average Greek, denied a homosexual outlet, became anxious.
Certain excessive and exhibitionistic displays by men 'hopelessly in
love' seem stylized performances, not much different from the formal-
ized posturings of seventeenth-century French soupirants, or from
the histrionic 'despair' of Romantic lovers. In short, there is no
evidence that routine Greek homosexuality was a compulsion, in the
sense in which a genuine perversion is a compulsion.
3) Perversion as a Damper. One of the (unconscious) aims of a
perversion is the reduction of the intensity of sexual experiences, be-
cause of the fear that full enjoyment may cause 'loss of control'.3
In a perversion, the sexual drive is fused with and is in the service
of non-sexual, aggressive drives; this explains not only why perverted
1
The sources on Agathon's perversion are listed in W. Schmid, Oesch. gr.
Lit. 1.3.846 and n. 1.
2
Dover, op. cit., makes this perfectly clear.
3
I dealt with this in several publications, most recently in G. Devereux,
Mohave Ethnopsychiatry, op. cit., passim.
acts are less intensely pleasurable than normal ones, but also why a
loss of control is dreaded: the 'danger' is a possible disinhibition of
direct, undisguised aggression. The Dorians partly resolved this
problem by linking homosexuality with, militarism, which provided
an additional outlet for aggression. On the whole, there is no evidence
that the Greek homosexual was a masked anti-hedonist, or that his
homosexuality contained considerable amounts of aggressivity and
hostility fused with sexuality.
Since Greek homosexuality was neither stable, nor compulsive,

nor anti-hedonistic, nor fused with an appreciable amount of aggres-
sivity, the average Greek was not a genuine pervert, in the strictly
psychoanalytic sense of that term. His homosexual'behavior had
altogether different psychological roots.
UNDIFFERENTIATED.PUBERTAL SEXUALITY
Genuine perversion has its roots in early childhood. Greek homosexual-
ity appears to have had its roots in pvbertal sexuality and probably
represented its prolongation. The notion of an undifferentiated—and
not differentiating—sexuality was probably known to the Greeks.1
Diffuse pubertal sexuality is 'normal* for that age only; it must be
outgrown eventually. The Greeks postponed the outgrowing of this
'developmental neurosis' by cultural means.
1) Spontaneity and Strangeness. At puberty, the sexual urge is
experienced as a spontaneous and almost external force, in the sense
in which Medeia experiences her thumos as almost external to herself.2
Spontaneous tumescence fascinated the Greeks, as it fascinates
adolescents.3 The experiencing of such excitement as 'ego alien' is—
for obvious reasons—more marked in the case of boys than of girls.
1
The cicada's, cp. Plu. Amat. 767D; less clearly: Pl. Smp. 191B. In some
respects, pubertal sexuality resembles infantile 'polymorphous perversity', cp.
S. Freud, 'Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality', Standard Ed. vii, 1953,
sections 1.7, 2.5, 3.5, etc.
2
E. Med. 1057 ff. (Cp. A. Rivier, 'L'Elément Démonique chez Euripide',
Entretiens Hardt vi (1960) pp. 45 ff.). But it is a fine clinical description and
not, as Rivier thinks, a clue to Euripides' psychological theories.
3
Well fed Priene jackass: Archil, fr. 102D =97Bgk= 184 Lass. Hyperborean
asses: Pi. P. 10.36. Spartans and Athenians: Ar. Lys. passim, etc.
74 GEORGE DEVEBETJX
Only Eos appears to be constantly and spontaneously aroused;1 the

excitement of other mythical women always seems aroused by a
'love object'. This suggests that the (well-mothered?) Greek woman
was psychosexually mature at an earlier age than the Greek man.2
This peculiarity of adolescent and of Greek ways of experiencing the
sexual urge explains—in part—the phallos (and not pugos) centered-
ness of the erastes.3 Such an attitude is certainly not usual in genuine
(active) perverts; it is usual in the psychosexually immature boy.*
2) Self-Centered Eroticism in the adolescent is a direct consequence of

his phallic preoccupations; the emotions and experiences of his
'beloved' do not really interest him. The Greeks knew this; they
expected anteros only from young adults.s A scrutiny of early love
poetry confirms the predominance of self-centered eroticism,8 which
is typically immature; the true adult is interested in the beloved's
feelings, and not only her (or his) compliance; for him, anteros is
indispensable!.
1
Apollod. 1.4.4. The female vulture may, perhaps, also be considered spon-
taneously excitable, since male vultures allegedly did not exist; the belief,
however, is Egyptian in origin, cp. Plu. Quaest. Rom. 93, 286 C.
2
Confirmed by Teiresias'. assertion that the enjoyment of the woman is
greater than that of the man. Apollod. 3.6.7. Tzetz. Lyc. 682. The really mature
adult's enjoyment is greater than that of the adolescent or of the pervert.
Spartan women may be an exception. Plu. Lyc. 18.
3
This phallos-centeredness is well brought out by Licht, op. cit., p. 416
(Sathon and Posthon as pet names for the eromenos) thpugh he fails to contrast
it with pugos-centeredness. Dover, op. cit., highlights the Greek's contempt for
the pugos-centered man. Ar. Nub. 976 confirms this; the erastes is aroused by
the imprint of the eromenos' genitals in the sand. (LSJ does not give this meaning
for 'eidolon'.) (But. cp. Ar. Nub. 1014: a good boy will have a large pugos and a
small phallos.) For Areesil. (=Plu. Quaest. Conv. 7.5, 705E) both front and rear
interests are objectionable.
4
Pubertal phallos-centeredness resembles the infantile 'phallic stage', cp.
Freud, 'Three Essays', op. cit., passim.
5
Strat. AP 12.4.7-8; the source is late, the opinion probably ancient.
6
E.g., Archil, early love poems to Neoboule: he fantasies what he would
feel in her arms, not what she would experience in his. Sappho, too, was self-
centered; once she even identified herself with her beloved's bridegroom (fr. 31
LP = 2D = 2Bgk). An' encomium implies no interest in the beloved's emotions.
I t is only: do ut des. The mature Ploutarchos understood reciprocity of feelings,
(Plu. Coniug. praecept. 31, 142D); so did Homeros (Od. 6.12-5), who practically
ignores homosexuality.
Greek Psevdo-Homosexuality and the 'Greek Miracle' 75
One manifestation of this adolescent-type sexual self-centeredness

is perhaps the great number of rape episodes in Greek myths; they
are more numerous than in any other mythology known to me.
3) Undifferentiatedness. The adolescent—and especially the pubes-
cent—is not (yet) heterosexual or homosexual; he is simply sexual.
Almost any external object can elicit a sexual response or be fanta-
sied as a potential means of gratification.1 Moreover, almost any
mood also dredges up sexual connotations: happiness, sadness, esthetic
pleasure, physical joy after exercise, etc. can all mobilize erotic
wishes and fantasies. Both purely behaviorally oriented inquiries—

such as the Kinsey Reports—and psychoanalytic investigations prove
that adolescents indulge in many types of sexual experimentation.
• 4) Pseudo-Differentiation and Prestige. Since the adolescent can
'perform' with almost equal ease in various ways, he can readily
perform in the socially expected way. American adolescents 'date'
frantically, not because they are already heterosexual, but because it
is expected and gives them prestige; some of them later opt for
homosexuality. Greek boys invited homosexual courtship—and per-
haps acts—enthusiastically, not because they were stabilized homo-
sexuals, but because it brought them prestige; most of them later on
opted for heterosexuality.2 It will be shown below that the adult
Greek male retained many. characteristics of an adolescent lack of
sexual differentiation and slid easily from one type of love object
(Liebesobjekt, Freud) to another; several texts actually describe this
'sliding'.
In short, adolescent sexuality may be called a 'developmental
neurosis'; it is transitory by definition and reflects an adaptational
difficulty with respect to a new and stressful state: puberty.
5) Incomplete Sexual Identity. The sense of sexual identity must
have two components: Ί am male; I have a phallos' and Ί am male;
I mate with women.' Such a complete sense of identity is often lacking
in homosexuals and also in severe obsessive-compulsives (who are
1
The almost incredible variety of sexual 'partners' in Greek myths is listed
further below.
2
Dover, op. cit., passim, draws interesting comparisons between modern
(and especially American) girls and Greek boys, but does not mention that
adolescent behavior is not a sexual commitment, but one possible alternative.
76 GEORGE DEVEBETTX
pseudo-heterosexual).1 It is incomplete in adolescents before the

appearance of the so-called 'secondary sex characteristics'. The
Greeks considered boys most attractive before they were fully and
obviously bearded males.2
One also notes that Athenian girls married while still almost im-
mature, i.e. incompletely differentiated. Spartan girls married later,
but athletics made them look boyish, and education made them
psychologically mannish—this, too, amounts to an incomplete dif-
ferentiation.
In short, in Greece the attractiveness of the eromenos certainly,
and of the girls probably, was evaluated in terms of the incomphteness
of their morphological and psychological differentiation and, there-
fore, of their still incomplete sense of sexual identity. (See below.)3
SOCIAL PROLONGATION OF ADOLESCENCE

Greek society encouraged the undifferentiated adolescent to display
homosexual interests; it encouraged the adult to retain adolescent
1
R. R. Greenson, 'Homosexuality et Identity Sexuelle', Rev. Française de
Psychanalyse xxix (1965) pp. 343-348; G. Devereux, 'La Renonciation à l'Iden-
tité: Défense contre L'Anéantissement', ibid, xxxi (1967) pp. 101-142.
2
Horn. Il. 24.348, Od. 10.275 ff.; Pl. Prot. 309b; Strat. AP 12.4; Ar. Nub. 978
insightfully, if indelicately, refers instead to pubic hair. Yet: 17-year-olds are for
Zeus (Strat.). At that age the average Mediterranean white male is not downy
but bearded. Does this imply a longer biological adolescence in the Greek 'race'?
A physician, P. Richer, Le Nu dans l'Art, (1926) 5.291 ff. (cp. M. Delcourt,
Hermaphrodite, 1958, pp. 99 etc.) maintains that Greek statues de-emphasize
sexual dimorphism. I disagree with this view, at least as regards pre-404 B.C.
statues and ancient vases. There are, admittedly, races (e.g. the Mongolic race)
whose sexual dimorphism is less marked. (I note in passing that I hope to show
in another paper that Hp. de aer. 19.42-43 should be emended, by transposing
words, to make it read: men resembling women, women resembling men.)
Mankind's sexual dimorphism is greater than that of most mammals. This is a
biologically paradoxical fact. It is a biological commonplace that 'man is a foetal
ape'. Man's biological foetalization is even at the root of his human nature, cp.
L. Bolk, Das Problem der Menschwerdung, 1926. Yet foeti and even small chil-
dren show little sexual dimorphism. This paradox has never been satisfactorily
explained by biologists.
3
'Even the autumn of the beautiful is beautiful', was said of the effeminate
Agathon. Ael. VH 13.4; Plu. 177A-B, 770C.
traits, because the Greek group ideal1 was the beautiful adolescent; he
was also what La Barre calls a 'social cynosure'.2 The adult Greek
displayed many adolescent reactions;3 this aspect of Greek adult be-
havior also explains many forms of irresponsible behavior in public
life: Alkibiades is a classical example of what I have called 'honorary
adolescents'.* '
Such 'adult' types are common in societies whose ideal is youth; the
artificial prolongation of adolescence far into adulthood is part of
the phenomenon American sociologists call 'youth culture'.5 Classical

Greece had many of the characteristics of a 'youth culture', espe-
cially as regards males. One means by which the adult male could
keep in touch with the privileged, admired (and irresponsible) world
of adolescence was by becoming the erastes of a boy, or else, hidden
behind a philosopher's or sophist's beard, his 'teacher'. Our admiration
for Sokrates should not make us forget that Sokrates could have
repeated, word for word, Lysimachos' self-accusation of being a
negligent father;6 the advice he gave a young man on how to be a
good husband,7 he might have given to himself. Spending his time
talking to strangers in the street, he cannot have had much time to
talk to Xanthippe.8
The prolongation of sexual non-differentiation into adulthood was,
thus, epiphenomenal to the 'youth culture' character of Greek society.
1
G. Róheim, Tsycho-Analysis of Primitive Cultural Types', Internat. J . of
Psycho-Analysis, xiii (1931) pp. 175 ff., for an analysis of this concept.
2
W. La Barre, 'Social Cynosure and Social Structure', J. of Personality, xiv
(1946) pp. 169-183 ( = (in) D. G. Haring (ed.), Personal Character and Cultural
Milieu 3, 1956 pp. 535-546) defines this concept.
3
X. Smp. passim, depicts, in many scenes, brilliant adults behaving like
adolescents out of school.
4
G. Devereux, Therapeutic Education, 1956, pp. 228 ff.
5
As far back as 1940, N. J. Demerath -wrote an (unpublished) Ph.D. disser-
tation in sociology (Harvard Univ.) on American youth culture. In Balzac's
time, youth ended for a woman at 30, in K. Michaelis' time at 40; today women
of 50 dress and behave like young girls, Nobel prize winners dress like under-
graduates, etc. The pre-1914 German eternal student is a similar type.
6
Pl. La. init.
7
X. Oec, passim.
8
These are facts. If we can admire Sokrates and the Greeks only by distorting
facts, we do not really admire them. Idealization is a subtle rejection of the
real person.
78 GEORGE DEVERETTX
It had many drawbacks, but also certain advantages, which will be

discussed below.
The seemingly most 'obvious'—and therefore least explored—
aspect of Greek homosexuality is the relationship between an
'active' adult and a 'passive' adolescent.1 It is very necessary to ask:
Why did boys turn to adult men, and vice versa? Lysimachos' confes-
sion of his shortcomings as a father provides the answer.2 The Greek
father usually failed to counsel his son; instead, he counseled another
man's son, in whom he was erotically interested. As for the boy, who
needed an effective father to model himself upon,3 he had to rely on
his erastes, who also served as a father surrogate. This is the well-
known anthropological phenomenon of displaced fathering, somewhat
more common in matrilineal than in patrilineal groups. Whether the
phenomenon of displaced fathering in Greek society has any bearing
on the still debated hypothesis of pre-Hellenic matriarchy is a problem
best left to the specialist. All one can say is that it is mentioned in
Greek myths.4
1
This is not 'natural' and self-explanatory. The subincised Australian adult
is passive, the un-subincised boy active, cp. Róheim, op. cit., pp. 38 ff. Older
passive perverts often prefer (active) young partners. Agathon may have been
such a type.
2
R. Flacelière (L'Amour en Grèce, 1960, p. 84) sensed the importance of this
passage but, not being a psychologist, could not exploit it fully.
3
Theseus apparently did not raise Hippolytos, who—paradoxically—learned
'masculine' behavior from female models who imitated men: Artemis and his
Amazon mother. That is Hippolytos' tragedy in a nutshell. The 'Schlaraffen-
land' (Dover) fantasy of a father reproaching his friend for not fondling his son
(Ar. Av. 137 ff.) is perhaps not very outlandish depth-psychologically. Non-
erotic displaced fathering exists in matrilineal Trobriand society: a man fosters
his uterine nephew, who is his heir; his own son is fostered by his maternal uncle,
B. Malinowski, The Father in Primitive Psychology, 1926; id. The Sexual Life of
Savages 3, 1932. In that society, the father is not even 'related' to his son, since
coitus is not believed to cause pregnancy. This nescience—and also that of the
patrilineal Aranda—may, however, be a social fiction, cp. G. Róheim, 'The
Nescience of the Aranda', Brit. J. Med. Psychol. xvii (1938) pp. 343-360.
4
Herakles and Hylas, also Iolaos, etc. Herakles was not only sexually
polyvalent, but also behaved like an adolescent—but, then, so did the knights
of the Round Table and many other mythical heroes. The contrast between
Hektor and Achilleus in respect to maturity is staggering. Also, the beardless
Apollon was held to be an unsuitable father for bearded Asklepios, Luc. Iupp.
Trag. 26, also E. J. and L. Edelstein, Asclepius, 1945 i, testt. 683-684. The only
In most societies, the father is responsible for the misbehavior of
his son; in Sparta, characteristically, it was the erastes who was
responsible for the eromenos' misconduct. Displaced fathering can
hardly go to greater extremes.1
This brings us to an apparently unnoticed peculiarity of Greek
myths. Few mythologies tell of so many cases of incest and perversion.
Yet, there seem to be no cases of homosexual incest in myth.2 This
requires an explanation. Perhaps because the erastes was a father
surrogate (educator) and the eromenos a son surrogate (pupil), this

made the invention of such myths either superfluous .or else too
anxiety-arousing. This is, at best, a partial explanation, though in-
directly supported by A. Diet. 802 ff. (Ll.-J.). Silenos tries to curry
favor with little Perseus, who is said to be fond of the penis (781).
Silenos promises to embrace Perseus, T;o let him play with wild ani-
mals, to permit him to watch Silenos' cohabitation with Danae (810).
When Silenos will be to old to hunt, Perseus will hunt for Danae, in
Silenos' stead—obviously as his substitute.
This scene is striking in two respects.
1) The 'primal scene' (Freud) traumatizes, rather than amuses,
small boys; some of them react to it by becoming homosexual later on.
2) The text has grotesque 'didactic' implications. As with hunting,
Silenos apparently means to teach Perseus 'how it is done'.3
functionally married Olympian is Zeus; the marriages of the other Olympians are
functionally 'affairs'—non-operational even by modern bohemian standards.
1
A Masai father was punished, and his house ravaged, because, during the
circumcision, his cowardly son cried, F. Merker, Die Masai, 1904. In Sparta,
the erastes was punished for the eromenos' cowardice, Plu; Lyc. 18.
2
There are, perhaps, faint overtones of this kind in certain versions of the
Oidipous myth (cp. G. Devereux, 'Why Oedipus killed Laius', Internat. J.
Psycho-Analysis xxxiv (1953) pp. 132-141); cp. two dreams recorded by Arte-
midoros 4.4.
3
Primitive folk tales and even origin myths from many areas tell of a stupid
bridegroom, who must be 'shown' by his father (or father-in-law) how to coha-
bit with his wife. Father and son sharing the same woman—sometimes incestu-
ously (daughter — sister) and on the father's initiative—does happen. (S. K.
Weinberg, Incest Behavior, 1955.) The New Comedy often plays with such situa-
tions. Something like the primal scene is hinted at in S. Trach. 539 ff.: Herakles,
Deianeira, and Iole under the same blanket. Also: Herakles gives Iole to Hyllos.
Both Paris and Deiphobos loved Antheus and married Helene, Tzetz. Lyc. 139.
80 GEOBGE DEVERETTX
In a clinical setting, Silenos' 'paternal' fantasy would suggest

latent incestuous-homosexual impulses; so, perhaps, does this scene.
. This brings us to Bethe's magical theory, which Dover rejects,
partly on the grounds that such magic is alien to the Mediterranean
culture area.1 Bethe held that Doric paiderasteia was originally a
magical practice. It sought to transmit 'moral excellence' from male
to male. The one really weak point of Bethe's argument is that 'moral
excellence' would hardly have been transmitted, in (presumably)
archaic times, by such primitive 'magical practices'. If there is any

truth to Bethe's theory, what could perhaps have been so transmitted
is physical strength, since semen is nearly everywhere thought to be
a magical substance; for this, there exist primitive parallels.2 In a
more attenuated manner, various tribes believe that the growth of
the foetus is promoted by the paternal semen made available to it. 3
Where one does find the notion that something like 'moral excellence'
can be transmitted homosexually is among modern borderline
psychotics;4 but, of course, the Greeks were not a nation of borderline
psychotics. With this modification, Bethe's theory is less implausible
than Dover considers it to be; whether it is true is, of course, another
1
Dover, op. cit., p. 42, n. 35, criticizing Bethe, op. cit., and R. Langeborg,
Die platonische Liebe, 1926 p. 43; he feels that only Epiphanios' (Haer. 25.2.4,
3.2 Holl.) accusations against the Gnostics hint at such magic. Yet such magic is
widespread. Even in modern Switzerland, the faithful drank the urine of two
'prophets' (H. Borschach, Zwei schweizerische Sektenstifter, 1927). I t is just
barely conceivable that an (infantile) fantasy of being 'contaminated' by Sokra-
tes' virtue underlies Alkibiades' attempt to seduce him (Pl. Smp. 217 ff.). See
below, n. 4; also Ael. VH 3.10. (Cp. εισπνηλος.)
2
All Keraki boys are subjected to such practices by adults. The technique
was invented and first performed in mythical times by the worried father of a
stunted and constipated weak boy. Today, this task is taken over by other men;
it makes the boys grow up and get strong. F. E. Williams, Papuans of the Trans-
Fly, 1936, pp. 158, 308-309.
3
E.g., G. Devereux, 'Der Begriff der Vaterschaft bei den Mohave Indianern',
Zschr. f. Ethnologie, lxix (1937), pp. 72-78, id. 'Mohave Pregnancy', Acta
Americana, vi (1948) pp. 89-116. Cp. Paus. 7.17.11; Arnob. adv. nat. 5.5.
4
One such patient fantasied that if he were permitted to perform μυσάχνη
(Archil, fr. 248 Lasserre) on his intellectually productive analyst, he—who was
intellectually inhibited to the point of incapacitation, though having a high
intelligence—would also become intellectually productive. A neurotic cohabited
with the discarded mistress of a famous artist, hoping to be 'inspired' thereby,
like his famous 'predecessor'.
matter. Most probably, the Tightness or wrongness of Bethe's theory

is an otiose problem, as are most speculations about the 'origin' of
things. What one can discuss is the social function of the Greek type
of homosexuality.
SOCIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Each social group seeks to differentiate itself from other groups,
usually by conspicuous but dysfunctional means.1 Greek homosexual-
ity appears to have had this meaning; Solon forbade its practice to
slaves,2 and I was unable to discover any evidence of routine homo-
3
sexuality amongst Helots. It is sociologically irrelevant whether
such a differentiation involves homosexuality, sumptuary laws, being
"satisfaktionsfahig", etc., as long as one recognizes that a functionally
unimportant trait is obsessively overvalued.*
It would be sociologically erroneous to conclude, because the
Greeks overvalued, discussed ad infinitum, and ostentatiously
practiced homosexual courtship, that this implied that homosexuality
had a functionally great role.5 It did not belong to the mainstream
of culture. Some marginal and only minimally functional trait com-
plexes are often elaborated far beyond their significance. In fact, some
such marginal trait-complexes can survive only by being over-elab-
orated. Truly functional items can survive without being discussed
1
Hdt. 1.60 is exceptional in being functional. Ostentatious differentiation:
Koran, Surah 109, G. Vajda, 'Juifs et Musulmans selon le Hadit', J . Asiatique
ccix (1937) pp. 57-127. General theory: G. Devereux and Ε. Μ. Loeb, 'Antago-
nistic Acculturation', Amer. Sociol. Rev. viii (1943), pp. 133-147.
2
Plu. Sol. 1.3. But cp. Artemid. 1.78.
3
Unfortunately, I failed to make this important point in my analysis of
psychological reciprocities between free Spartans and Helots, G. Devereux
'La Psychanalyse et l'Histoire: Une Application à l'Histoire de Sparte', Annales
XX (1965) pp. 18-44. No eromenos is attributed to Kleomenes I, who appears to
have associated a great deal with Helots, cp. G. Devereux and W. G. Forrest:
'La Folie de Cléoménès', Annales (in press).
4
The Tonkawa tenaciously clung to being cannibals in a non-cannibalistic
culture area, though this caused their more powerful neighbors, the Apache
and the Comanche, to seek to exterminate them: R. Linton, Course in Anthro-
pology, given at the Univ. of California, Summer Session 1937.
5
All Mohave were warriors (A. L. Kroeber, Handbook of the Indians of
California, 1925, pp. 751 ff.); perhaps 0.5 % were homosexual. Yet homosexual-
ity was as extensively institutionalized as warfare, cp. G. Devereux 'Institu-
82 GEORGE DEVEBETTX
incessantly.1 Such artificially inflated trait complexes sometimes

have a great 'social mass';2 but so did duelling in the nineteenth
century and film stars in the 1920s, without therefore being in the
mainstream of functional culture.
Much of what is best and even more of what is worst in human cul-
ture is a kind of luxury product, perpetuated by being assigned an
overinflated value. Greek homosexual courtship was 'conspicuous
display' in Veblen's sense. It was highly stylized; it was ostentatious
and elaborately chivalrous.3 Mankind apparently needs to be chival-

rous, especially in dysfunctional ways;4 Greek marriage provided
few outlets for this need. This is basic for an understanding of the
elite-dissociating, prestige-bringing, and therefore ostentatious ele-
ment in Greek homosexual 'love' and especially in its 'philosophical'
justification and idealization.5
Sexual Undifferentiatedness cannot be proven by inventorying
either mythical perverted acts, or the successive perversions of, e.g.,
Herakles. The former would only prove the existence of 'specialized'
perverts; the latter only that Herakles was 'polymorphous perverse'.
There must be a continuity: the subject must slide from one object to
another, or else transpose techniques; it is a matter of functional
substitutahility. An expert on Greek genealogies should perhaps
tionalized Homosexuality of the Mohave Indians', Human Biology ix (1937)

pp. 498-412 ( = improved version in Η. Μ. Ruitenbeek, op. cit.)
1
Ethnographic reports notoriously devote more space to weird practices
than to such vital things as food and shelter. Greek sources have a similar bias.
For a general discussion of such systematic distortions, cp. G. Devereux, 'Psycho-
analysis as Anthropological Field Work', Transact. New York Acad. of Sciences,
Ser. I I , xix (1957) pp. 457-472.
2
Concept defined in G. Devereux, Ά Conceptual Scheme of Society', Amer.
J. Sociol. lix (1940) pp. 687-706.
3
Men would allegedly prostitute their wives to a tyrant; they would never
prostitute an eromenos. This statement is especially significant, since it was
made by the primarily heterosexual Ploutarchos (760B).
4
For a grotesque display of homosexual chivalrousness in prison, cp. G.
Devereux and M. C. Moos 'The Social Structure of Prisons and the Organic
Tensions', J. Crimin. Psychopath, iv (1943) pp. 306-324. I t was 'conspicuous
display'; cp. Th. Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class, many edd.
5
I t is psychiatrically striking that—except for one boy—Platon never loved
anyone.
investigate whether pairs of homosexual lovers tended subsequently

to m a n y each other's kinswomen; this is psychologically probable:
1
latent homosexual elements can operate in mate choice.
Sliding is brilliantly highlighted in Bakchylides 33.165 ff. Herakles
is aroused by the beauty of Meleagros' eidolon; he therefore proposes
to marry Meleagros' sister—if she resembles him. This is possible only
2
if she too is boyish, athletic, and warlike—which she is. Here
Herakles, aroused by a male eidolon, slides before our eyes:
1) From a male to a boyish female; this is facilitated by a family

resemblance.
2) From the dead to the living; this is facilitated by the fact that
the eidolon resembles both Meleagros and Deianeira.
Greek sources describe various types of sliding:
1) Male to Female (Psychologically): see above; B. 33.165 ff. Sn.
2) Male to Female (Technique): Photios s.v. κυσολάκων. Dover
(pp. 36-7) accepts, as 'all but inescapable', Ruhnken's emendation of
'Melaine' (Melaneusi) to 'Helene', concluding that Theseus cohabited
with the prepubescent Helene anally. 3 Then—citing Hagnon ( = Athen.
602 d) and Ar. Lys. 1173 ff.—he rightly concludes that Spartan
1
This is the inverse of Freud's ('Three Essays', op. cit.) observation that the
nascent homosexual transfers excitation originally elicited by a woman to a
man. All classificatory kinship systems presuppose substitutability; a Sedang girl
said that (for marital and coital purposes) she and her girl cousin were 'the
same person'. On homosexuality in kinship: G. Devereux, 'Considérations Ethno-
psychanalytiques sur la Notion de Parenté', L'Homme ν (1Θ65) pp. 224-247.
The Nambikwara permit homosexual play only between a man engaged to a
prepubescent girl and the letter's older brother, Cl. Lévi-Strass, Tristes Tropi-
ques, 1955. Sliding from woman to woman: Bellerophon, Stheneboia, and Sthene-
boia's sister; Theseus, Ariadne, Phaidra, etc. She-ass or mare vs. woman:
Aristocles fr. 1, p. 161, Paradoxogr. Westerm. and Plu. Parall. 29, 312 D ff;
(Onoskelis); Plu. ibid. (Epona). Stableboys should be married (Plu. Conv. Sept.
Sap. 3, 149E); cp. the Incas forbidding single men to herd llamas (pers. comm.
Prof. W. La Barre). Even Pan's 'mistaking' of Herakles for a woman shows
undifferentiatedness. S. Freud (The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, Standard
Ed. vi, 1960, chaps. 5-11), shows that mistakes are unconsciously purposive. For
a basic sense of continuity: from madness to sanity, S. Aj.; from woman to bitch
to woman: Callim. fr. 100h Schn. ii, p. 356); the sense of identity is not lost.
2
Apollod 1.8.1.; sch. A.R. I.1212.
3
As a custom: A. L. Kroeber, 'The Patwin and their Neighbors', Univ. Calif.
Publ. Amer. Archaeol. Ethnol. xxix, pt. 4 (1932) p. 272; G. Devereux, Mohave
Ethnopsychiatry, op. cit., p. 283 and n. 32. Luc. Am. 14, 17; Apul. Met. 4 fin.
84 GEOBGE DEVEBEtTX
youths cohabited with nubile girls in this manner, citing for Sparta
'an abnormal degree of female emancipation with patrilineal inheri-
tance and ignorance of effective contraception'.1 This reflects a
transposition of a homosexual technique to a quasi-heterosexual
context. The same may be true, at least in Greece, of heterosexual
fellatio.2
3) Male to Boyish Female: (also, above, No. 1). The athletic Spartan
bride was shorn and was dressed as a man;3 this is, supposedly, apotro-
paic cross dressing.4 It may also have had, however, a psychological

function: to help male partners 'slide over' into heterosexuality.5 The
hypothesis of a social facilitation of this 'sliding' into normality is
anthropologically defensible.· Treating women like men was known to
the Greeks to occur also in Lydia.7
1
Among the Sedang Moi of South Vietnam, anal coitus with (fertile) nubile
girls, vaginal coitus with (sterile) prepubescent girls. (My field data.) Cp.
Peisistratos' beihavior (Hdt. 1.61).
2
If μυσάχνη = fellatrix (so Lasserre, Archil, fr. 249; not in LSJ but credible:
primitives know this practice). The fact that Athene's discarding of the aulos
was treated in comedies and in satyr plays (cp. Preller-Robert, Or. Myth.
1.223 f. and nn.), and the fact that in modern obscene speech (e.g. French) flute-
playing — fellatio, may explain why flute-playing was despised by some (Arist.
Pol. 4.7 p. 1340a30; Plu. Alc. 2). Psychologically this makes sense.
3
Plu. Lyc. 15.8.
4
M. Delcourt, Hermaphrodite, 1958, chap. I. Boys wore their hair short;
warriors wore it long (Plu. Lyc. 16.6., 22.1). Short hair was part of the discipline;
cropped hair may therefore symbolize the 'humbling' of proud virgins—or
mares (S. fr. 659P; X. Eq. 5.8; Ael., Ν A 2.10; 11.18, cp. in general: G. Devereux,
The Abduction of Hippodameia, Studi e Materiali xxxvi (1965) pp. 3-25, esp.
p. 13 and nn. 22, 23). (Filly=girl is trivial.)
5
I t is even possible that one incidental purpose or side effect of Spartan
female athleties was to make the girls look boyish. Cp. Ch. Baudelaire, who ad-
vised the lover of a flatchested girl to rejoice over having 'un ami' (male!) 'with
hips'.
6
In a South African tribe, where the son inherits his stepmothers, he is
helped to 'slide' into his new role of sexual partner to previously tabooed
women by being encouraged to perform a public courting action: giving tobacco
to his erstwhile stepmothers. This helps him overcome his bashfulness and inhi-
bitions. In a sense, this, like the Spartan male disguise, is a very attenuated
rite de passage for the man.
7
Xanth. fr. 19 FHG 1.39; Hesych. Mil. fr. 47 FHG 4.171, report the 'castra-
tion' of female slaves, who were then used (sexually, one presumes) as though
4) Living to Dead.1 Periander cohabited with his dead wife, whom

he had killed by kicking her in the abdomen, while pregnant. 2 Di-
moites' incestuous wife hanged herself; soon thereafter, Dimoites
cohabited with the corpse of a drowned woman. (Hanging =drown-
ing=suffocation=death.) 3 In all these instances—and especially in
the case of Periander—the sliding from living body to corpse is mani-
fest.4
5) Living Being to Statue of Dead is a closely related type of 'sliding'
and is reported both for males and for females. Admetos promises to
make Alkestis' statue share his bed.5 Laodameia amorously embraces
the statue of Protesilaos.
6) Living Being to Dream and/or Phantom of Dead. Admetos de-
scribes the delights he will experience dreaming of the dead Alkestis.6
There are versions of the Laodameia myth in which she apparently
cohabits with the phantom of Protesilaos, released from Hades for a
short time. (Variants in Roscher, s.w.)
they were male eunuchs ( = catamites). I t is, of course, improbable that Lydian
surgeons could perform a true oöphorectomy, involving a laparotomy; if they
did, the mortality rate must have been dreadful. I suspect that they simply
destroyed part of the cervix and uterus, per vaginam, as did certain Australians
with women destined to be tribal prostitutes, cp. H. Ploss, M. and P. Bartels,
Das Weib, etc. 1927. Cp. Suetonius' account (Vit. XII Caes., Nero) of the attempt
to turn Sporus into a woman. A McIndoe operation being inconceivable, prob-
ably only a total castration (penis and testes) was performed on Sporus.
1
Psychiatric interpretation of these cases: D. Kouretas, 'Trois Cas de Nécro-
philie dans l'Antiquite', C. R. Congr. de Neurol. et Psychiatr., Strasbourg,
1958. I disregard here the third case—Egyptian embalmers (Hdt. 2.89)—as
irrelevant for Greece, but add: Achilleus and Penthesileia.
2
Necrophilia: Hdt. 5.93; murder: D.L. 1.94; Periander's incest: Plu. 146D;
Parthen. Erot. 31; D.L. 1.96. The incestuous Kambyses killed his pregnant
sister-wife in the same manner: Hdt. 3.32-33. Nero and Poppaea, Suet. loc. cit.
3
Parthen. Erot. 31. One notes the recurrent conjoining of incest and necro-
philia; this is a psychiatrically sound observation.
4
The primitive-archaic nature of this 'sliding' is proven by the fact that
baboons do not recognize death; males cohabit with dead females and fight off
attempts to remove their corpses from the cage. Sir S. Zuckerman, The Social
Life of Monkeys and Apes, 1932, pp. 298 ff.
5
E. Alc. 348-354.
6
E. Alc. 354-356 cp. Penelope's erotic dream, Hom. Od. 20.88 ff.; Zeus' dream,
Paus. 7.17.10 (Z. awake: Arnob. adv. nat. 5.5).
86 GEORGE DEVEEETJX
Excursus. The traditions, involving sliding from living body to

statue, dream and/or phantom are parallelled by the transformations
of a single myth: that of Iasion and Demeter:
a) Demeter in human form: Horn. Od. 5.125 ff.; Hes. Th. 969 if.
b) Demeter as statue: Scymn. 685 ff. GGM 1.223; Hellan. fr. 129
FHG 1.63.
c) Demeter as phantom: Con. 21. 1
Now, necrophilia—a rare perversion—cannot account for Aphro-
dite τυμβωρύχος. Obscene death rites, believing death to be a wedding

with Hades or Persephone, the freeing of (non-dead) Theseus from
Hades, etc., are not grave-robbing.2 The epithet is neither Orphic' nor
obscene: only conjugal love can rob the grave, be it but in dream.3
By contrast, perverted 'love' cannot do this: perversions, and espe-
cially anal erotism (Freud), imply incestuous fixations and destructive
drives; they are moreover sterile. If sex exists in Hades, seen psycho-
logically it must be incestuous, anal, and sterile.4
7) Living Being to Nothingness. Though Athene dematerializes,
Hephaistos fathers Erichthonios.5
8) Metamorphoses are of several types:
a) Peleus desires an anthropomorphic Thetis; yet his desire remains
unabated during her rapid metamorphoses.'
1
I disregard Ov. Met. 9.422 ff., which is no longer myth, but Biedermeier;
Demeter is not a goddess anymore, nor Iasion a hero, and the coupling is not a
hieros gamos.
2
Plu. Num. 12; D.H. AR. 4.15.5; Varro LL 6.47; Clem. Al. Protr. 2.38. cp. O.
Gruppe, Gr. Myth. Bel. 2.864 ff., who rightly rejects: Aphrodite = bodyreturner.
But the taking of Berenike's· (Theoer. 17.48) and Caesar's (Ov. Met. 15.843)
souls to heaven is (despite GIL 6.3.21521.29) only flattery. Obscene rites: H.
Damm, 'Inseln um Truk', p. 154, A. Kramer, Truk', p. 317, both in: G. Thile-
nius, Ergebnisse der Sudsee-Expedition 1908-1910.
3
Eurydike (where Orpheus is heterosexual); Alkestis, Protesilaos. For Greek
conjugal love: Hom. Od.; X. Smp. fin; Oecon.; Plu. often. Chiefly Ar. Lys.: the
frustrated men want their wives, not harlots or catamites.
4
Since, in primitive belief, coitue with ghosts kills or paralyzes (— immobi-
lizes), did Theseus (= Peirithoos, Koscher s.vv.) cohabit anally with Perse-
phone (=Melaine, Bruchmann, epith. dear. p . 192)? If so, Melaine in Phot, is
defensible. Sex = death (Plu. 65F, 717F, Alex. 22.3) is neurotic; Hades-van-
quishing Eros (Claud. 33.26), represented on sarcophagi, is not.
5
Antig. Caryst. Mirab. 12; B. Powell, Erichthonius and the Three Daughters
of Cecrops, Cornell Stud. Cl. Phil, xvii, 1906 gives all versions.
6
Cp. the versions cited in Roscher, Lex, s.vv. Thetis, Peleus.
b) Demeter transforms herself into a mare; in nowise discouraged,

Poseidon turns himself into a stallion and mates with her.1
c) Atalante and Meilanion were turned into lions. This was a punish-
ment, since, in Greek belief, lions could only mate with leopards;
hence, their continued longing for each other could not be implemented
behaviorally.2
d) Even the metamorphosis of the lover—with the beloved one
not metamorphosed—did not abolish desire: Zeus turned into a swan
and mated with Leda in that shape.*

It is perhaps legitimate—at least tentatively—to correlate the
persistence of the sexual urge even in metamorphoses with the previ-
ously discussed—typically adolescent—feeling of the autonomy (and
almost extraneousness) of the sexual drive and even of the sexual
organ. This, in turn, is made psychologically and culturally plausible
by Snell's4 finding that there is no real word for the living body as a
whole in Homeros, and that in many early Greek pictorial representa-
tions of the human body the contour is not continuous: the body is
represented as a jigsaw puzzle, built up by a juxtaposition of the
various limbs. Snell stresses the resemblance between such designs
and children's drawings in modern society. Such a fractioning of the
self image occurs also in certain neuroses and other immaturity reac-
tions and is technically designated by the term fractioning (or disrup-
tion) of the body image (or body ego), which is almost invariably
linked with a defective sense of one's own identity, including one's
sexual self-identification.5 This defective sense of one's identity6—
1
Paus. 8.25.3
2
Paus. 3.24.2; Apollod. 3.9.2. Callim. Dian. 216; Hyg. fab. 99 etc.
3
Lack of space prevents me from discussing the unconscious roots of the
metamorphosis fantasy, which represents a defensive renunciation of one's own
identity. Cp. Devereux, La Renonciation', op. cit.
4
B. Snell, The Discovery of the Mind 2, 1960, pp. 5 ff.
5
A severely neurotic patient was unable to say 'my head' and 'my penis'; he
could only say 'the head', etc. His sense of sexual identity was also incomplete.
His body image had only a minimal coherence. Once he fantasied that he
would escape 'the monster' by falling apart and turning into countless 'marbles'
(the kind children play with); the monster could never find all of them and thus
at least parts of himself would escape destruction, cp. G. Devereux, Loss of
Identity, op. cit.
6
Odysseus ends up by being quite disturbed by the dizzying metamorphoses
to which Athene subjects him (Hom. Od. passim). One might perhaps correlate
88 GEOEGE DEVEBET7X
including sexual identity—seems to contradict "what was said about

the self-centeredness of the adolescent. Actually, for the psychologist,
it is precisely this uncertainty about one's (sexual) identity which
leads defensively to self-centeredness.1
Instinctual Sliding is a psychologically different phenomenon. It
involves either a modification of the sexual instinct, or a sliding from
motivation by instinct A, to motivation by instinct B.
1) Incest. Though genetically all forms of love have the same
origin, the mature person desexualizes familial love; only the imma-
ture have conscious incest-fantasies, particularly during puberty.
Now, it hardly need be argued that Greek mythology contains an
exceptionally large number of cases of incest; this suggests that the
Greek was psychologically an adolescent in his emotional reactions.2
2) Aggression to Eroticism. Achilleus kills Penthesileia in battle
and then falls in love with the beautiful corpse.3 The sliding here is
both instinctual (aggression to sexuality) and objectal (living girl
to corpse). Peleus' wrestling with Atalante* presents a more difficult
problem. Though eroticism is not mentioned in this context, Peleus—
and only Peleus—also wrestled (erotically) with another woman,
Thetis. Greek athleticism was, moreover, erotic: gymnasia were trysting
places, athletic nudity excited the spectators (Ar. Nub. 976; cp. Plu.
Bom. 20.3) and Solon probably forbade both athletics and paederasty
to slaves because men easily slid from sterile (Plu. 724E), prudish
(Ael. Ν A 6.1, VH 3.30) and partly hostile (Plu. 736D) athletics into
homosexual activity.
with such problems of identity the tremendous role which anagnorisis plays
already in Homeros. For a detailed analysis of Penelope's recognition of Odys-
seus, cp. G. Devereux, Tenelope's Character', Psychoanalytic Quart, xxvi
(1957) pp. 378-386 (=ΙΙΛΑΤΩΝ, i (1958), pp. 3-9).
1
Xove thy neighbor as thyself obviously implies that one can love him and
recognize him as a human being sui iure only if one is able to love oneself and
has a sense of one's own identity first. Cp. E. Fromm, Escape from Freedom,
1941, passim.
2
The familial chaos of the 'heroic' age was duplicated by that of hellenistic
dynasties. This supports M. P. Nilsson's view (The Mycenaean Origins of Greek
Mythology, 1932) that many Greek myths originated in a period of social chaos
and disintegration. Cp. C. M. Bowra, Tradition and Design in the Iliad, 1930, pp.
234 ff.
3
Procl. Chrest. 2; Apollod. Epit. 5.1, etc.
4
Apollod. 3.9.2, Epit. 13.2.
Greek Psevdo-Homosexuality and the 'Greek Miracle' 89
The above examples certainly do not exhaust the gamut of such

phenomena in Greek myths. They suffice, however, to prove that
Greek sexuality was of an adolescent type, not stabilized, and not
committed to any type of reaction, at least until the average indi-.
vidual belonging to the upper classes had more or less settled down
by becoming a husband.
An Inventory of Perversions in Myth would be too lengthy; a pre-
liminary classification of the data showed that some 30-50 types were
represented. No other mythology seems to mention so many; no
mythical personage has as varied inclinations as Herakles. I must

content myself with high-lighting striking absences and a few espe-
cially peculiar reactions.
Male Supernaturals do not cohabit with male animals, nor, except
for Dionysos, are they passively homosexual (supra). They do not
commit homosexual incest, and they are neither sexually sadistic
nor necrophiliac. A Satyr tries to kiss the fire. (A. Prom. Pyrph. fr.
207 N.)
Female Supernaturals, though they, too, do not cohabit with female
animals, are more perverted than male ones. Artemis and her compan-
ions seem lesbian; disguised as Artemis, Zeus approaches Kallisto
(Eratosth. Cat. 1. p. 50 R.). The Sphinx cruelly rapes (coitus inversus,
clawing) men and perhaps devours them. Hephaistos is a 'wind-
child' (Luc. de Sacrif. 6).
Men do not practice homosexual incest or homosexual bestiality,
nor do they cohabit with amorphous objects.
Women: No lesbian incest or cohabitation with female animals.
They do, however, cohabit with amorphous objects and with natural
forces: lightning (Semele); rain of gold (Danae); water (Tyro); wind
(?Oreithyia); (cp. baubon, Herod. 6.18 if.).
Animals: Stallions and camels are reluctant to commit incest and
mares to unite hypogamously with.jackasses. Mares are aroused by
music .(Hu. 138B, 704F) and by hippomanes. Bulls must be deceived
into mating with women (Pasiphae). Lions mate only with leopards.
Stallions mount a mare's statue (Paus. 5.27.2). In the Troad, Krete,
and Lusitania, mares mate with the wind. So do hens in Greece and
female vultures in Egypt; male vultures do not exist. Though real ani-
mals sometimes practice homosexuality, mythical ones do not.
PUnts. Paus. 7.17.11; Arnob. adv. not. 5.5.
90 GEOBGE DEVERETTX
Inanimate Objects and Forces: see above.

Spectres, Phantasms, Dreams, Eidola: Many examples.
It appears that the Greeks sexualized all tangible and imaginary-
constituents of the Universe, which may, perhaps, have contributed
to the Orphic' concept of a primordial Eros. These data, taken in
conjunction with the cases of 'sliding' discussed above, indicate that
Greek fantasy was adolescent in its lack of sexual discrimination and
differentiation. This made it possible for Greek culture to encourage
successfully an abnormal behavioral segment of this broad sexual

spectrum.
The Greek 'Miracle'. It was shown in the preceding pages that the
basic fact is not Greek (pseudo-)homosexuality, but a psychological
and affective state, which made the Greek capable of complying with
the cultural demand for homosexual behavior. This state, as was
shown, is that of adolescence, artificially prolonged into adulthood.
It is important to stress that adolescence could just as well have been
prolonged by encouraging adolescent (pseudo-)heterosexuality,1 had
the Greeks been better fathers.
Homosexual behavior was the darker side of the essentially adoles-
cent psychology of the Greeks.2 Why the Greeks chose to perpetuate
adolescence by this particular means, is a historical problem, which
may or may not be solved some day.
An adolescent psychology, however, also has its sunny side. The
tree must not be confused with its shadow. This image is a very ap-
propriate one: the tree diverges from its shadow precisely at its roots. We
must now turn our attention to the tree.
One must realize from the outset that adolescence is a creative
stage in human development; the adjective 'adolescent' is not an
opprobrious epithet. Friedrich Schiller said that a poet is a man who
remembers his childhood. Mozart remained emotionally an adolescent
until he died. Extremely young adolescents, precisely because they
are unfettered by tradition, are often capable of extraordinary and
innovating performances.3 Geniuses who become bolder as they
1
This is currently done in America.
2
As (pseudo-)heterosexuality is the darker side of a similar American psycho-
logical situation.
3
I cite, almost at random, Mozart, Rimbaud, Keats in the arts; Pascal and
Galois in mathematics; Alexander and Conde in strategy. For reasons explained
grow old are usually men who retained some characteristics of the
adolescent.1
Now, there are some societies which do not know how to make the
adolescent socially useful; other societies do have this skill.2 The
Greeks knew how to utilize the adolescent personality socially; they
encouraged most men not to become stodgy as they grew older and to
retain the socially and culturally usable traits of adolescent psycho-
logy. It is the prolongation of a charmingly adolescent intellectual
presumptuousness which made it possible for early Greek philosophers
to write books called simply: On the Universe'. These books mattered

in the history of science, not because their conclusions are correct,
but because they asserted the intelligibility of the world and devised
(implicitly) the notion of analytic variables, though the concrete
variables they used were, of course, not the right ones. The 'Greek
Miracle' came to an end when one of its most brilliant and also
emotionally least mature representatives—reacting against bis own
adolescent emotionality—froze the graceful spirallings of adolescent
fantasy into a dereistically orderly crystal.
Some societies—like termites—can utilize socially only what all
men have in common. Others know how to exploit for social ends
what is unique about an individual. The Greeks knew how to use for
socially beneficial ends the adolescence of the adolescent, just as they
knew how to utilize the poetic talent of the poet and the plastic
talent of the sculptor. Moreover, long before Mill, they realized that
maximum individualization and maximum socialization go hand in
hand; that the individual cannot function optimally without the
help of society and that society benefits most from those of its mem-
by Ε. Τ. Bell (Men of Mathematics, 1937; chapter on H. Poincaré), today most

really innovating discoveries in physics are made by extremely young men.
1
I cite, again almost at random, 'la dernière manière de Turenne', who be-
haved all his life like a bashful and confused adolescent; also the last quartets of
Beethoven, who was a rebellious and unmannerly adolescent all his life, and,
obviously, the Euripides of the Bacchae. Freud's thought grew bolder with age,
and his famous biographer and disciple, E. Jones, highlighted in a lecture the
naively juvenile side of Freud's personality.
2
In many primitive societies, adolescents are the military and public works
manpower of the tribe; in even more numerous groups they are the dancers,
the organizers of feasts, and the creators of all that makes life less dull, less
narrow, less routine.
92 GEORGE DEVEEETIX
bers who fulfil their own nature (arete) most completely. In so doing,
Greece discovered the individual.1 The fact that they happened to
utilize the adolescent's 'homosexual' potentiality as a means of
prolonging adolescent attitudes into adult life is a historical accident,
which remains to be understood; they could just as well have used
some other means—less abnormal and therefore even more creative.
Why they failed to do so is primarily a problem for the culture histo-
rian, rather than for the psychologist and sociologist.
The only miraculous thing about the 'Greek Miracle' is its non-
miraculousness and intelligibility: it was a successful socialization of
the adolescent's creative potentialities, even in adult life. Men like us
walked in the agora and manned the ships at Salamis. Unlike ourselves,
they had the good fortune to belong to a society which valued the
youthfulness of feeling and imagination and understood the human
use of human beings.
1
Many societies fail to make this discovery, cp. M. Mauss, Une Catégorie
de l'Esprit Humain: La Notion de Personne, celle de "Moi".' (Huxley Lecture).
J. Eoy. Anthrop. Inst. Ixviii (1938), pp. 263-281 (=M. Mauss, Sociologie et
Anthropologie, 1950, pp. 331-362).

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On: 28 November 2013, At: 16:59

Symbolae Osloenses: Norwegian Journal of Greek and

Greek pseudo‐homosexuality and the ‘Greek miracle’

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of the unfortunate manner in which the Greeks implemented a

were human to begin with. Unless we understand the Greeks first

The sociological and the psychological explanations of a given

visions. The neurotic actualizes such potentialities in response to

THE NATURE OF A GENUINE PERVERSION

The focus of any discussion of Greek homosexuality—and of Greek

sexuality were even culturally standardized: eromenos, erastes, hus-

Since Greek homosexuality was neither stable, nor compulsive,

Only Eos appears to be constantly and spontaneously aroused;1 the

2) Self-Centered Eroticism in the adolescent is a direct consequence of

One manifestation of this adolescent-type sexual self-centeredness

wishes and fantasies. Both purely behaviorally oriented inquiries—

pseudo-heterosexual).1 It is incomplete in adolescents before the

SOCIAL PROLONGATION OF ADOLESCENCE

the phenomenon American sociologists call 'youth culture'.5 Classical

It had many drawbacks, but also certain advantages, which will be

surrogate (educator) and the eromenos a son surrogate (pupil), this

In a clinical setting, Silenos' 'paternal' fantasy would suggest

archaic times, by such primitive 'magical practices'. If there is any

matter. Most probably, the Tightness or wrongness of Bethe's theory

incessantly.1 Such artificially inflated trait complexes sometimes

and elaborately chivalrous.3 Mankind apparently needs to be chival-

tionalized Homosexuality of the Mohave Indians', Human Biology ix (1937)

investigate whether pairs of homosexual lovers tended subsequently

1) From a male to a boyish female; this is facilitated by a family

paic cross dressing.4 It may also have had, however, a psychological

4) Living to Dead.1 Periander cohabited with his dead wife, whom

Excursus. The traditions, involving sliding from living body to

dite τυμβωρύχος. Obscene death rites, believing death to be a wedding

b) Demeter transforms herself into a mare; in nowise discouraged,

and mated with Leda in that shape.*

including sexual identity—seems to contradict "what was said about

The above examples certainly do not exhaust the gamut of such

mythical personage has as varied inclinations as Herakles. I must

Inanimate Objects and Forces: see above.

successfully an abnormal behavioral segment of this broad sexual

to write books called simply: On the Universe'. These books mattered

by Ε. Τ. Bell (Men of Mathematics, 1937; chapter on H. Poincaré), today most

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