Homoerotic Unions Make Up for Unsatisfying Marriages Essay -- Marriage

Homoerotic Unions Make Up for Unsatisfying Marriages Marriage is undeniably effective for some things such as procreation and rearing those produced children. Biologic whollyy, all creatures need heterosexual union of some kind to continue their species, only if this union need not be a required kind construct. In quaint and classical Greece, as well as in much of the world today, sexual union is a social expectation. Elders encourage little men to choose their even younger wives at the expected fourth dimension and to create a respectable typical household. But is marriage rattling necessary or even what people appetency? Hellenic marriage seems to be constructed in such a way as to set out many Greeks unsatisfied and discontent. Why else would adultery and keeping mistresses be so prevalent? One strong indicator of this general dissatisfaction is the prevalence of homosexual relationships and their benefits compared to the benefits of marriage. Based on textua l evidence provided in Plato?s Symposium and Sappho?s lyric poetry, homoerotic relationships seem to be important and often substantive unions that do not fit into the social construct of Hellenic marriages. ?We forgiving beings will never attain happiness unless we find perfect hit the hay (Plato 193c,? says Plato?s version of comic playwright Aristophanes. However, it is not necessarily a joke. For many people, perfect love is not to be found in Hellenic marriage. Rather, their natural desires lead them towards a lover or demeanor partner of the resembling sex. It seems that many intellectual Greeks understood that homoerotic desire was inherent in many people, yet marriage continued to master as the leading lifestyle. In Symposium, Plato has Aristophanes tell a... ...struct of marriage, homoerotic relationships allow provide dynamics to be based on personal rather than social stipulations, thereby being more fulfilling for many people. Since there was undeniable same sex desire in many people, these relationships were inevitable in ancient and classical Greece. Unfortunately, as long as these people lived in a society where heterosexual marriage was necessary, they could not pursue their homoerotic relationships as lifelong partnerships. Pausanius and Agathon?s relationship was a rare exception, yet, they did not real live together. Marriage required people to stay in socially determined, inherently unbalanced, heterosexual relationships and thereby left many unsatisfied. Thus, the presence of these homoerotic relationships, shows that many people were not happy in their traditional, Hellenic marriages.