WHAT IS HIS COUNTRY?

The Greeks had several words for it, just as we do, and all of them were just about as contradictory as ours. The following scene from Aristophanes' comedy "The Thesmophoriazusae," clearly limns the ambiguous attitude of the ancients toward the fact of homosexuality. Misguided moderns assume that it was wholly and heartily accepted as a part of Greek life. It was not. Yet it wasn't accepted in any way akin to our present idea of acceptance. Where some moderns are only tolerant, they were enthusiastic. Where we lynch, they were merely disgusted. To the Greeks, there were two completely opposed aspects of homosexuality. One was noble and strong relating to the love of military and athletic heroes. This was enthusiastically accepted to the point of being almost requisite. The other aspect was degrading; it related to the effeminate and physically weak who were preoccupied with pretty clothes, jewelry and perfumes. But while these soft ones were always good for a laugh or a sneer, their accomplishments were not ignored. Agathon, for instance, was one of Athen's most popular playwrights. He is lampooned in the scene to follow for his affectations but not his productions. Then, if the character of Mnesilochus pictured in this scene was actually as average a person as he sounds, the Greeks seem to have lived with profoundly contradictory views on the subject yet they lost little sleep over it. Mnesilochus praises and damns Agathon from one sentence to the next with no qualms about inconsistency. What he and the average Greek really thought, is a question up to his long vanished gods. The only comment that can be made with any amount of certainty is that most cultures down through history have studied little and felt much on the subject. Many have tolerated homosexuality for reasons as irrational as the prejudices against it.

But the following scene is presented here for a taste of entertainment and a suggestion of the fun to be found in the works of the Greek dramatists. Incidentally, this is edited and revised because of terms which are thought shocking now but were wholly acceptable then as part of public entertainment. We don't like editing either, but it would be impractical as well as anachronistic to speak in terms unsuitable to our times. The same perhaps applies to behavior.

EURIPIDES and his father-in-law MNESILOCHUS are looking up a popular playwright named AGATHON. EURIPIDES has a surprising favor to ask cf him. As the scene opens, AGATHON has just appeared. He softly reposes on a bed, is clothed in a saffron tunic and surrounded with feminine toilet articles. He sings a selection from one of his tragedies. His elder listener is enthralled.

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