Spartan pederasty?

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Here we go again
This vase is not the only one of such content and I dare say there are "worse" out there. Bonnie,Adnis Georgiadis is not such a trustworthy source,he's certainly a politically conservative person,and of those "The Greeks built the Pyramids of Egipt" if you understand me. The vases containing homoerotic(lets use this word then) must surely be more than just 25. As Bonnie pointed out this doesn't say much. We still have porn of whatever kind.
Fearing i will become boring expressing my view once more, I think the Greeks were much more free and understanding than us today,Christianity and its morales hadn't influenced them yet. Thus there were homosexuals that didn't feel like hiding their sexual preferences. Plato puts Socrates forgiving the bad judgement of the man in love with a young boy,who's spending the night out of his door singing love songs. He says this is not appropriate behavior,bur his friends forgive him because they know he's in love. And again,speaking about himself,he considers it a big thing that he slept under the same himation with young Alkibiades withoud doing anything. And here is an interesting point. He speaks freely about his passion to have sex with Alkibiades,yet he considers it apropriate to keep himself from doing it. There was conflict from antiquity! Yet,in their conversation,those high class young men in the symposium are agreeing that a man's place is with men,and only manly things should attract him,and that one can love women,too, but they're better just to make family with them. Family and love are separated!
On the other hand, Athenian laws were also clear. Male adults were restricted from having sex. The passive one was punished in the worst way in their society. On the contrary,erotic relationship with young boys was not restricted as long as they boy wanted it. Politics was of cource part of what the boy wanted and what not.
Plato says that pederasty was a Doric custom and that this was one of the resons some old Athenians were against it. So we know there was a similar situation in Dorian cities,Sparta among them. And the Rhetra restricts sex between boys and their lovers. Or at least this is what Xenophon says in his idealised Spartan Institution. But contrary to any other law,this one speaks about something private. With the greeks so open minded in sex and with men spending so much time with their young handsome elite boy lovers,who can deny that some of them-even if not homosexuals in general- had sexual contact with eachother? How can we rewrite history if it was never written? And how can we know what happened in the dark? We have two given factors. Spartan institution allowed each boy to have a LOVER. However it RESTRICTED SEX between those. And yet there was no way to control them. And one last note: Xenophons doesn't say they were restricted to have sex with boys,just that they considered it inapropriate,like having sex with their children. Now lets think about this. We know they became Eirenes at the age of 20 and their lovers would be about 13-15. When the Eiren would become a Spartan Homoios at his 30,his lover would be 23-25... And how can Xenophon speak about the views of every Spartan?
Now go figure!
Khairete
Giannis