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male or all female o r o f mi xed male and female character. Once divided
by order of Ze us the y pursued th eir lost half - as w e all still do - a con–
ception whi ch shares the fatali sm of the contempo rary desire to set sexual
preference in th e concrete o f bi o logica l d ete rmini sm. But th e G reek tale
does not conce ive o f exclusive hom osexuality , m e rely a lac k o f enthusi–
asm for carryin g o ut soc iety's requirements with the o pposite sex o n the
part of th e do ubl e m ale o r d o uble fem ale.
As for th e actu al behavi o r o f Atheni an w o men , Sarah Pomeroy , who
has written o n wo men in th e ancient w o rld , takes the femini st stance th at
they had insuffi cient self-respec t to engage in homosex ual activity. What
is more ce rtain is th at w o me n o f th e citi ze n class w e re so confin ed to
their homes, iso lated fro m th eir pee rs and regul ated in their ac ti viti es that
the possibility fo r th e d eve lo pme nt o f suc h attac hments w as almost
nonexistent. T he women o f Sparta and Lesbos enj oyed edu ca tional o p–
portunities in an all-female se tting whi ch w e re deni ed to their Ath eni an
counterparts and were generall y all ow ed greate r freedo m o f mo vem ent ,
which has mad e th em mo re suspec t to m ale w riters o f a late r time.
Plutarch, centuri es aft e r th e classical e ra, asse rts th at Spartan wom en o f
good repute we re in love with girls, and the ho mosexuality o f Sappho of
Lesbos, adverti sed through th e ages, was likewise a H ell eni sti c crea tion ,
never menti o ned in any o f th e ex tant comedi es abo ut her produ ced in
classical Athens: no o ne who speaks o f Sappho's love fo r her own sex can
be dated befo re the Augustan pe ri o d .
Marri ed , th e mo the r o f a daughte r and mi stress o f a school fo r ari sto–
cratic young women , he r unique gifts as a po et pl aced he r in an oth erwi se
male intellectu al culture, wh ose poe ti c conve nti o ns she used. Whe the r
her parti cipati o n in thi s culture impli ed ho moero ti c behavio r is less im–
portant than the fac t th at in the Greek mind intell ectu al work was indis–
solubly linked to th e capac iti es, indeed th e physica l nature, of th e male. In
effect, later commentato rs acco rded Sapph o th e sexual, as well as the in–
tellectual, statu s o f the male .
Greek comedy is completel y mute o n the subj ec t o f fem ale homosex–
uality,
while fi"Cel y attributing lustfulness, bibulo usness, and frequent mas–
turbatory ac ti vity to w o me n - th e latter view ed as appro pri ate o nly to
slaves when prac ti ced by m ales, a sign o f th eir res tri cted o ppo rtuniti es .
Adopting th e Freudi an mo d e, o ne ca n imagin e male anxiety as a reaso n
for failure
to
dea l w ith th e subje ct, but hard ly if it we re a commo n , o b–
servable phenomeno n , espec iall y sin ce comedy ex ists in large part to give
expression to th at w hi ch is po litely unmenti o nable o r anxiety-p rovoking.
It is more likely th at th e me rel y sex ual sph e re to w hi ch women w e re
confined was co nce ived to be in ca pable of encompassing th e compl ex
nature and fun cti o n o f G re ek ho mosexuality.
But even mo re impo rtant th an such nega ti ve eviden ce arc the arti c-
