Quote:
Originally Posted by CraigD
It’s worth noting that this sort of punishment doesn’t appear to have had much to do with male homosexuality, per se. Priapus wasn’t seen as a homosexual god, nor criminals punished by sodomy as gay. It appears to have been viewed rather as a particularly uncomfortable and humiliating – but basically non-injurious - form of punishment, regardless of sexual orientation.
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Hello CraigD,
That's spot on. It's the fundamental point that Aristophanes (and many other commentators, who maybe get a bit excited when they see large phallus's all over the place, i.e. on pottery, statues and in the plays chorus) missed when he allowed Wrong to win over Right.
I think ancient Greek homosexuality has allways been quite a bit overrated because it was only a minor proportion of the population (some elites and the poor rent boys) who did it, even though this policy was economically foisted onto political allies by default, by these same elites.
While modern day peoples don't really care about what the global elites do in private, they sure as hell protest a heck of a lot if they try it on their 'allies' via vassal or slave states.
