HOMO-SEXUALITY IN HISTORY.
It has been mentioned on another page that the problem of bisexuality,
in a more or less general manner, has engaged the attention of
observers for ages. The specific phenomenon of homo-sexuality has
been even more closely studied, dramatized, romanced about, and even
idealized.
No less a luminary and distant character than Plato expressed himself
in the following words regarding the subject under discussion (quoted
from Plato’s _Banquet_, chapters VIII and IX): “There is no Aphrodites
without an Eros. But there are two goddesses. The older Aphrodites came
into existence without a mother; being the daughter of Zeus and Diana
and is called Pandemos. The Eros of the former must, therefore, be
Uranos, that of the latter Pandemos. With the love of Eros Pandemos the
ordinary human beings love; Eros Uranos did not choose a female, but
a male; this is the love for boys. Whoever is inspired with this love
turns to the male sex.”
Herodotus, the Greek historian, who seemed possessed of omnipresence,
because he appeared to have been everywhere and seen everything in the
known world of his time, described definite characteristics indicative
of homo-sexuality. Thus, writing of the Scythians, he referred to a
“peculiar disease,” the symptoms of which were these: That certain of
the men became effeminate in character, put on female garments, did the
work of women, and even became effeminate in appearance.
In attempting an explanation of this abnormality of the Scythians,
Herodotus fell back on the myth that the goddess Venus, angered by the
plundering of the temple at Ascalon by the Scythians, had made _women_
of these plunderers and their posterity.
Herodotus also made the curious remark, with respect to these
effeminate Scythians, whom he called _Enarees_ or _Androgyni_, “that
they were endowed by Venus with the power of divination,” and were
consulted by the King of the Scythians when the latter was ill.
Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine,” having no faith in supernatural
causes of disease, ascribed the cause to impotence. He attributed
it, however incorrectly, as due to the custom of the Scythians to
have themselves bled behind the ears in order to cure an affliction
brought about by excessive horse-back riding. It was his theory that
these veins were of great importance in the preservation of the sexual
powers, and that when they were severed, impotence followed.
The Scythians so afflicted, however, believing their impotence due to
divine punishment and beyond human aid, donned the garb of females and
lived as women among women.
It is thought that fear of excess population on the part of the early
Greeks was one factor in turning their erotic interests from women
to young men. As the so-called Greek states of that period consisted
principally of cities with very limited capacity for sustenance, the
problem of feeding the population was one of some concern. Aristotle,
on this account, advised the men to shun their wives and to indulge in
boy-love. Even before him, Socrates had already hailed pederasty as a
mark of superior culture.
Diotima revealed to Socrates a new spiritual principle in erotic
life--the principle which guides man beyond the pleasures of the senses
and, through love, leads him to the divine. “The slave of his senses
runs after women; but he who loves with his soul and strives to win
immortality through virtue and wisdom, seeks a great and beautiful
soul that he may surrender himself to it completely.” This looks
innocent enough on the surface, but as it was the opinion of the Greeks
that a beautiful soul was to be found only in the body of a man, the
implications are clear.
Dr. Beatrice M. Hinkle (_The Re-Creating of the Individual_) remarks
that “The symbol of this human ideal achievement for the Greek was the
psychic hermaphrodite, the blend of feminine and masculine attributes
in a male form and its immortalization was attained in Greek art. The
homosexuality flourished as the natural accompaniment of man’s love
for himself--that is, of his own sex--was an incidental result which
does not affect the real significance of the Greek achievement, nor
alter the greatness of their ideal aim, the creation of the highest
human values under the conception of ideal love, and the effort at its
achievement in the world of reality.... The ‘great and beautiful soul’
could only be found in the male form--women belonged to the animal
sphere and could contribute only to the sensual pleasure of man.”
As the women were neglected by the men, the former tended to engage
in erotic practices among members of their own sex. In the island of
Lesbos, the women were especially given to indulging in the love of
their own sex--from which historic precedent we get the term _Lesbian
Love_.
Sappho, the _Lesbian Nightingale_, who lived about 600 B. C. was the
principal representative and has remained the classical oracle of this
form of erotic expression. In her ode to Venus, she sings fervently of
her passions:
“Thou who rulest all, upon flowers enthroned,
Daughter of Zeus, born of foam, thou artful one,
Hark to my call.
Not in anguish and bitter suffering, O goddess,
Let me perish!--”
The Hellenic conception of beauty was quite invariably realized in
the male form, with a characteristic touch of bisexuality--almost
a modified hermaphroditism. The sculpture of the period, and of
subsequent periods, whenever it has been influenced by the Greeks,
shows this tendency. Both Apollo and Dionysus are represented with male
and female attributes. The female figures approach the masculine in the
cast of their features as well as in their bodily proportions.
As the growing boy comes nearest to combining the male and female
lines, the blending of these in sculpture realized the ideal of
classical Greek art.
A striking example of the combining of the male and female attributes
is seen in the Apollo in the temple at Delphi--one of the foremost
seats of prophesy and divination in the old world. Apollo, who presided
at this shrine, was a queer blend of masculine and feminine characters.
He was frequently represented as being very feminine in form,
particularly in the more archaic statues.
Apollo was the patron of song and music. He was, too, a representative
divinity of the Uranian love, being the special god of the Dorian
Greeks, who seem to have been responsible for establishing the custom
of invert love in that country. It was said of Apollo that to expiate
his pollution by the blood of the Python, whom he slew, he became the
slave and devoted favorite of Admetus.
Muller described a Dorian religious festival, in which a boy, taking
the part of Apollo, “probably imitated the manner in which the god,
as herdsman and slave of Alcestis, submitted to the most degrading
service.”
The opinion is expressed by Dr. Iwan Bloch in his great work, “_Die
Prostitution_” that homosexuality, on account of its strange and
inexplicable character, was accounted by primitive people as something
divine and miraculous. To the homosexual man or woman were therefore
attributed supernatural powers. In this respect, the homosexual had
characteristics in common with the primitive gods, which probably
accounts for the ancients venerating their inverts.
Bloch says on this score: “This riddle, which despite all our efforts,
present-day science has not yet satisfactorily solved, must to the
primitive intelligence have appeared even more inexplicable than to us;
and a man born with the inclination toward his own sex must have been
regarded as something extraordinary, as one of those strange freaks of
Nature which among Primitives are so easily accounted divine marvels
and honored as such. The by no means scanty supply of ethnological
facts on this subject which we possess confirms the above view, and
shows in what odor of sanctity homosexual individuals have often stood
among Nature-folk--for which reason they frequently played an important
part in religious rituals and festivals.”
It was the theory of Adolf Bastian, a German authority, that the
priests among early peoples, as representatives of the bisexual
principle in Nature, encouraged homosexual rites in the temples on the
same footing as heterosexual rites.
“The men,” stated Bastian, “prayed to the active powers of Nature, and
the women, in privacy and retirement, to the feminine powers--while
the priests, who had to satisfy the demands of both parties, learned
the idea of sex changes from the Moon, and served the masculine gods
in masculine attire, and the goddesses in feminine garments, or set up
images of a bearded-Venus and of a Hercules as spinning at the wheel.”
Practically all the ancient deities, at one time or another, seem to
have been invested with bisexual characters. Even Venus or Aphrodite
was sometimes worshipped in the dual form. Frazer in his _Adonis_,
etc., states that in Cyprus there was a bearded and masculine image of
Venus in female attire, and that according to Philochorus, the deity
thus represented was the moon. Sacrifices were offered to him or her by
men clad as women, and by women clad as men.
This bearded female deity is sometimes also referred to as Aphroditus,
or as Venus Mylitta. While the worship of bearded goddesses was
practiced principally in Cyprus and Syria, Egypt also had a
representation of a bearded Isis, with the infant Horus in her lap.
In the Orphic hymns, we find the following bisexual features and powers
attributed to the deities:
“Zeus was the first of all, Zeus last, the lord of the lightning;
Zeus was the head, the middle, from him all things were created;
Zeus was Man, and again Zeus was the Virgin Eternal.”
In another passage, Adonis is addressed thus:
“Hear me, who pray to thee, hear me, O many-named and best of deities,
Thou, with thy gracious hair ... both maiden and youth, Adonis.”
Boy-love is believed to have been introduced in Hellas by the Dorians,
as in the pre-Doric period (Homer, for instance), the custom of
homosexual practice had as yet no roots as an institution.
In Greece, boy-love was the privilege of the elect only, being
permitted to the free citizen, the knight. Slaves were forbidden to
indulge in the practice, often under penalty of death. Strict rules
were formulated for the regulation of the practice, which in time took
on the aspect of a social institution, fostered and approved by the
state.
In Sparta the lovers were held to a strict accounting for their
“companions” who became attached to them from their twelfth year;
so that they, and not their young companions, were punished for any
shameful act on the part of the latter.
The choice of boy-lovers in Crete took the form of bridal theft. The
lover advised the boy’s family of his intention of stealing the boy.
If the family did not like the “match,” it tried to avoid the capture
of the youth; but on the other hand if the alliance was considered a
desirable one, the “romance” was encouraged. The higher the lover’s
social position the greater was the honor felt by the boy and the
family. Afterwards, the chosen one was sent home bearing gifts.
So established was the practice upon the rock of social convention
that it was considered a shame for a boy to possess no knightly
lover. It was a great honor, on the other hand, for a youth to be
coveted by numerous lovers. Repelling a wooing knight was considered
ignominious--a blot on one’s honor.
In Crete, Thebes and Thera, these unions enjoyed religious sanction.
The engagement of the lovers, or at least their physical attachment,
was accorded the protection of some god or hero. In Thebes, upon the
holy promontory near the City, some 50 to 70 meters from the temple of
Apollo Karneies and on the sacred site dedicated to Zeus, there is a
chiselled inscription, which bears these words: “On this holy place,
under the protection of Zeus, Krion has consummated his union with the
son of Bathykles and proclaiming it proudly to the world dedicates to
it this imperishable memorial. And many Thereans with him, and after
him, have united themselves with their boys on this same holy spot.”
Referring to Rome in the time of the emperors, during which time
lewdness and debauchery assumed forms that could only have been
inspired by moral insanity, Bebel states that men and women vied with
each other in immorality. The number of public brothels increased
rapidly, and besides “Greek love” (Pederasty) was practiced more
and more by the men. As an indication of the extent of homosexual
indulgence, at one time the number of male prostitutes in Rome was
greater than the number of female prostitutes.
Later, when the pendulum swung the other way, repressive measures were
taken to stamp out the practice of homosexuality. Both Constantine and
Theodosius enacted legislation against sexual inversion, even going
to the extent of committing the offenders to “avenging flames.” These
statutes, however, were not rigidly enforced, and modern opinion on the
question may be said to have come from Justinian’s enactments.
HOMO-SEXUALITY AMONG PRIMITIVE PEOPLE.
Among primitive tribes, religious rites and ceremonies in association
with homosexual acts have long been observed. Dr. W. A. Hammond reports
that the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico cultivate so-called “mujerados,”
of which one is required in every tribe of this group. They play
an important role in the Spring religious festivals--which, from
the modern viewpoint, are really orgies--in which pederasty figures
prominently. These Saturnalia naturally were guarded with the greatest
secrecy from the observation of outsiders.
To cultivate a _mujerado_, a very powerful man is chosen, and he is
induced to masturbate excessively and ride horseback constantly. This
combination of activities gradually produces an irritable weakness
of the genital organs, resulting in great loss of semen. Paralytic
impotence follows this condition of chronic irritability, and
finally atrophy of the testicles and penis sets in. This condition
is accompanied by characteristic physical changes; the beard falls
out, the voice loses its depth and volume and physical strength and
energy decrease. The disposition and inclinations become feminine.
Thenceforth, the _mujerado_ loses his position in society as a man. He
adopts feminine customs and manners, and associates quite exclusively
with women. Notwithstanding his effeminization, he is for religious
reasons, held in honor. It is probable that at other times of the
year than during the festival occasions, he is used by the chiefs for
pederasty.
Hammond was privileged to examine two _mujerados_. One, then
thirty-five years of age, had undergone his metamorphosis seven years
previously, when he was fully masculine and potent. Gradually atrophy
of the testicles and penis came about, and concurrently he lost his
potency and the power of erection. At the time of examination he
differed in no way in dress or manner from the women with whom he
associated. In contrast to the degeneration of his genital organs,
he had developed large breasts like a pregnant women, and claimed
that he had nursed several children whose mothers had died. The other
_mujerado_, who was then thirty-six years of age, had been effeminate
for ten years. He presented the same general peculiarities as the one
already referred to, but with less development of the mammary glands.
Like the first, his voice was high-pitched and thin, and the body plump.
The relation of excessive horse-back riding to underdevelopment of
the male genitals has been noted by many authorities. The Apaches and
Navajos, who spend practically all their waking hours on horse-back
are remarkable for small genitals and mild libido and vitality.
Kraproth and Chotomski record that even at the present time impotence
is very prevalent among the Tartars, which was attributed to riding on
unsaddled horses.
Westermarck, in his monumental work, _The Origin and Development of
the Moral Ideas_, remarks, in describing the Koriaks: “Krasheninnikoff
makes mention of the _Ke’yev_, that is men occupying the position of
concubines, and he compared them with the Kamchadale (a Behring’s
Strait Tribe) _Koe’kcuc_, as he calls them, that is men transformed
into women. Every _Koe’kcuc_ is regarded as a magician and interpreter
of dreams.... The _Koe’kcuc_ wore women’s clothes, did women’s work,
and were in the position of wives or concubines.”
Elsewhere, Westermarck says: “There is no indication that the North
American aborigines attached any opprobrium to men who had intercourse
with those members of their own sex who had assumed the dress and
habits of women. In Kadiak such a companion was, on the contrary,
regarded as a great acquisition; and the effeminate men, far from being
despised were held in repute by the people, most of them being wizards.”
In the South Sea Islands, in 1796-98, Captain James Wilson found men
there who were dressed like women and enjoyed certain honors. He
expressed surprise that “even their women do not despise these fellows,
but form friendships with them.” Another traveler in these islands,
William Ellis, a missionary, reported that the natives not only enjoyed
the sanction of the priests, but even became the direct examples of
their divinities.
China and Japan, as well as Malaysia, offer many examples of Buddhist
priests, or _Bonzes_, who have boys attached to the service of the
temples. It is the duty of each priest to educate a novice to follow
him in the ceremonies, and it is known that the relations between
the two are often intimate physically. As long ago as 1549, Francis
Xavier, then traveling in Japan, refers to this. He states that the
_Bonzes_ admitted the nature of their relations with the youths, but
asserted it was no sin. They said, however, that intercourse with
women was for them a deadly sin, and even punishable with death. The
homosexual relation, on the other hand, was not only harmless, but
even commendable. It appears that in all the Buddhist sects in Japan,
except the _Shinto_, celibacy is enforced upon priests, but homosexual
relations are not discouraged.
In Hindu mythology, _Brahm_ is often represented as two-sexed.
Originally he was the sole Being. But, “delighting not to be alone he
wished for the existence of another, and at once he became such, as
male and female embraced (united). He caused this his one self to fall
in twain.”
A Russian traveler by the name of Dawydow writing about 1800, reported
that among the Konyagas of Alaska, in the island of Kadiak, there were
here men with tatooed chins, who work only as women, who live with the
womankind, and like the latter, have husbands, and not infrequently
even two. These inverts were called _Achnutschiks_. They were held in
the highest regard in the community, and were generally considered
wizards. The native who possessed an _Achnutschik_, instead of a female
wife, was envied. When the parents regarded their son as effeminate in
appearance or bearing they often dedicated him in early childhood to
the vocation of an _Achnutschik_. In case parents were disappointed
with a son when a daughter was desired, they sometimes made their
new-born son an _Achnutschik_.
Referring to the Pelew Islanders, Frazer (_Adonis, Attis and Osiris_)
attributed the adoption by the priests of female attire to the fact
that it often happens that a goddess chooses a man not a woman, for
her minister and inspired mouthpiece. When this occurred, the favored
man thenceforth was regarded and treated as a woman. He remarked that
this pretended change of sex under the inspiration of a female spirit
perhaps explains a custom widely spread among savages, in accordance
with which some men dress as women and act as women throughout life.
The association of supernatural, or at least super-normal, powers
with these inverts is quite extensive, as we have already noticed.
Still speaking of the Pelew Islanders, Frazer states: “These unsexed
creatures often, perhaps generally, profess the arts of sorcery and
healing; they communicate with spirits and are regarded sometimes with
awe and sometimes with contempt, as beings of a higher or lower order
than common folk. Often they are dedicated or trained to their vocation
from childhood. Effeminate sorcerers or priests of this sort are
found among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo, the Burgis of South Celebes, the
Patagonians of South America.... In Madagascar we hear of effeminate
men who wore female attire and acted as women, thinking thereby to
do God service. In the Kingdom of Congo, there was a sacrificial
priest who commonly dressed as a woman and gloried in the title of
Grandmother.”
HOMO-SEXUALITY AND GENIUS.
The list of individuals, famous in art and letters, of homosexual
disposition, either active or latent, is an imposing one. The Greek
philosophers, playwrights and poets of the classic age have placed
themselves on record as devotees of invertism. Some of them have been
quoted on previous pages.
Among the men of genius and leadership accredited with being outright
homosexuals or having a strong bisexual character, are Alexander the
Great, Julius Caesar, Michael Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, William of
Orange, Charles XII of Sweden, William Rufus, James I, Frederick the
Great of Prussia, Ludwig II of Bavaria, Edward II, Nietzsche, Oscar
Wilde, etc.
The Uranian temperament has also been attributed to Marlowe,
Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, Tennyson, Chopin, and other great poets and
musicians.
Charles G. Leland (_The Alternate Sex_) states that “Great geniuses,
men like Goethe, Shakespeare, Shelley, Byron, Darwin, all had the
feminine soul very strongly developed in them.... As we are continually
meeting in cities women who are one-quarter, or one-eighth, or so
on, _male_, so there are in the Inner Self similar half-breeds, all
adapting themselves to circumstances with perfect ease. The Greeks
recognized that such a being could exist in nature, and so beautified
and idealized it as Sappho.”
Weininger remarked that Sappho was only the forerunner of a long line
of famous women who were either homosexually or bisexually endowed.
Among them may be mentioned Queen Christine of Sweden, Catherine II of
Russia, Madame Blavatsky, George Sand, Rosa Bonheur, and others.
Pronounced bisexuality in woman is indicated by a strong masculine cast
in the constitutional make-up, which is often observed in women who
have achieved outstanding success in various fields of activity. Often
they never marry.
In man, pronounced bisexuality is evidenced by a large endowment of
femininity. There are, however, homosexual types of both sexes who do
not give outward evidence of the characteristics of the opposite sex.
In these instances, the homosexual state is almost entirely psychic,
and would not seem to be constitutionally or organically conditioned.
Among the modern artist-writers and poets who have done great service
in interpreting and reconstructing Greek life and ideals--Carpenter
cites men like Winkelmann, Goethe, Addington Symonds, Walter Pater, as
having a marked strain of this temperament. And this, he adds, has been
a service of great value, one which the world would ill have afforded
to lose.