Demosthenes, Speeches 60 and 61, Prologues, Letters

61. Erotic Essay

61. EROTIC ESSAY introduction As with the Funeral Oration, the Erotic Essay is an example of epideictic or demonstrative oratory. The aim was not to persuade the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint but to exhort it and excite its admiration.1 This essay was not a speech as such but a rhetorical exercise , to be read out perhaps at a symposium. It takes the form of a didactic discourse, much influenced by Platonic thought (see below) on what is best for a person, that works on two levels: as a speech for the young Epicrates and as an address to the speaker’s audience. There are many echoes of the love speech attributed to Lysias, which is contained in Plato’s Phaedrus, as well as of works by Isocrates, especially the Evagoras (Isoc. 9), which is also epideictic. Since many of these are merely commonplaces, we would expect to find them occurring often. In this essay, a young man, Epicrates, apparently of extraordinary beauty, is eulogized by another (unnamed) man, perhaps his teacher, for his looks and physical prowess, and then encouraged to study philosophy in order to improve his mind and so become virtuous. If successful , he will become a morally upright citizen, who will engage in political life and so serve his city well. We do not know who Epicrates was, nor even if he was a real person, although the speaker indicates that Epicrates did turn up to hear the essay (2). The essay is divided into six broad parts. The speaker has a brief preamble on the nature of his work and on Epicrates, who arrives at its end (1–2). Then the speech proper begins with an explanation of why the speaker has written his essay, and the base and pure motives 1 On the genre, see the Introduction to Funeral Oration. 61. erotic essay 39 2 Protreptics were writings that aimed at persuading young men to study philosophy. 3 See further, e.g., Dover 1978 and Halperin 1990. 4 On the Platonic influence and thought here, see Clavaud in the Budé Text, pp. 70–77. of those attracted to physical beauty (3–9). We then have a eulogy to Epicrates: his appearance, his character, his intelligence, his physical prowess, and his courage (10–33). Sections 33 to 36 are a recapitulation of the speaker’s intentions and lead into the lengthy exhortation that Epicrates must study philosophy above all other disciplines, both for his own personal virtue and to allow him to play a greater role in political life, in a section called the protrepticus (37–55).2 The essay has a brief conclusion at 57. The feelings that the male composer of this work expresses for the young Epicrates go beyond friendship, thus reflecting that in ancient Greek society same-sex relationships were condoned. The ancient Greek name for sexual relations between men and boys was paiderastia (hence, the English word pederasty), and in a male-to-male relationship the partners took on different roles: the eromenos, the one who was loved (passive), and the erastes, the one who did the loving (active; cf. 3). It was not unusual for the eromenos to be a mere youth and the erastes an adult male. The erastes was primarily responsible for helping the young man’s moral, political, and intellectual development, and this could lead to a sexual relationship.3 Plato made a distinction between love that has only a physical basis (lust), and love that stems from the quality of the person loved, especially his moral qualities, in two of his works, the Phaedrus and Symposium . Thus, we have a concept of spiritual love as distinct from plain lust. The author of the Erotic Essay has obviously been influenced by both Isocrates and Plato, for the work falls into this “class” of sexual admiration for a young man but with the relationship anchored firmly on the youth’s moral and intellectual development for his own good. ThereismuchsimilaritywithPlato’sPhaedrus.4 However,theinfluence seems to extend beyond the moral and philosophical, for it is probably not coincidental that it was at the house of an Epicrates that the orator Lysias was supposed to have delivered his speech on love (Plato, Phaedrus 227b). The speech is given in the Phaedrus, but it is not certain 40 demosthenes 5 E.g., by Blass 1898, pp. 358–360, and Dobson 1919...