Erotic Love Poems

Greek & Roman The mainstream lifestyle of the Ancient Greeks accepted that sexuality existed on a spectrum, and that sexuality was something that was fluid and not rigid or fixed. Therefore, the presence of heteroerotic and homoerotic in their poetry is no surprise. The Ancient Greeks accepted that sex with the opposite gender, the same gender, or with groups of people was normal, accepted, and at least, moderately expected.

The paper will attempt to briefly note some, if any, differences among the Greek love poetry provided, specifically as those differences directly relate as to whether the poem is homoerotic or heteroerotic. The homoerotic poetry is distinctive to this reader from the heteroerotic poetry. The homoerotic poetry repeatedly has imagery of horses. The poetry is typically written from the perspective of the older male in the affair. There are only a few homoerotic poems from the selection, yet they all include imagery of horses.

Theognis has a specific poem entitled, "Horses and Boys," (31) which is a fine example of this point. The first line of the poem is "You're just like a horse, boy." He could not be more direct regarding the comparison of a boy whom he has taken as a lover, with a horse. He describes how taking care of the boy is like taking care of a horse in a stable. Perhaps this comparison implies that love between males is animalistic and less like the love between humans.

Theognis calls himself a trainer of boys and a trainer of horses. There is a clear structure of power between him and his boy lovers. He is training them to be lovers and to be quality lovers for him. Training a horse for racing or for military purposes can be brutal for the horse.

This thought aligns with what many scholars believed to be one of the primary purposes of young, male lovers in Ancient Greek culture -- older men were to take young boys as lovers to train them, so that when they took wives, they would be proficient at sex. Additionally, he implies that training a boy to be a good lover is painful for the boy, as training of a horse can be arduous, and the horse often suffers beatings or other pains at the hands of the trainer.

Even Sappho, (25) who is a female and writes of other females she loves, makes mention of horses and horsemen, but not in the trainer/trainee scenario. She mentions horses and horsemen as part of an allusion to her love being like the love that was the catalyst for the Trojan War. Even still, this mention of this animal specifically, is a recurring theme in the homoerotic poetry.

As for the heteroerotic poetry, there is repeated mention of the number of lovers had (or not had), as well as mention of the pleasures of orgies. Mimnermus (23) speaks of is his many "sweethearts"; Anacreon (32) mentions the many ladies that will not give him the time of day because of his old age; Ibycus (40) envisions all the various nymphs that stir his passion. In the heteroerotic poetry, there is additionally more mention of other.