Homework Question on Religion and Sexuality
- Crawford, European Sexualities, Chapter 3, pp. 55-73
- Answer the following:
- What rules did ancient Greeks and Romans impose on sexuality?
- What did the early “Church Fathers” have to say?
- What did the medieval period add to these rules?
Homework Answer on Religion and Sexuality
The Greeks and Romans celebrated worldly accomplishments through sex. The sexual inequality along the age and the gender lines supported the status of the privileged at the expense of those who were disadvantaged (Crawford, 2007, p. 55). In Greek, the inequality in sexual relations marked the Greek homosexuality and heterosexual relations in both the Greek and the Roman society. In Greece, age symmetry was more tied to sex and power.
The older men introduced the younger who were not knowledgeable on political rights to sexual pleasure and public life. Older active partners were expected to be moderate and restrained in their desires, while the beloved or the eromenos were expected to have no sexual desire (Crawford, 2007, p. 55). It was imperative for the eromenos to have gratitude towards their lovers for the purpose of attention and assistance.
Relationships were not expected to be pecuniary; they were supposed to teach the young men to become good aristocrats. Male homosexuality was prominent in Greek life; the act of sex was highly gendered. Adult men that preferred to be penetrated were thought to be deficient in their masculinity (Sissa, 2008, p. 43).Early church fathers referred to above acts as sexual sins. Paul contended that no fornicator, adulterer, or people who were guilty of homosexual possession could posses the kingdom of God (Crawford, 2007)