Man's world, woman's place
Hugh Lloyd-Jones
Classical Attitudes to Modern Issues L.P. Wilkinson (Kimber £4.95)
Mr Wilkinson is known as the author of attractively written hooks about Augustan poetry and of a good general summary of the Roman achievement. It is fitting that in a series of lectures given in memory of Lord Northcliffe he should enlighten the general public about the classical attitudes to such fashionable modern issues as Population and Family Planning', 'Women's Liberation', 'Nudism in Deed and Word' (nudism in word turns out to be what is usually called obscenity) and 'Homosexuality'.
Though in his introduction the author expresses gratitude to two living English scholars, the small book has no room for learned references. It is based for the most part on literary texts, and shields its readers from direct acquaintance with the non-literary texts which a full study of these subjects has to use. It happens that the topics dealt with here have lately formed the subject of scholarly works which go into them more searchingly than could be done in narrow space. and which are perfectly accessible to the general reader. For the subject-matter of the first two chapters we may consult a general study in Sarah Pomeroy's Goddesses, Whores. Wives and Slaves and a collection of source material in translation in Women in Greece and Rome, by Mary Lefkowitz and Maureen Fant. These authors make extensive use of the great body of material found in papyri and inscriptions and in medical and other technical literature. Homosexuality together with obscenity is admirably dealt with in Sir Kenneth Dover's Greek Homosexuality. At a scientific level Mr Wilkinson does not pretend to compete with works of this kind. Most of his material is drawn from literary texts; on occasion he uses a little too trustingly the anecdotage. in which ancient literary texts abound. But his book has many virtues; it is clearly and attractively written. and contains much sound sense.
Questions of population in the ancient world are notoriously difficult. and Mr Wilkinson leaves aside 'the vexed question of figures' and concentrates on attitudes. A central fact emerging from his work is that in all these matters the ancients were unencumbered with religious dogmas. In early times the birthrate was too high, since Greece is a poor country and not more than 14 per cent of its soil is arable; hence the Greeks exposed many infants and planted many colonies abroad. In early times brides had to be paid for, since few females were reared; later fathers had to pay bridegrooms to take their daughters off their hands. The Romans, on the other hand, had plenty of space and needed soldiers; under the empire, when the birthrate began to fall, the government took measures to keep it up. Neither when the birthrate was too high nor when it was too low did religious considerations prevent people from considering the matter objectively. Methods of contraception and abortion were primitive, but they could be applied without interference based on dogmatic grounds. The ancients were also free from the sentimental belief in the sanctity of human life that leads so many moderns to preserve and cosset imbeciles and monsters.
The world of ancient Greece, especially in the archaic and classical periods, was a man's world. Mrs Pomeroy has remarked that Athens, in so many respects the most enlightened of the Greek communities, was in this respect one of the most reactionary; in Sparta, where women were valued as potential mothers of fighting men, they had greater freedom. During the Hellenistic and Roman periods their position improved somewhat, at least in the higher reaches of society. Yet it is remarkable that the great dramatists of the fifth century show themselves aware of the problems raised by the subjection of women and make effective use of the tensions that may arise as a result of them; before the end of the century, philosophers had begun the objective discussion of these questions. So far as we know this happened in no other western communities before comparatively recent times.
The early Greeks differed markedly from Asiatics in their attitude to naked
ness; nothing like the nudity of Greek athletes or the nudity observable in Greek art could be found among the neighbours of the Greeks. This had nothing to do with sexual licence, any more than it does in modern Japan, where mixed bathing in the nude is permitted but it is thought rude to inspect one's fellow bathers; the nudity of hetairas at dinner-parties was a different matter. People went naked at the right place and time; just so, obseerl' ity was allowed at some times and places' but not at others. Comedy and other literary genres allowed obscenity, which was probably a survival of the obscen0 permitted during certain religious rites and meant originally to encourage fed& ity; n other literary genres, such as ePic, lyric and tragedy, obscenity was carefullY avoided. The objections to it were grounded not on dogmas about sin, but on good taste and hygiene. Mr Wilkinson acknowledges a debt to an article on homosexuality which Dover published in 1964, and deals with the question very much along the lines Dover has followed in the book he published
i
last year. In Athens lovers were Ot blamed for pursuing their loved ones, but the loved ones were blamed if they gave in, as in modern times young men are riot blamed if they pursue girls but girls are blamed if they let themselves be caught; in the military aristocracies of Crete an° Sparta, homosexuality was institutional' ised. Many people in antiquity disar proved of it, some of them, like Plato, 0° the ground that it was unnatural; but we find nothing like the horror of it which was inspired by Christianity. It was coalmon for the same person to indulge both in homosexual and heterosexual practices, although some had a distinct preference for the one or for the other; the modern neurotic -homosexual whose relations with his mother have gone wrong is a rge seldom to be identified in ancient literature. One of the best reasons for studying classical antiquity is that it helps us t° avoid insularity in space and time; we learn that some beliefs which we have never dreamed of questioning did Ot always remain unquestioned, and vic.e versa. This book shows how certain attitudes which till lately seemed highlY shocking to most members of our own society, but which now no longer do were not uncommon in the ancient work!: This is refreshing; and it allows us 1191° to congratulate our own society on beingt so enlightened and encourage it to Pa., the ancients on the head for having anti cipated its enlightenment. It is sometimes just as interesting, though less conducive to popularity, to note cases in which tbe ancients did not share opinions that ncivi form part of bien-pensant orthodoXYi such as the view that not the criminal b° society is to blame for crime or the vievj that the uncivilised will somehow beeorner civilised if they are given power ove those who are civilised.
Previous page
