POLITICS BY ARISTOTLE
Politics Πολιτικά is a work of political philosophy composed by the great philosopher Aristotle of Stageira (384-322 BC), some or all of it towards the end of his life. Presented here are all references in it to pederasty.
The translation is by H. Rackham for the Loeb Classical Library volume 264, published by the Harvard University Press in 1932. However, his Latinisation of Greek names has been undone in favour of transliterated forms.
II 6 vi (1269b xxiii-xxxii)
An allusion to the Celts as a people who openly practise pederasty: see the article Pederasty Amongst the Ancient Celts.
II 7 v (1272a xxii-xxvi)
On why the love of boys was introduced to Crete. See the article Pederasty in Ancient Crete.
II 9 vi-vii (1274a xxxii-xliii)
| Philolaos of Corinth also arose as lawgiver at Thebes. Philolaos belonged by birth to the Bakchiad family[1]; he became the lover of Diokles the winner[2] at Olympia, but when Diokles quitted the city because of his loathing for the passion of his mother Alkyone, he went away to Thebes, and there they both ended their life. Even now people still show their tombs, in full view of each other and one of them fully open to view in the direction of the Corinthian country but the other one not; for the story goes that they arranged to be buried in this manner, Diokles owing to his hatred for his misfortune securing that the land of Corinth might not be visible from his tomb, and Philolaos that it might be from his. | [vi] ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν λέγουσιν ἀσκεπτότερον τῶν χρόνων ἔχοντες. ἐγένετο δὲ καὶ Φιλόλαος ὁ Κορίνθιος νομοθέτης Θηβαίοις. ἦν δ᾽ ὁ Φιλόλαος τὸ μὲν γένος τῶν Βακχιαδῶν, ἐραστὴς δὲ γενόμενος Διοκλέους τοῦ νικήσαντος Ὀλυμπίασιν, ὡς ἐκεῖνος τὴν πόλιν ἔλιπε διαμισήσας τὸν ἔρωτα τὸν τῆς μητρὸς Ἀλκυόνης, ἀπῆλθεν εἰς Θήβας: κἀκεῖ τὸν βίον ἐτελεύτησαν ἀμφότεροι. καὶ νῦν ἔτι δεικνύουσι τοὺς τάφους αὐτῶν, [vii] ἀλλήλοις μὲν εὐσυνόπτους ὄντας, πρὸς δὲ τὴν τῶν Κορινθίων χώραν τὸν μὲν σύνοπτον τὸν δ᾽ οὐ σύνοπτον: μυθολογοῦσι γὰρ αὐτοὺς οὕτω τάξασθαι τὴν ταφήν, τὸν μὲν Διοκλέα διὰ τὴν ἀπέχθειαν τοῦ πάθους, ὅπως μὴ ἄποπτος ἔσται ἡ Κορινθία ἀπὸ τοῦ χώματος, τὸν δὲ Φιλόλαον ὅπως ἄποπτος. |
V 3 i (1303a)
| Factions arise therefore not about but out of Revolutions from petty causes, small matters; but they are carried on about great matters. And even the small ones grow extremely violent when they spring up among men of the ruling class, as happened for example at Syracuse in ancient times. For the constitution underwent a revolution as a result of a quarrel that arose[3] between two young men, who belonged to the ruling class, about a love affair. While one of them was abroad the other who was his comrade won over the youth with whom he was in love, and the former in his anger against him retaliated by persuading his wife to come to him; owing to which they stirred up a party struggle among all the people in the state, enlisting them on their sides. | Γίγνονται μὲν οὖν αἱ στάσεις οὐ περὶ1 μικρῶν ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ μικρῶν, στασιάζουσι δὲ περὶ μεγάλων. μάλιστα δὲ καὶ αἱ μικραὶ ἰσχύουσιν ὅταν ἐν τοῖς κυρίοις γένωνται, οἷον συνέβη καὶ ἐν Συρακούσαις ἐν τοῖς ἀρχαίοις χρόνοις. μετέβαλε γὰρ ἡ πολιτεία ἐκ δύο νεανίσκων στασιασάντων, τῶν ἐν ταῖς ἀρχαῖς ὄντων, περὶ ἐρωτικὴν αἰτίαν· θατέρου γὰρ ἀποδημοῦντος ἅτερος ἑταῖρος ὢν τὸν ἐρώμενον αὐτοῦ ὑπεποιήσατο, πάλιν δ᾿ ἐκεῖνος τούτῳ χαλεπήνας τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ ἀνέπεισεν ὡς αὑτὸν ἐλθεῖν· ὅθεν προσλαμβάνοντες τοὺς ἐν τῷ πολιτεύματι διεστασίασαν πάντας. |
V 8 ix-xi (1311b)
On the various causes of revolutions against monarchies:
| Risings provoked by insolence are aimed against the person; and though insolence has many varieties, each of them gives rise to anger, and when men are angry they mostly attack for the sake of revenge, not of ambition. For example the attack on the Pisistratidai took place because they outraged Harmodios’s sister and treated Harmodios with contumely (for Harmodios attacked them because of his sister and Aristogeiton because of Harmodios),[4] and also the plot was laid against Periandros the tyrant in Ambrakia because when drinking with his loved boy[5] he asked him if he was yet with child by him[6], and the attack on Philip by Pausanias was because he allowed him to be insulted by Attalos and his friends[7], and that on Amyntas the Little[8] by Derdas because he boasted of having had the prime of his youth,[9] […]. And many risings have also occurred because of shameful personal indignities committed by certain monarchs. | [ix] αἱ μὲν οὖν δι᾿ ὕβριν ἐπὶ τὸ σῶμα· τῆς δ᾽ ὕβρεως οὔσης πολυμεροῦς, ἕκαστον αὐτῶν αἴτιον γίγνεται τῆς ὀργῆς: τῶν δ᾽ ὀργιζομένων σχεδὸν οἱ πλεῖστοι τιμωρίας χάριν ἐπιτίθενται, ἀλλ᾽ οὐχ ὑπεροχῆς. οἷον ἡ μὲν τῶν Πεισιστρατιδῶν διὰ τὸ προπηλακίσαι μὲν τὴν Ἁρμοδίου ἀδελφήν, ἐπηρεάσαι δ᾿ Ἁρμόδιον (ὁ μὲν γὰρ Ἁρμόδιος διὰ τὴν ἀδελφὴν ὁ δ᾿ Ἀριστογείτων διὰ τὸν Ἁρμόδιον, ἐπεβούλευσαν δὲ καὶ Περιάνδρῳ τῷ ἐν Ἀμβρακίᾳ τυράννῳ διὰ τὸ συμπίνοντα μετὰ τῶν παιδικῶν ἐρωτῆσαι αὐτὸν εἰ ἤδη ἐξ αὐτοῦ κύει: [x] ἡ δὲ Φιλίππου ὑπὸ Παυσανίου διὰ τὸ ἐᾶσαι ὑβρισθῆναι αὐτὸν ὑπὸ τῶν περὶ Ἄτταλον, καὶ ἡ Ἀμύντου τοῦ μικροῦ ὑπὸ Δέρδα διὰ τὸ καυχήσασθαι εἰς τὴν ἡλικίαν αὐτοῦ, […]. [xi] πολλαὶ δ᾿ ἐπιθέσεις γεγένηνται καὶ διὰ τὸ εἰς τὸ σῶμα αἰσχύνεσθαι τῶν μονάρχων τινάς· |
There follows (xi-xiv) an account of the assassination in 399 BC of Archelaos King of the Macedonians by two of his present or former loved boys who felt badly let down by him. See the article The Death of Archelaos of Macedon, 399 BC for this story.
Amongst the things tyrants should do in order to stay in power:
|
And furthermore not only must he himself be known not to outrage any of his subjects, either boy or girl, but so also must everybody about him, and also their wives must similarly show respect towards the other women, since even the insolences of women have caused the fall of many tyrannies. […] And again he should carefully avoid all forms of outrage, and two beyond all, violent bodily punishments and outrage of the young. […] Hence the tyrant should […] appear […] to indulge in the society of the young for reasons of passion, not because he has the power, |
[xiii] ἔτι δὲ μὴ μόνον αὐτὸν φαίνεσθαι μηθένα τῶν ἀρχομένων ὑβρίζοντα, μήτε νέον μήτε νέαν, ἀλλὰ μηδ᾿ ἄλλον μηδένα τῶν περὶ αὐτόν, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ τὰς οἰκείας ἔχειν γυναῖκας πρὸς τὰς ἄλλας, ὡς καὶ διὰ γυναικῶν ὕβρεις πολλαὶ τυραννίδες ἀπολώλασιν· […] [xvii] ἔτι δὲ πάσης μὲν ὕβρεως εἴργεσθαι, παρὰ πάσας δὲ δυοῖν, τῆς τε εἰς τὰ σώματα κολάσεως3 καὶ τῆς εἰς τὴν ἡλικίαν. […] διόπερ […] τὰς δὲ πρὸς τὴν ἡλικίαν ὁμιλίας δι᾿ ἐρωτικὰς αἰτίας ἀλλὰ μὴ δι᾿ ἐξουσίαν |
[1] The Bakchiadai were then the ruling clan of Corinth, descended from the former Kings.
[2] Diokles won the stadion race in the 13th Olympic Games, 728 BC (Eusebios, Chronicle 70).
[3] Perhaps under the oligarchy of the Gamori, overthrown by the people and followed by Gelo’s tyranny, 485 B.C. [Translator’s note]
[4] The conflict leading to the overthrow of the Peisistratidai was sparked by a pederastic love affair like most of the revolutions which follow in Aristotle’s narrative, hence its inclusion here. The full story, including Aristotle’s version of it given in his Constitution of the Athenians XVIII 1-3, is recounted in this website’s article Harmodios and Aristogeiton, 514 BC.
[5] The translator’s euphemism “favourite” has been replaced by “loved boy” as a more accurate translation of παιδικῶν, the boy in a pederastic love affair.
[6] This happened very roughly around 600 BC. Ambrakia then became a democracy. The historian Craig Williams has commented as follows on the reaction of Periandros’s boy (Classical Antiquity volume 32 No. 1, April 2013, pp.231-2):
Whatever actually happened in private, the younger partner in a pederastic couple must not seem to desire sex with his lover—in particular, not to enjoy being penetrated—if he wished his growing masculinity to remain intact in the all-important sphere of public representation. And so we see some clear rules of the game, even some taboos. In visual media, there is the well-known reluctance to depict the anal penetration of beardless youth by bearded men in Attic vase painting. Publicly uttered words were subject to comparable restrictions: gleefully ignored by the characters and choruses of Old Comedy, these restrictions are well illustrated by an anecdote regarding Periander, the sixth-century BC tyrant of Ambracia, who one day asked his boyfriend: “Aren’t you pregnant yet?” The remark—whether affectionate, teasing, or insulting in intent—provoked a dramatic reaction. According to Plutarch, the boy killed his lover, while according to Aristotle, the insult sparked a larger plot against Periander. In any case, the anecdote reveals a great deal about a certain code of behavior, and Pericles and his boyfriend may stand for many pederastic couples. What was suspected, taken for granted, or even known was one thing; what was openly said was quite another.
[7] For all the ancients had to say about the assassination of Philip II king of the Macedonians by his former eromenos, see the article Philip II King of the Macedonians.
[8] Apparently Amyntas II King of the Macedonians (a son of the Archelaos soon afterwards mentioned), who reigned briefly in 394/3 BC.
[9] The translator’s “mocked at his youth” has been replaced by “boasted of having had the prime of his youth” as a more accurate translation of καυχήσασθαι εἰς τὴν ἡλικίαν αὐτοῦ. Presumably, like Periandros, Amyntas went too far is spelling out what he had done with his boy.
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