heterosexuality
heterosexualityand homosexuality are not strictly applicable to the Graeco-Roman world (this remains controversial). Discussions of sex could focus on either pleasure or procreation. Pleasures were categorized and valued on the distinction between active (penetrating an orifice with a penis) and passive. Heterosexual acts (not people) were distinguished from homosexual not as radically differing pleasures but primarily on the basis of social consequence: only the former produce children.
What was most important in heterosexual acts was the status of the woman and the man's degree of responsibility towards her and her offspring: wife, concubine, hetaira, prostitute, slave ([Demosthenes] 59. 112, 122). The purpose of wives was to produce legitimate children (Xenophon Memorabilia 2. 2. 4; Menander Dyskolos 842; Fontes Iuris Romani AnteIustiniani 3. 17). Marriage was primarily a nexus of social and...
[The entire page is 972 words long]
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