Editor MNH 8/22/02
What is sauce for the goose is not always sauce for the gander. What fits one society is not always befitting another. In classical Greece a sex-love relationship between an adolescent boy and a man was accepted, in Sparta it was even desired . In Sparta an elite, the former conquerors, ruled over a disenfranchised majority. This elite could only maintain its position through militarism. At the age of seven the boy child was taken from the home and brought up in the garrison. The adolescent boy was encouraged to tie himself to a mentor, to be taught and inspired by him. Sex was included. Before gunpowder, bullets and canons, combat was man to man butchery. Individual bravery (it takes fortitude to face a naked sword) was paramount. For the Spartans the erotic bond between man and man was supposed to be a guarantee for victory. In its phalanx lover stood next to lover. But in a modern army a homosexual relationship would be destructive to the cohesiveness of a unit.
Whereas in Sparta women were given a tremendous amount of freedom, in Athens maidens and wives were sequestered in the women’s quarters. The wife was cook, bottle washer and birther of babies; period. The wife as mate, we find in the Germanic tribal societies. (Germanic is not identical with German). We women owe a lot to these Germanic tribes.
But neither the militaristic society of Sparta, nor the Good Old Boys Club of Athens were that daft to give legal standing to a love-sex relationship. Only marriage, the nest for the “fledglings,” the guarantor for the survival of the specie was surrounded by a protective fence of legality. Our witless and buyable politicians always give in to political pressure and the gay lobby can exert plenty. If homosexual relationships are given legal standing, the lawyers will have a field day.