"Blest is the man who loves, and after play,
Whereby his limbs are supple made and strong,
Retiring to his home, 'twixt sleep and song,
Sports with a fair boy on his breast all day."[67]
The following couplet is attributed to him by Plutarch,[68] nor does
there seem any reason to doubt its genuineness. The text seems to be
corrupt, but the meaning is pretty clear:--
"In the charming season of the flower-time of youth thou shalt love
boys, yearning for their thighs and honeyed mouth."
Solon, it may be remembered, thought it wise to regulate the conditions
under which the love of free youths might be tolerated.
The general impression produced by a careful reading of Theognis is that
he entertained a genuine passion for Kurnus, and that he was anxious to
train the young man's mind in what he judged the noblest principles.
Love, at the same time, except in its more sensual moments, he describes
as bitter-sweet and subject to anxiety. That perturbation of the
emotions, which is inseparable from any of the deeper forms of personal
attachment, and which the necessary conditions of boy-love exasperated,
was irksome to the Greek. It is not a little curious to observe how all
the poets of the despotic age resent and fret against the force of their
own feeling, differing herein from the singers of chivalry, who
idealised the very pains of passion.
Of Ibycus, who was celebrated among the ancients as the lyrist of
paiderastia,[69] very little has been preserved to us, but that little
is sufficient to indicate the fervid and voluptuous style of his art.
His imagery resembles that of Anacreon. The onset of love, for instance,
in one fragment is compared to the down-swooping of a Thracian
whirlwind; in another the poet trembles at the approach of Erôs like an
old racehorse who is dragged forth to prove his speed once more.
Of the genuine Anacreon we possess more numerous and longer fragments,
and the names of his favourites, Cleobulus, Smerdies, Leucaspis, are
famous. The general tone of his love-poems is relaxed and Oriental, and
his language abounds in phrases indicative of sensuality. The following
may be selected:--
"Cleobulus I love, for Cleobulus I am mad, Cleobulus I watch and
worship with my gaze."[70]