Look I know academics saying embarrassing things about "eros" or "erotics" in public is easy to dunk on and there's a time honored tradition of doing so But you all know that it makes you look ignorant, right, and not just of PoMo 20th century "queer theory" shit
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The ancient Greeks were ALL ABOUT the idea that eros and sex could be separated from each other! This is why there's so much debate over whether or not they had a concept of being "gay" in the modern sense! They were very willing to describe people as "lovers" without fucking!
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In fact that's why there's so much disagreement over the most controversial "eros" in Greek culture, eros paidikos (pederasty, or "boy love") Yes, they declared a man's love for an boy he "mentored" was the highest form of love No, it's not clear this meant actual child rape
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Notably, because they themselves made crude jokes about it Athenians and Spartans regularly accused each other of raping boys and making something foul of something beautiful
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Probably because there was in fact a lot of abuse going on and both sides were being hypocrites But there is quite a bit of literary stuff about the duty of an erastes not to do anything "shameful" with an eromenos, leaving unspoken what exactly their culture found shameful
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