jf noonan wrote:
> On Fri, 22 Jan 1999, Carrol Cox wrote:
>
> >
> > Classical scholars are still at war over this, but some (many) argue that in
> > ancient greece the division was not between straight and homo but between
> > active and passive.
> >
> > Carrol
>
> I'm fascinated by this active/passive thing. Which kind of sex is
> active and which is passive?
>
Women are passive, period. In male-male (usually, older male, younger male) relations, the one who inserts the penis is active, the insertee is passive. Some classicists argue that the active one only comes between the thighs of the passive one, others claim complete anal intercourse. In any case, among at least the aristocracy this was seen as the primary form of education: the lover educated the younger (passive) one. Socrates was very fond of young boys.
Carrol