Comments on: Setting The Record Straight: Homosexuality Portrayed In ‘300’ The Movie

By: Shooter

Shooter — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 09:32:39 +0000

Actually, Sparta was pretty harsh on homosexuality. Helena Schraeder wrote extensively on Sparta. It’s a common claim that they supported homosexuality, but historical evidence says they did not. Same with Athens.

By: R.

R. — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 13:43:30 +0000

Can you be so sure?

Plutarch disagrees with you, I believe. And he lived a hell of a lot close in time to Sparta.

>>Affectionate regard for boys of good character was permissible, but embracing them was held to be disgraceful, on the ground that the affection was for the body and not for the mind. Any man against whom complaint was made of any disgraceful embracing was deprived of all civic rights for life.<<

Furthermore, all other Greek states were pederastic, as societies where women are kept secluded often are.
It's quite likely they could not imagine Spartans not being pederastic.

By: David Grant

David Grant — Thu, 14 May 2015 18:03:13 +0000

The philosophers, at least those who came after Socrates, emphasized the mentoring aspect of the pederastic relationship and condemned the sexual aspect as a shameful surrender to base desires. Everyone else seems to have placed the carnal concerns first: they even glorified it as the supreme expression of ἔρος.

By: IA

IA — Thu, 14 May 2015 15:46:12 +0000

“One sexual practice shared by all the Greeks was pederasty, a fancy word for institutionalized child-molestation.”

You are using a term that would have baffled ancient people, “institutionalized child-molestation.” They would have understood “custom” maybe, or Zeus and Ganymede, but not this formulation. It has a cold, scientific quality they couldn’t imagine.

I’m no historian but I believe you’ve got it a bit backward. The point was to mentor a boy. There may have been sexual activity, or there may not have been, but that wasn’t the purpose of this custom.

Strangely, modern liberalism wants to sacralize homosexual union, or rather, pretend to sacralize it for political ends. I can’t imagine ancient Greeks comprehending this bizarre behavior. They would view it, it seems to me, very odd indeed.

By: Laguna Beach Fogey

Laguna Beach Fogey — Thu, 14 May 2015 01:55:29 +0000

Athens for one did have an empire (Athenian Empire or Delian League), and its decline and fall, brilliantly chronicled by Thucydides, is a joy to read. There are parallels, I would argue, with the present American Empire, in particular the disastrous Sicilian Expedition.

By: David Grant

David Grant — Thu, 14 May 2015 00:07:54 +0000

The Scythians also defeated the Persians, as did the Ethiopians, but they didn’t leave as impressive literary records.
Athens was the first important maritime civilization in the Mediterranean as long as you don’t count the Minoans, Mycenaeans, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Corinth’s network of colonies, and Samos under Polycrates.
Alexander kept his Greek troops primarily as hostages for their cities’ good behavior, using them primarily as garrison troops.

By: vxxc2014

vxxc2014 — Wed, 13 May 2015 19:14:51 +0000

The Greeks were a people thought barbourous at the edge of the world who defeated the worlds superpower-Persia- that they never had empire isn’t true for that is what Athens became, admittedly Oceanic [the first in History] after the Persian Wars. They were considered a great people at the time. Their warriors were valued everywhere especially in Persia. Their maritime cities on the coast of what is now Turkey provided Fleets for Persia. They were prone to squabbling and rivalries. United under Macedon they conquered the world. It wasn’t purely a Macedonian Empire under Alexander.

You overstate your case and understate their achievements.

By: Steve Johnson

Steve Johnson — Wed, 13 May 2015 18:54:13 +0000

“It was mildly amusing to see that the second 300 movie was subtitled Rise of an Empire, considering that Greece never amounted to anything so substantial. On the contrary, the only times they actually conquered anywhere were during the Dark Age before the historical period and when the Macedonians conquered them before turning on Persia.”

The Byzantine / Eastern Roman Empire was an ethnically Greek Greek-speaking empire.