by K J Dover
* * *
1. Stone slabs, which were used for tombstones or commemorative or informative documents of any kind, national, local or private.
2. Most surviving Greek graffiti are incised, not painted (cf. p. 9, n. 13), though there are sometimes traces of paint in the incision.
3. Lit., ‘I did not answer even the bitter utterance’, i.e. not even that one of the two alternative answers, favourable or unfavourable, which is unfavourable.
4. Allos ekhei, ‘another has (sc. him)’ echoes (after a fashion) naikhi kalos kalos naikhi (etc.)
5. Gow and Page and Pfeiffer (fr. 393) ad loc. seem to regard ‘Kronos sophos’ as a conceit modelled on ‘... kalos’, as if the erotic graffito were the only type in actual use. For acclamatory sophos cf. the cries of encouragement to hounds, ‘kalōs, sophōs’, i.e. ‘Nice work !’ in [Xen.] Cynegeticus 6.17.
6. The word occurs also in Attic comedy; it is the feminine agent-noun of laikazein, a vulgar word for sexual intercourse.
7. Cf. p.142 on attitudes in comedy. The earliest use of katapūgōn so far known is on an eighth-century sherd (Blagen 10 f.; cf. Jeffery 69). I am not sure that Fraenkel 44f. is right in regarding -aina as having a strongly derogatory colouring; in Ar. Clouds 660-9 Socrates tells Strepsiades that he ought to say alektruaina for ‘hen’, reserving alektruōn for’cock’.
8. Cf. ARV 1601, Lang nos. 6, 20.
9. On oiphein, ‘copulate (with ...)’, cf. p. 123; oipholēs occurs also in IG xii 5.97 (Naxos). Mainolēs, ‘crazy’, may have served as a model.
10. The inscription has THRESA; ‘Threissa’ in Attic is a common female slave-name (‘Thracian woman’). The form katapūgōn is unobjectionable here, since katapugaina was probably an Attic invention which had a limited life.
11. It was also possible to incise an inscription on a vase after firing (or after many years of use in different hands and different places), as on anything. ‘Neokleides is beautiful’ (B418) is an example. Immerwahr describes a terracotta ball on which ‘I belong to Myrrhine’ was painted (‘Myrrhine’ is a woman’s name) and ‘the boy is beautiful’ subsequently added.
12. Webster 42-62 explores the hypothesis of special commissions.
13. Talcott 350 cites a complicated graffito written on a grid-pattern on the foot of a vessel (Agora P5164; cf. ARV 1611): ‘Gods. Therikles is beautiful. Gods. P[ ]xonos is beautiful. Timoxenos is beautiful. Kharmides is beautiful.’ The heading ‘gods’ occurs sometimes on state decrees; it is a verbal obeisance, the equivalent of prayer and sacrifice before the beginning of an undertaking, and does not mean that what follows is a list of gods or godlike persons.
14. B646 ‘Buy me and euepolesei’ (Beazley [AJA 1950] 315) may be ‘ ... eu e’, i.e. ‘ ... you’ll be getting a good bargain’ or ‘... you’ll be doing well’ (cf. LSJ); on any interpretation, there is a switch from the second person plural (in ‘buy’) to a singular.
15. .Soi kai emoi happens to be the beginning of Mimnermos fr. 8.2 and of Theognis 1058; cf. R1053 (p. 10). In R125 hipparkhokal may be the opening words of a verse about someone called Hipparkhos, a well-attested kalos-name (ARV 1584). Even utterances intended as parts of the picture could be incised later; Beazley (AJA 1927) 348 cites a graffito kuuu beside the painted figure of an owl.
16. In Greek the two elements of the subject are commonly separated by the verb, giving the order S1 V S2. So constantly name1 – verb – (sc. son) of name2.
17. Cf. AC63-65, Henderson 131 f.
18. Klein 77 says ‘Jüngling’, but his illustration belies this.
19. For examples of ‘I greet’cf. Beazley (1925) 35-7; Klein 63-5.
20. In Pl. Smp. 201c Socrates addresses Agathon as ō philoumene Agathōn, i.e. ‘... loved (sc. by everyone)’?
21. Cf. Ferri 98-100, Beazley (AJA 1941) 595, Schauenburg (1969) 49f.
22. R902 might seem at first sight to come close to evil omen; the legendary Aktaion, being transformed into a deer and torn to pieces by his own dogs, is labelled ‘Euaion’. But IGD 62, 65, 69 makes a good case for supposing that Aiskhylos’s son Euaion acted in tragedies, so that we might expect to find his name in pictures of mythological subjects.
23. Cf. Ferri 105, ABV 669, ARV 1591-4, Webster 65. Acclamation of Memnon (ARV 1599-1601) creates a problem. A handsome boy of that name is acclaimed in B322 (late sixth century), but the Memnon of legend was the handsomest man Odysseus had ever seen (Horn. Od. xi 522), and some red-figure acclamations refer to him.
24. In R1091 (youths) kala (neuter plural) is painted on a wineskin, kalē (feminine singular) on a laver. In R208 (youths playing ‘kottabos’ at a symposium) there is kalos on one cup, kalon on another; kalon is neuter singular, but the fact that vase-painters sometimes write s like n (e.g. R44, Rl 10, R476, R1000) may perhaps absolve us from attempting a subtle interpretation of the message (let alone ] kalon [ in R 5 51).
25. Cf. Ferri 128f.
26. Vase-inscriptions sometimes ‘stray’; for example, ‘Beautiful, yes!’ beside Herakles and the lion in R239 probably reinforces ‘Beautiful is Kharops’ on another part of the surface. There is also an observable tendency to put words on vessels, wineskins, shields, etc., portrayed in vase-paintings (for example, Douris in R559 put the words ‘O Douris!’ on a cup in a youth’s hand), and for this reason kalos on a wineskin may belong in sense with a kalos-inscription elsewhere in the picture.
27. There are sporadic exceptions, e.g. R997. Occasionally omega is written consistently instead of omikron, e.g. R690, R691 (reversal of the normal functions of omega and omikron occurs also in some inscriptions of Thasos).
28. Ferri 100f. raises this point; Beazley (AJA 1950) 315 considers it in connection with B646, but (in that connection) rejects it for good reason.
29. Cf. Robertson (1972) 182.
30. R1017 acclaims as beautiful someone called ‘Psolon’; the name is indecent (cf. p. 129). A fourth-century lamp from Gela (Milne 221) impudently declares itself the property of Fausanias katapūtgotatos, ‘the biggest katapūgōn of all’. R1147 substitutes kokos, ‘cowardly’, ‘worthless’ for kalos; cf. Klein 4, 169.
31. The statement of an anonymous biographer (Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1800 fr. I col. i 19-25, of Roman date) that she was far from attractive is probably derived from a poem in which she contrasted herself despairingly with someone else or repeated the words of an enemy or rival.
32. The anonymous boxers of R358 are an apparent exception, but (lit.) ‘boxers men beautiful’ (dual number) is formally distinct from (lit.) ‘the boy beautiful’ (with the definite article).
33. In B220 philonse, following ‘Beautiful is Antimenes’, is interpreted by Beazley (1927) 63f. as ‘Philon you –’, i.e. subject, object, then a meaningful, insulting silence, as if the verb were too improper to utter. Precisely such an insulting breaking-off occurs in Theokritos 1.105, where Daphnis is taunting Aphrodite with the fact that ‘the cowherd’ (i.e. Ankhises) copulated with her. However, ‘if he loves you’ is a possible interpretation of the letters; cf. n. 38 below.
34. Cf. p. 98. Apodos, ‘give me what you promised’ or ‘give me back (sc. my gifts)’ is part of a conversation between a man and a boy in R595.
35. Beazley’s scenario (AJA 1927 352f.) is unforgettable.
36. They are treated so by Bethe 449f., 452f., followed by Vanggaard 23f., 63f. ‘The sacred place and the name of Apollo make it plain that ... we are being told about a sacred act’ (Vanggaard) underrates the Greek use of oaths and overrates most people’s reverence for sacred places. Cf. Semenov 147f., Marrou 367.
37. Cf. the herdsmen of Theokritos 5, discussed on p. 104.
38. In R567, after ‘Hermogenes is beautiful’, the sequence of letters eenemeknerine may be ēn eme knēi rīnēi, ‘if he’ll scratch me with (sc. his) hard skin’; rīnē means ‘rasp’or a fish with a very rough skin. Beazley (AJA 1960) 219 suggests ēn eme enkrīnēi, ‘if he’ll include me (sc. among his friends)’; so too Webster 45, but taking ‘me’ as the vessel and tra
nslating ‘if he’ll choose me’. Another verb, knizein, is cognate with knēn and overlaps it in denotation; in the sense ‘provoke’, ‘stir up’, ‘trouble’, ‘tease’ it could describe the action of a boy’s beauty upon an erastes, but knēn is more appropriate for the action of the boy’s body upon the penis of the erastes.
39. My interpretation ad loc, that drosos is Cowper’s secretion, appearing when the boy’s penis has been erected by titillation, is far-fetched (I am bound to agree with some reviewers on this), but no other interpretation so far seems to me to pay enough attention to the semantics of drosos or to explain why Right regards the beauty of ‘drosos and down’ as incompatible with anointing below the navel. On the gulf between reality and the convention (p. 52) that the eromenos is not aroused cf. pp. 97, 103.
40. On big buttocks, which go with big thighs, cf. p. 70.
41. Cf. Dickinson 75, Masters and Johnson 191.
42. The pygmy in R752 has a foreskin so long that he could tie a knot in it without discomfort.
43. A satyr in R6 has a foreskin like an elongated lozenge, constricted at each end and bulging in the middle.
44. On a satyr in R329* the line of the corona is apparent on the outside of the penis, whereas it is invisible in the same artist’s portrayal of a young athlete R326, despite the great similarity of the figures in all other anatomical features below the neck; it seems, however, to appear in the athlete of R332.
45. In R235 the erect penis of the satyr is of unusual type, gradually tapering to a point and undulating.
46.Cf.Hopfner218-21.
47. Euprepēs is sometimes moral (and can mean ‘specious’, ‘plausible’) sometimes aesthetic; so of the youthful-looking (and effeminate-looking) Agathon in Ar. Thesm. 192.
48. Greeks were well acquainted with Thracians, and the vase-painters never show them as circumcised.
49. Cf. Lang no. 14.
50. R62 is interestingly reticent; a youth on a bed, titillating a naked woman, has his cloak wrapped round his legs, and though it is obviously pushed up by an erection his genitals are hidden from us.
51. Cf. Herter (1929) on these beings.
52. Cf. Herter (1938) 1688-1692.
53. On angles of erection and degrees of curvature cf. Dickinson 77f. and figures 105-8,112-16.
54. To treat the penis as if it were capable of emotion and volition independently of the person of whom it is a part is a common device of pornographic literature; but of course pornography only ‘works’ – that is to say, succeeds in arousing the reader sexually – in so far as it gives substance to ways of thinking and feeling which come easily to us.
55. For exceptions, see Boardman (1976) 288f. and EG 70f.; Herter (1938) 1968 describes some examples from the Neolithic period in the Aegean.
56. Here, and in the following paragraph, the reader is warned that by the time I had worked halfway through CVA in search of items in any way relevant to Greek homosexuality I was beginning to see penile imagery everywhere. On the possible relation of the phallos-bird to the cockerel and (more persuasively) on the cockerel as a symbol of male sexual aggression, cf. Hoffmann (1974) 204-213.
57. Cf. Schneider on aspects (not sexual aspects) of the part played by spears on vase-paintings by Exekias.
58. In C62 (cf. p. 106) the foreskin of the black, dominant Tydeus is long and tight, whereas that of the white, defeated Periklymenos is loose and short.
59. The smaller the penis, the greater the drama when it becomes erect and the glans is exposed by spontaneous or manual retraction.
60. The expression is Beazley’s (AJA 1950 321).
61. C28* suggests the buttocks and thighs of a reclining woman seen (like the right-hand woman of R62) from behind; C19* is more like an anus than anything, but could possibly be considered a formalised nipple. Cf. the so-called ‘pomegranate’ vases (e.g. C15), which use the motif of the female breast.
62. A humorous reversal of: ‘I need your help; and if you won’t give it now, it will be no use your coming to me for help when you are in need and I am prosperous.’
63. The name of Peisetairos has not been revealed at this stage in the play; the name ‘Stilbonides’ is meant to suggest brightness (stilb-).
64. Literally ‘Libations’; a diplomatic treaty was accompanied by the taking of oaths and the pouring of libations to gods.
65. Henderson 218 lists ten men as ‘active pederasts ridiculed by name in comedy’ (actually nine, because his no. 5 and no. 10 are the same person). On his no. 1, Agathon, see n. 5 below; no. 2, Alkibiades, is treated in comedy, and in the biographical tradition, as sexually unrestrained in all respects; in the case of no. 4, Kleon, the language is figurative, as Henderson says, and refers to Kleon’s aggression towards everybody. There is no reason to believe that Autokleides (no. 3), one of the ‘wild men’ of Aiskhines i 52, was ridiculed for active homosexuality in the Orestautokleides of Timokles rather than for hybristic behaviour in general, that the joke in Ar. fr. 114 was against Meletos (no. 6) rather than against Kallias, or that the sexual word-play in Knights 1378f. is a hit at Phaiax (no. 7) himself; and to find sexual reference to Phainippos (no. 8) and Teisamenos (no. 9) in Ach. 603 is to miss the point of the passage, which is that conceited young men of the leisured class, with high-sounding names and extravagant habits, make a good thing out of military office.
66. Henderson 218 takes Thesm. 254 as meaning that Agathon’s feminine clothes ‘smell of little boys’ penises’. But the point is that the Old Man, in affected tones, exclaims ‘Oh, my dear, what a delicious perfume ...’ and adds, in a different tone,‘... of prick!’, because Agathon, who has worn the dress, is male. The diminutive posthion is patronising and contemptuous.
67. We never have independent evidence for stage action, but it is legitimate to point out ways in which figurative language can be completely clarified by action. Henderson 200, 214, takee the image in Clouds 676 to mean ‘buggered’ (active, presumably). His generalisation about satyrs grasping their penises in vase-paintings is on the whole true (cf. p. 97 above), but has no relevance to the unusual picture (B118) which I cited in my comment ad loc.
68. Literally ‘inventings ... undergoings’; a person’s pathēmata are what happens to him, what is done to him, and the contrast between ‘doing’ (poiein, drān) and ‘undergoing’ (paskhein) has obvious sexual applications, whence the Latin term pathicus for a passive homosexual.
69. LSJ treats the imperfect tense bīneskomēn not as passive but as ‘middle’, with active sense; but for the Sausage-seller to say ‘I fucked a bit’ would be pointless in the context, since most people do, and he is answering a question on what skill or craft he practised when he grew up. Cf. also n. 12.
70. On effeminate or affected stance and movement cf. p.72.
71. On expressions such as ‘Be a man!’ and ‘We need a man!’ cf. GPM 102. Symonds 44 and Karlen 30 seem not to observe the sarcasm of the passage of Smp.
72.Cf. DJ.West 27f.
73. Many verbs which have an active form in the present tense have a middle form in the future; but in other verbs the middle form of the future can have a passive sense. Laikasomai, the future corresponding to the present laikazō, is designated middle by LSJ, but (a) in the only passage in which an active sense in the future is .absolutely required (Knights 167, ‘You’ll imprison [sc. anyone you like], you’ll fuck in the Town Hall’) the manuscript tradition very strongly favours the second person active form (-seis, not -sei), and (b) wherever the form is middle, the passive sense is required, e.g. Straton CGF 219.36 ou laikasei? = ‘Get fucked!’ or ‘Fuck you!’. Kephisodoros fr, 3.5 laikasomai ara = ‘Well I’ll be fucked!’, ‘I’m fucked if I’ll put up with that!’ (the noun which follows it is not its object, but a self-contained incredulous repetition of a word from the previous line).
74. Contra Henderson 210, whose use of words such as ‘evil’ and ‘wicked’ (rather than ‘worthless’or ‘useless’) seems to me inappropriate.
75. The argument ‘There
must have been something in it, or Aristophanes would never have got away with it’ can only be propounded by those whose acquaintance with the political practice of our own time is very limited indeed; in any case, it begs the question, since we do not know in the case of any individual passage what a comic poet or orator ‘got away with’.
76. Cf. Dover (1963a) 8-12.
77. Cf. Taillardat 151-220.
78. However, ‘Look! Male!’ is a possible interpretation; cf. ‘Look! A swallow!’ on R78(Kretschmer231).
79. The Autolykos of myth was a great thief and cheat (Hom. Od. xix 394-8) and the subject of a satyr-play of Euripides which contained (fr. 282) a diatribe against athletes.
80. The formula ‘If you yourself were ever in my situation, treat me as you would have wished to be treated’ is common; cf. GPM 271f.
81. Cf. AC 160f.
82. Cf. GPM 209.13.
83. Cf.GPM 34-45.
84. The assumption that shared sexual experience is the foundation upon which the mutual sexual passion of the partners is built rather than the goal towards which their pre-existing passion moves is widely adopted in societies which segregate boys and girls and put the responsibility of arranging marriages on parents.
85. Even non-phallic herms begin to appear in the late fifth century; cf. Lullies (1931)46.
86.Cf. EG 124.
87. A surprising amount of thought and feeling has been devoted in our own time to the question whether homosexual relations are ‘unnatural’, and, if so, in what sense. Since I observe that any community encourages behaviour which it regards as probably conducive to an eventual situation of a kind desired by that community and discourages behaviour which seems likely to hinder the development of such a situation, and since the absence of any clear correlation between ‘nature’ and desirability seems to me self-evident, I cannot engage with any enthusiasm in debates about the naturalness or unnaturalness of homosexuality. Cf. also p. 67.