While I am amused at Satyr’s ‘mature child’ romanticism of Greece, the fact is the origins of Greece are shrouded in mystery. They date back to the time of Abraham, 18th century BCE, or perhaps even earlier, but historians disagree as to where the Greeks came from. They could have been people migrating down from Asia down through Europe and settling in the Greek Isles, or they could have been seafaring people who settled along the coast, Satyr has chosen the seafaring origin, the more romantic version.
While admiring the Greek contributions to civilisation, it is easy to forget what Greek society was really like.
For example, the “Spartan lifestyle”. Tough for little seven year old boys, taken from their parents forced to live in military style barracks and subsisting on barely enough to survive, because to be Spartan meant to be tough.
Aristotle argued in his Politics (VII.16) that killing children was essential to the functioning of society. He wrote:
“There must be a law that no imperfect or maimed child shall be brought up. And to avoid an excess in population, some children must be exposed [i.e. thrown on the trash heap or left out in the woods to die]. For a limit must be fixed to the population of the state.”
To be fair Aristotle isn’t saying “I like killing babies,” but he is making a cold, rational calculation: over-population is dangerous; this is the most expedient way to keep it in check.
Then there was the practice of pederasty. Indeed, the sexual initiation of a young boy by an older man was considered the highest form of love and vital part of a boys education.
Plato wrote of this in his Symposium (178C):
“I, for my part, am at a loss to say what greater blessing a man can have in earliest youth than an honorable [older] lover …”
The Greeks believed or believe that the human being is the centre of all things, even Greek gods were described in human terms. Greeks are men who are lovers of themselves.
This all seems unreasonably harsh? Perhaps, but it is much closer to the truth, than…