Background
Historical Context: Polytheism in Classical Athens
Ancient Greek polytheism is not a religion in the contemporary sense, but rather a set of beliefs and practices at the intersection of myth and ritual. Myths told various stories about gods and heroes, and rituals honored these immoral forces of myth with the intention to please them and invoke their power to benefit the community. Life in an ancient Greek city-state is believed to have been organized around gods, heroes, and the ritual worship of them. Thus, the city-state was not a secular entity as modern people might define it. Ritual pervaded public and private life.
Though the gods and heroes that city-states across the ancient Greek-speaking world worshipped came from the same body of myth, each city-state honored its own version of gods and heroes. It was not considered untenable for Sparta to worship a martial manifestation of Aphrodite and for another state to worship a different version of her. This duality is exemplified in the two versions of Aphrodite cited in Pausanias’s speech.
In Athens, the ancient Greek city-state that provides the bulk of sources for historians, the patron goddess was Athena, goddess of wisdom, strategic warfare, and crafts associated with domestic life, weaving especially. With respect to warfare, she was the counterpart to (and sister of) Ares, who represented the brutality and bloodlust of battle. Thousands of cults existed in Athens, some of which are attested in literature and archeological finds and others that are beyond recovery by modern scholars.
The Eleusinian Mysteries are believed to have been the most sacred mystery cult dedicated to Demeter, goddess of harvest and consequently associated with fertility and birth, and her daughter Persephone, who was abducted by Hades to become his wife and thus associated with the Underworld. The Eleusinian Mysteries are believed to have involved a reenactment of sorts of Demeter’s search for Persephone. Because initiates took seriously the oath to secrecy, the precise practices remain unknown. It is believed that recitation, revelation, and performance of acts were all involved, incorporating concepts around descent (or loss of Persephone to the Underworld), search (of Demeter for her daughter), and ascent (the reunion of Persephone with her mother). Initiation is believed to have been open to anyone (man or woman, enslaved or free, Greek or non-Greek) who could understand Greek.
Cultural Context: The Symposium
The word “symposium” is a transliteration of the Greek word that means “drinking together,” which would have been done under the auspices of the gods and could be understood as itself a kind of ritual honoring Dionysus, the god of wine. Stories from myth would have decorated the walls of the room in which a symposium was held as well as any cups and utensils used. Representations of what we call myths—stories of superhuman forces, gods, and heroes—would have been all around the men.
A feature of upper-class male Athenian life, a symposium would have begun with an evening meal, which men would have taken while reclining on couches. The host would supply his guests with perfumes and garlanded crowns. After dining, participants would pour libations to and sing hymns in praise of the gods. Diluted wine was consumed in a quantity regulated by a chosen leader, and entertainment would have been provided—music, dance, and other forms, including potentially sexual. Following the entertainment, participants would engage in conversation, song, or games of some sort.
Cultural Context: Relationships in Ancient Greece
In ancient Greece, sexuality was not an identity as it is in the modern world. Adult men were expected to marry and procreate with women, and it was also acceptable for adult men to engage in relationships with teenage boys. The boys were postpubescent, generally between 12-19 years old; having sexual relations with prepubescent boys was taboo. The terms “gay,” “bisexual,” and “heterosexual” would not have had meaning and generally do not apply to the ancient world; classical scholars tend to favor the term “homoerotic.”
The implications of this are an ongoing topic of debate. Male relationships were between a dominant and a submissive partner, or in Socrates’s terms, a lover and a beloved, with the older man being the dominant partner. When the younger partner became a man (i.e., when his “beard grew”), he aged out of the relationship, and it ended.
Relationships between women in ancient Greece are less documented; however, stories of the Amazon warriors, the goddesses Artemis and Callisto, and the work of the female poet Sappho all attest to the existence of sexual relationships between women.
In the context of the Symposium, the older, dominant partner is represented as the teacher of the younger partner, not only in matters of sex but in terms of character development and the transmission of knowledge. These were called “pederastic” relationships, but the term in ancient Greek did not carry a negative connotation and did not refer to children. The capacity for Love to improve one’s character comes through especially in Alcibiades’s speech, even as he shows how Socrates evades his attempts to “gratify” his teacher. The Symposium includes two additional references to male-male relationships that bear on the reader’s understanding of historical conditions: Several references suggest the lifelong partnership between Agathon and Pausanias. The idea that men will most fear appearing cowardly in front of their lovers, mentioned in Phaedrus’s speech, has a parallel in the legendary 4th-century BCE Sacred Band of Thebes, an elite force of paired warriors, lover and beloved.
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