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STUDIES IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX, VOLUME II
Sexual Inversion
by
HAVELOCK ELLIS
1927
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
It has been remarked by Professor Wilhelm Ostwald that the problem of
homosexuality is a problem left over to us by the Middle Ages, which for
five hundred years dealt with inverts as it dealt with heretics and
witches. To regard the matter thus is to emphasize its social and
humanitarian interest rather than its biological and psychological
significance. It is no doubt this human interest of the question of
inversion, rather than its scientific importance, great as the latter is,
which is mainly responsible for the remarkable activity with which the
study of homosexuality has been carried on during recent years.
The result has been that, during the fourteen years that have passed since
the last edition of this _Study_ was issued, so vast an amount of work has
been carried on in this field that the preparation of a new edition of the
book has been a long and serious task. Nearly every page has been
rewritten or enlarged and the Index of Authors consulted has more than
doubled in length. The original portions of the book have been still more
changed; sixteen new Histories have been added, selected from others in my
possession as being varied, typical, and full.
These extensive additions to the volume have rendered necessary various
omissions. Many of the shorter and less instructive Histories contained in
earlier editions have been omitted, as well as three Appendices which no
longer seem of sufficient interest to retain. In order to avoid undue
increase in the size of this volume, already much larger than in the
previous editions, a new Study of Eonism, or sexo-esthetic inversion, will
be inserted in vol. v, where it will perhaps be at least as much in place
as here.
HAVELOCK ELLIS.
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.
It was not my intention to publish a study of an abnormal manifestation of
the sexual instinct before discussing its normal manifestations. It has
happened, however, that this part of my work is ready first, and, since I
thus gain a longer period to develop the central part of my subject, I do
not regret the change of plan.
I had not at first proposed to devote a whole volume to sexual inversion.
It may even be that I was inclined to slur it over as an unpleasant
subject, and one that it was not wise to enlarge on. But I found in time
that several persons for whom I felt respect and admiration were the
congenital subjects of this abnormality. At the same time I realized that
in England, more than in any other country, the law and public opinion
combine to place a heavy penal burden and a severe social stigma on the
manifestations of an instinct which to those persons who possess it
frequently appears natural and normal. It was clear, therefore, that the
matter was in special need of elucidation and discussion.
There can be no doubt that a peculiar amount of ignorance exists regarding
the subject of sexual inversion. I know medical men of many years' general
experience who have never, to their knowledge, come across a single case.
We may remember, indeed, that some fifteen years ago the total number of
cases recorded in scientific literature scarcely equaled those of British
race which I have obtained, and that before my first cases were published
not a single British case, unconnected with the asylum or the prison, had
ever been recorded. Probably not a very large number of people are even
aware that the turning in of the sexual instinct toward persons of the
same sex can ever be regarded as inborn, so far as any sexual instinct is
inborn. And very few, indeed, would not be surprised if it were possible
to publish a list of the names of sexually inverted men and women who at
the present time are honorably known in church, state, society, art, or
letters. It could not be positively affirmed of all such persons that they
were born inverted, but in most the inverted tendency seems to be
instinctive, and appears at a somewhat early age. In any case, however, it
must be realized that in this volume we are not dealing with subjects
belonging to the lunatic asylum, or the prison. We are concerned with
individuals who live in freedom, some of them suffering intensely from
their abnormal organization, but otherwise ordinary members of society. In
a few cases we are concerned with individuals whose moral or artistic
ideals have widely influenced their fellows, who know nothing of the
peculiar organization which has largely molded those ideals.
I am indebted to several friends for notes, observations, and
correspondence on this subject, more especially to one, referred to as
"Z.," and to another as "Q.," who have obtained a considerable number of
reliable histories for me, and have also supplied many valuable notes; to
"Josiah Flynt" (whose articles on tramps in _Atlantic Monthly_ and
_Harper's Magazine_ have attracted wide attention) for an appendix on
homosexuality among tramps; to Drs. Kiernan, Lydston, and Talbot for
assistance at various points noted in the text; and to Dr. K., an American
woman physician, who kindly assisted me in obtaining cases, and has also
supplied an appendix. Other obligations are mentioned in the text.
All those portions of the book which are of medical or medico-legal
interest, including most of the cases, have appeared during the last three
years in the _Alienist and Neurologist_, the _Journal of Mental Science_,
the _Centralblatt fuer Nervenheilkunde_, the _Medico-legal Journal_, and
the _Archivo delle Psicopatie Sessuale_. The cases, as they appear in the
present volume, have been slightly condensed, but nothing of genuine
psychological interest has been omitted. Owing to some delay in the
publication of the English edition of the work, a German translation by my
friend, Dr. Hans Kurella, editor of the _Centralblatt fuer
Nervenheilkunde_, has already appeared (1896) in the _Bibliothek fuer
Sozialwissenschaft_. The German edition contains some matter which has
finally been rejected from the English edition as of minor importance; on
the other hand, much has been added to the English edition, and the whole
carefully revised.
I have only to add that if it may seem that I have unduly ignored the
cases and arguments brought forward by other writers, it is by no means
because I wish to depreciate the valuable work done by my predecessors in
this field. It is solely because I have not desired to popularize the
results previously reached, but simply to bring forward my own results. If
I had not been able to present new facts in what is perhaps a new light, I
should not feel justified in approaching the subject of sexual inversion
at all.
HAVELOCK ELLIS.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
Homosexuality Among Animals--Among the Lower Human Races--The
Albanians--The Greeks--The Eskimos--The Tribes of the Northwest United
States--Homosexuality Among Soldiers in Europe--Indifference Frequently
Manifested by European Lower Classes--Sexual Inversion at
Rome--Homosexuality in Prisons--Among Men of Exceptional Intellect and
Moral Leaders--Muret--Michelangelo--Winkelmann--Homosexuality in English
History--Walt Whitman--Verlaine--Burton's Climatic Theory of
Homosexuality--The Racial Factor--The Prevalence of Homosexuality Today.
CHAPTER II.
THE STUDY OF SEXUAL INVERSION.
Westphal--Hoessli--Casper--Ulrichs--Krafft-Ebing--Moll--Fere--Kiernan--
Lydston--Raffalovich--Edward Carpenter--Hirschfeld.
CHAPTER III.
SEXUAL INVERSION IN MEN.
Relatively Undifferentiated State of the Sexual Impulse in Early Life--The
Freudian View--Homosexuality in Schools--The Question of Acquired
Homosexuality--Latent Inversion--Retarded Inversion--Bisexuality--The
Question of the Invert's Truthfulness--Histories.
CHAPTER IV.
SEXUAL INVERSION IN WOMEN.
Prevalence of Sexual Inversion Among Women--Among Women of
Ability--Among the Lower Races--Temporary Homosexuality in Schools,
etc.--Histories--Physical and Psychic Characteristics of Inverted
Women--The Modern Development of Homosexuality Among Women.
CHAPTER V.
THE NATURE OF SEXUAL INVERSION.
Analysis of Histories--Race--Heredity--General Health--First Appearance of
Homosexual Impulse--Sexual Precocity and Hyperesthesia--Suggestion and
Other Exciting Causes of Inversion--Masturbation--Attitude Toward
Women--Erotic Dreams--Methods of Sexual Relationship--Pseudo-sexual
Attraction--Physical Sexual Abnormalities--Artistic and Other
Aptitudes--Moral Attitude of the Invert.
CHAPTER VI.
THE THEORY OF SEXUAL INVERSION.
What is Sexual Inversion?--Causes of Diverging Views--The Theory of
Suggestion Unworkable--Importance of the Congenital Element in
Inversion--The Freudian Theory--Embryonic Hermaphroditism as a Key to
Inversion--Inversion as a Variation or "Sport"--Comparison with
Color-blindness, Color-hearing, and Similar Abnormalities--What is an
Abnormality?--Not Necessarily a Disease--Relation of Inversion to
Degeneration--Exciting Causes of Inversion--Not Operative in the Absence
of Predisposition.
CHAPTER VII.
CONCLUSIONS.
The Prevention of Homosexuality--The Influence of the
School--Coeducation--The Treatment of Sexual
Inversion--Castration--Hypnotism--Associational
Therapy--Psycho-analysis--Mental and Physical Hygiene--Marriage--The
Children of Inverts--The Attitude of Society--The Horror Aroused by
Homosexuality--Justinian--The _Code Napoleon_--The State of the Law in
Europe Today--Germany--England--What Should be our Attitude Toward
Homosexuality?
APPENDIX A.
Homosexuality Among Tramps.
APPENDIX B.
The School-friendships of Girls.
INDEX OF AUTHORS.
INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
SEXUAL INVERSION.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
Homosexuality Among Animals--Among the Lower Human Races--The
Albanians--The Greeks--The Eskimos--The Tribes of the Northwest United
States--Homosexuality Among Soldiers in Europe--Indifference Frequently
Manifested by European Lower Classes--Sexual Inversion at
Rome--Homosexuality in Prisons--Among Men of Exceptional Intellect and
Moral Leaders--Muret--Michelangelo--Winkelmann--Homosexuality in English
History--Walt Whitman--Verlaine--Burton's Climatic Theory of
Homosexuality--The Racial Factor--The Prevalence of Homosexuality Today.
Sexual inversion, as here understood, means sexual instinct turned by
inborn constitutional abnormality toward persons of the same sex. It is
thus a narrower term than homosexuality, which includes all sexual
attractions between persons of the same sex, even when seemingly due to
the accidental absence of the natural objects of sexual attraction, a
phenomenon of wide occurrence among all human races and among most of the
higher animals. It is only during recent years that sexual inversion has
been recognized; previously it was not distinguished from homosexuality in
general, and homosexuality was regarded as a national custom, as an
individual vice, or as an unimportant episode in grave forms of
insanity.[1] We have further to distinguish sexual inversion and all other
forms of homosexuality from another kind of inversion which usually
remains, so far as the sexual impulse itself is concerned, heterosexual,
that is to say, normal. Inversion of this kind leads a person to feel like
a person of the opposite sex, and to adopt, so far as possible, the
tastes, habits, and dress of the opposite sex, while the direction of the
sexual impulse remains normal. This condition I term sexo-esthetic
inversion, or Eonism.
The nomenclature of the highly important form of sexual
perversion with which we are here concerned is extremely varied,
and most investigators have been much puzzled in coming to a
conclusion as to the best, most exact, and at the same time most
colorless names to apply to it.
The first in the field in modern times was Ulrichs who, as early
as 1862, used the appellation "Uranian" (Uranier), based on the
well-known myth in Plato's _Banquet_. Later he Germanized this
term into "Urning" for the male, and "Urningin" for the female,
and referred to the condition itself as "Urningtum." He also
invented a number of other related terms on the same basis; some
of these terms have had a considerable vogue, but they are too
fanciful and high-strung to secure general acceptance. If used in
other languages than German they certainly should not be used in
their Germanized shape, and it is scarcely legitimate to use the
term "Urning" in English. "Uranian" is more correct.
In Germany the first term accepted by recognized scientific
authorities was "contrary sexual feeling" (Kontraere
Sexualempfindung). It was devised by Westphal in 1869, and used
by Krafft-Ebing and Moll. Though thus accepted by the earliest
authorities in this field, and to be regarded as a fairly
harmless and vaguely descriptive term, it is somewhat awkward,
and is now little used in Germany; it was never currently used
outside Germany. It has been largely superseded by the term
"homosexuality." This also was devised (by a little-known
Hungarian doctor, Benkert, who used the pseudonym Kertbeny) in
the same year (1869), but at first attracted no attention. It
has, philologically, the awkward disadvantage of being a bastard
term compounded of Greek and Latin elements, but its
significance--sexual attraction to the same sex--is fairly clear
and definite, while it is free from any question-begging
association of either favorable or unfavorable character. (Edward
Carpenter has proposed to remedy its bastardly linguistic
character by transforming it into "homogenic;" this, however,
might mean not only "toward the same sex," but "of the same
kind," and in German already possesses actually that meaning.)
The term "homosexual" has the further advantage that on account
of its classical origin it is easily translatable into many
languages. It is now the most widespread general term for the
phenomena we are dealing with, and it has been used by
Hirschfeld, now the chief authority in this field, as the title
of his encyclopedic work, _Die Homosexualitaet_.
"Sexual Inversion" (in French "inversion sexuelle," and in
Italian "inversione sessuale") is the term which has from the
first been chiefly used in France and Italy, ever since Charcot
and Magnan, in 1882, published their cases of this anomaly in the
_Archives de Neurologie_. It had already been employed in Italy
by Tamassia in the _Revista Sperimentale di Freniatria_, in 1878.
I have not discovered when and where the term "sexual inversion"
was first used. Possibly it first appeared in English, for long
before the paper of Charcot and Magnan I have noticed, in an
anonymous review of Westphal's first paper in the _Journal of
Mental Science_ (then edited by Dr. Maudsley) for October, 1871,
that "Contraere Sexualempfindung" is translated as "inverted
sexual proclivity." So far as I am aware, "sexual inversion" was
first used in English, as the best term, by J.A. Symonds in 1883,
in his privately printed essay, _A Problem in Greek Ethics_.
Later, in 1897, the same term was adopted, I believe for the
first time publicly in English, in the present work.
It is unnecessary to refer to the numerous other names which have
been proposed. (A discussion of the nomenclature will be found in
the first chapter of Hirschfeld's work, _Die Homosexualitaet_, and
of some special terms in an article by Schouten,
_Sexual-Probleme_, December, 1912.) It may suffice to mention the
ancient theological and legal term "sodomy" (sodomia) because it
is still the most popular term for this perversion, though, it
must be remembered, it has become attached to the physical act of
intercourse _per anum_, even when carried out heterosexually, and
has little reference to psychic sexual proclivity. This term has
its origin in the story (narrated in Genesis, ch. xix) of Lot's
visitors whom the men of Sodom desired to have intercourse with,
and of the subsequent destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. This
story furnishes a sufficiently good ground for the use of the
term, though the Jews do not regard sodomy as the sin of Sodom,
but rather inhospitality and hardness of heart to the poor (J.
Preuss, _Biblisch-Talmudische Medizin_, pp. 579-81), and
Christian theologians also, both Catholic and Protestant (see,
e.g., _Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, vol. iv, p. 199,
and Hirschfeld, _Homosexualitaet_, p. 742), have argued that it
was not homosexuality, but their other offenses, which provoked
the destruction of the Cities of the Plain. In Germany "sodomy"
has long been used to denote bestiality, or sexual intercourse
with animals, but this use of the term is quite unjustified. In
English there is another term, "buggery," identical in meaning
with sodomy, and equally familiar. "Bugger" (in French,
_bougre_) is a corruption of "Bulgar," the ancient Bulgarian
heretics having been popularly supposed to practise this
perversion. The people of every country have always been eager to
associate sexual perversions with some other country than their
own.
The terms usually adopted in the present volume are "sexual
inversion" and "homosexuality." The first is used more especially
to indicate that the sexual impulse is organically and innately
turned toward individuals of the same sex. The second is used
more comprehensively of the general phenomena of sexual
attraction between persons of the same sex, even if only of a
slight and temporary character. It may be admitted that there is
no precise warrant for any distinction of this kind between the
two terms. The distinction in the phenomena is, however, still
generally recognized; thus Iwan Bloch applies the term
"homosexuality" to the congenital form, and
"pseudo-homosexuality" to its spurious or simulated forms. Those
persons who are attracted to both sexes are now usually termed
"bisexual," a more convenient term than "psycho-sexual
hermaphrodite," which was formerly used. There remains the normal
person, who is "heterosexual."
Before approaching the study of sexual inversion in cases which we may
investigate with some degree of scientific accuracy, there is interest in
glancing briefly at the phenomena as they appear before us, as yet
scarcely or at all differentiated, among animals, among various human
races, and at various periods.
Among animals in a domesticated or confined state it is easy to find
evidence of homosexual attraction, due merely to the absence of the other
sex.[2] This was known to the ancients; the Egyptians regarded two male
partridges as the symbol of homosexuality, and Aristotle noted that two
female pigeons would cover each other if no male was at hand. Buffon
observed many examples, especially among birds. He found that, if male or
female birds of various species--such as partridges, fowls, and
doves--were shut up together, they would soon begin to have sexual
relations among themselves, the males sooner and more frequently than the
females. More recently Sainte-Claire Deville observed that dogs, rams, and
bulls, when isolated, first became restless and dangerous, and then
acquired a permanent state of sexual excitement, not obeying the laws of
heat, and leading them to attempts to couple together; the presence of the
opposite sex at once restored them to normal conditions.[3] Bombarda of
Lisbon states that in Portugal it is well known that in every herd of
bulls there is nearly always one bull who is ready to lend himself to the
perverted whims of his companions.[4] It may easily be observed how a cow
in heat exerts an exciting influence on other cows, impelling them to
attempt to play the bull's part. Lacassagne has also noted among young
fowls and puppies, etc., that, before ever having had relations with the
opposite sex, and while in complete liberty, they make hesitating attempts
at intercourse with their own sex.[5] This, indeed, together with similar
perversions, may often be observed, especially in puppies, who afterward
become perfectly normal. Among white rats, which are very sexual animals,
Steinach found that, when deprived of females, the males practise
homosexuality, though only with males with whom they have long associated;
the weaker rats play the passive part. But when a female is introduced
they immediately turn to her; although they are occasionally altogether
indifferent to sex, they never actually prefer their own sex.[6]
With regard to the playing of the female part by the weaker rats it is
interesting to observe that Fere found among insects that the passive part
in homosexual relations is favored by fatigue; among cockchafers it was
the male just separated from the female who would take the passive part
(on the rare occasions when homosexual relations occurred) with a fresh
male.[7]
Homosexuality appears to be specially common among birds. It was among
birds that it attracted the attention of the ancients, and numerous
interesting observations have been made in more recent times. Thus Selous,
a careful bird-watcher, finds that the ruff, the male of the _Machetes
pugnax_, suffers from sexual repression owing to the coyness of the female
(the reeve), and consequently the males often resort to homosexual
intercourse. It is still more remarkable that the reeves also, even in the
presence of the males, will court each other and have intercourse.[8] We
may associate this with the high erotic development of birds, the
difficulty with which tumescence seems to occur in them, and their long
courtships.
Among the higher animals, again, female monkeys, even when grown up (as
Moll was informed), behave in a sexual way to each other, though it is
difficult to say how far this is merely in play. Dr. Seitz, Director of
the Frankfurt Zooelogical Garden, gave Moll a record of his own careful
observations of homosexual phenomena among the males and females of
various animals confined in the Garden (_Antelope cervicapra, Bos Indicus,
Capra hircus, Ovis steatopyga_).[9] In all such cases we are not concerned
with sexual inversion, but merely with the accidental turning of the
sexual instinct into an abnormal channel, the instinct being called out
by an approximate substitute, or even by diffused emotional excitement, in
the absence of the normal object.
It is probable, however, that cases of true sexual inversion--in which
gratification is preferably sought in the same sex--may be found among
animals, although observations have rarely been made or recorded. It has
been found by Muccioli, an Italian authority on pigeons, that among
Belgian carrier-pigeons inverted practices may occur, even in the presence
of many of the other sex.[10] This seems to be true inversion, though we
are not told whether these birds were also attracted toward the opposite
sex. The birds of this family appear to be specially liable to sexual
perversion. Thus M.J. Bailly-Maitre, a breeder of great knowledge and a
keen observer, wrote to Girard that "they are strange creatures in their
manners and customs and are apt to elude the most persistent observer. No
animal is more depraved. Mating between males, and still more frequently
between females, often occurs at an early age: up to the second year. I
have had several pairs of pigeons formed by subjects of the same sex who
for many months behaved as if the mating were natural. In some cases this
had taken place among young birds of the same nest, who acted like real
mates, though both subjects were males. In order to mate them productively
we have had to separate them and shut each of them up for some days with a
female."[11] In the Berlin Zooelogical Gardens also, it has been noticed
that two birds of the same sex will occasionally become attached to each
other and remain so in spite of repeated advances from individuals of
opposite sex. This occurred, for instance, in the case of two males of the
Egyptian goose who were thus to all appearance paired, and always kept
together, vigorously driving away any female that approached. Similarly a
male Australian sheldrake was paired to a male of another species.[12]
Among birds generally, inverted sexuality seems to accompany the
development of the secondary sexual characters of the opposite sex which
is sometimes found. Thus, a poultry-breeder describes a hen (colored
Dorking) crowing like a cock, only somewhat more harshly, as a cockerel
crows, and with an enormous comb, larger than is ever seen in the male.
This bird used to try to tread her fellow-hens. At the same time she laid
early and regularly, and produced "grand chickens."[13] Among ducks, also,
it has occasionally been observed that the female assumes at the same time
both male livery and male sexual tendencies. It is probable that such
observations will be multiplied in the future, and that sexual inversion
in the true sense will be found commoner among animals than at present it
appears to be.
Traces of homosexual practices, sometimes on a large scale, have been
found among all the great divisions of the human race. It would be
possible to collect a considerable body of evidence under this head.[14]
Unfortunately, however, the travellers and others on whose records we are
dependent have been so shy of touching these subjects, and so ignorant of
the main points for investigation, that it is very difficult to discover
sexual inversion in the proper sense in any lower race. Travellers have
spoken vaguely of crimes against nature without defining the precise
relationship involved nor inquiring how far any congenital impulse could
be distinguished.
Looking at the phenomena generally, so far as they have been recorded
among various lower races, we seem bound to recognize that there is a
widespread natural instinct impelling men toward homosexual relationships,
and that this has been sometimes, though very exceptionally, seized upon
and developed for advantageous social purposes. On the whole, however,
unnatural intercourse (sodomy) has been regarded as an antisocial offense,
and punishable sometimes by the most serious penalties that could be
invented. This was, for instance, the case in ancient Mexico, in Peru,
among the Persians, in China, and among the Hebrews and Mohammedans.
Even in very early history it is possible to find traces of homosexuality,
with or without an implied disapproval. Its existence in Assyria and
Babylonia is indicated by the Codex Hamurabi and by inscriptions which do
not on the whole refer to it favorably.[15] As regards Egypt we learn from
a Fayum papyrus, found by Flinders Petrie, translated by Griffiths, and
discussed by Oefele,[16] that more than four thousand years ago homosexual
practices were so ancient that they were attributed to the gods Horus and
Set. The Egyptians showed great admiration of masculine beauty, and it
would seem that they never regarded homosexuality as punishable or even
reprehensible. It is notable, also, that Egyptian women were sometimes of
very virile type, and Hirschfeld considers that intermediate sexual types
were specially widespread among the Egyptians.[17]
One might be tempted to expect that homosexual practices would be
encouraged whenever it was necessary to keep down the population.
Aristotle says that it was allowed by law in Crete for this end. And
Professor Haddon tells me that at Torres Straits a native advocated sodomy
on this ground.[18] There seems, however, on the whole, to be little
evidence pointing to this utilization of the practice. The homosexual
tendency appears to have flourished chiefly among warriors and warlike
peoples. During war and the separation from women that war involves, the
homosexual instinct tends to develop; it flourished, for instance, among
the Carthaginians and among the Normans, as well as among the warlike
Dorians, Scythians, Tartars, and Celts,[19] and, when there has been an
absence of any strong moral feeling against it, the instinct has been
cultivated and, idealized as a military virtue, partly because it
counteracts the longing for the softening feminine influences of the home
and partly because it seems to have an inspiring influence in promoting
heroism and heightening _esprit de corps_. In the lament of David over
Jonathan we have a picture of intimate friendship--"passing the love of
women"--between comrades in arms among a barbarous, warlike race. There is
nothing to show that such a relationship was sexual, but among warriors in
New Caledonia friendships that were undoubtedly homosexual were recognized
and regulated; the fraternity of arms, according to Foley,[20] complicated
with pederasty, was more sacred than uterine fraternity. We have,
moreover, a recent example of the same relationships recognized in a
modern European race--the Albanians.
Hahn, in the course of his _Albanische Studien_ (1854, p. 166),
says that the young men between 16 and 24 lore boys from about 12
to 17. A Gege marries at the age of 24 or 25, and then he
usually, but not always, gives up boy-love. The following passage
is reported by Hahn as the actual language used to him by an
Albanian Gege: "The lover's feeling for the boy is pure as
sunshine. It places the beloved on the same pedestal as a saint.
It is the highest and most exalted passion of which the human
breast is capable. The sight of a beautiful youth awakens
astonishment in the lover, and opens the door of his heart to the
delight which the contemplation of this loveliness affords. Love
takes possession of him so completely that all his thought and
feeling goes out in it. If he finds himself in the presence of
the beloved, he rests absorbed in gazing on him. Absent, he
thinks of nought but him. If the beloved unexpectedly appears, he
falls into confusion, changes color, turns alternately pale and
red. His heart beats faster and impedes his breathing. He has
ears and eyes only for the beloved. He shuns touching him with
the hand, kisses him only on the forehead, sings his praise in
verse, a woman's never." One of these love-poems of an Albanian
Gege runs as follows: "The sun, when it rises in the morning, is
like you, boy, when you are near me. When your dark eye turns
upon me, it drives my reason from my head."
It should be added that Prof. Weigand, who knew the Albanians
well, assured Bethe (_Rheinisches Museum fuer Philologie_, 1907,
p. 475) that the relations described by Hahn are really sexual,
although tempered by idealism. A German scholar who travelled in
Albania some years ago, also, assured Naecke (_Jahrbuch fuer
sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, vol. ix, 1908, p. 327) that he could
fully confirm Hahn's statements, and that, though it was
difficult to speak positively, he doubted whether these
relationships were purely ideal. While most prevalent among the
Moslems, they are also found among the Christians, and receive
the blessing of the priest in church. Jealousy is frequently
aroused, the same writer remarks, and even murder may be
committed on account of a boy.
It may be mentioned here that among the Tschuktsches,
Kamschatdals, and allied peoples (according to a Russian
anthropological journal quoted in _Sexual-Probleme_, January,
1913, p. 41) there are homosexual marriages among the men, and
occasionally among the women, ritually consecrated and openly
recognized.
The Albanians, it is possible, belonged to the same stock which produced
the Dorian Greeks, and the most important and the most thoroughly known
case of socially recognized homosexuality is that of Greece during its
period of highest military as well as ethical and intellectual vigor. In
this case, as in those already mentioned, the homosexual tendency was
frequently regarded as having beneficial results, which caused it to be
condoned, if not, indeed, fostered as a virtue. Plutarch repeated the old
Greek statement that the Beotians, the Lacedemonians, and the Cretans were
the most warlike stocks because they were the strongest in love; an army
composed of loving homosexual couples, it was held, would be invincible.
It appears that the Dorians introduced _paiderastia_, as the Greek form of
homosexuality is termed, into Greece; they were the latest invaders, a
vigorous mountain race from the northwest (the region including what is
now Albania) who spread over the whole land, the islands, and Asia Minor,
becoming the ruling race. Homosexuality was, of course, known before they
came, but they made it honorable. Homer never mentions it, and it was not
known as legitimate to the AEolians or the Ionians. Bethe, who has written
a valuable study of Dorian _paiderastia_, states that the Dorians admitted
a kind of homosexual marriage, and even had a kind of boy-marriage by
capture, the scattered vestiges of this practice indicating, Bethe
believes, that it was a general custom among the Dorians before the
invasion of Greece. Such unions even received a kind of religions
consecration. It was, moreover, shameful for a noble youth in Crete to
have no lover; it spoke ill for his character. By _paiderastia_ a man
propagated his virtues, as it were, in the youth he loved, implanting them
by the act of intercourse.
In its later Greek phases _paiderastia_ was associated less with war than
with athletics; it was refined and intellectualized by poetry and
philosophy. It cannot be doubted that both AEschylus and Sophocles
cultivated boy-love, while its idealized presentation in the dialogues of
Plato has caused it to be almost identified with his name; thus in the
early _Charmides_ we have an attractive account of the youth who gives his
name to the dialogue and the emotions he excites are described. But even
in the early dialogues Plato only conditionally approved of the sexual
side of _paiderastia_ and he condemned it altogether in the final
_Laws_.[21]
The early stages of Greek _paiderastia_ are very interestingly
studied by Bethe, "Die Dorische Knabenliebe," _Rheinisches Museum
fuer Philologie_, 1907. J.A. Symonds's essay on the later aspects
of _paiderastia_, especially as reflected in Greek literature, _A
Problem in Greek Ethics_, is contained in the early German
edition of the present study, but (though privately printed in
1883 by the author in an edition of twelve copies and since
pirated in another private edition) it has not yet been published
in English. _Paiderastia_ in Greek poetry has also been studied
by Paul Brandt, _Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, vols.
viii and ix (1906 and 1907), and by Otto Knapp
(_Anthropophyteia_, vol. iii, pp. 254-260) who seeks to
demonstrate the sensual side of _paiderastia_. On the other hand,
Licht, working on somewhat the same lines as Bethe (_Zeitschrift
fuer Sexualwissenschaft_, August, 1908), deals with the ethical
element in _paiderastia_, points out its beneficial moral
influence, and argues that it was largely on this ground that it
was counted sacred. Licht has also published a learned study of
_paiderastia_ in Attic comedy (_Anthropophyteia_, vol. vii,
1910), and remarks that "without _paiderastia_ Greek comedy is
unthinkable." _Paiderastia_ in the Greek anthology has been fully
explored by P. Stephanus (_Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle Zwischenstufen_,
vol. ix, 1908, p. 213). Kiefer, who has studied Socrates in
relation to homosexuality (O. Kiefer, "Socrates und die
Homosexualitaet," _Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, vol. ix,
1908), concludes that he was bisexual but that his sexual
impulses had been sublimated. It may be added that many results
of recent investigation concerning _paiderastia_ are summarized
by Hirschfeld, _Die Homosexualitaet_, pp. 747-788, and by Edward
Carpenter, _Intermediate Types Among Primitive Folk_, 1914, part
ii; see also Bloch, _Die Prostitution_, vol. i, p. 232 et seq.,
and _Der Ursprung der Syphilis_, vol. ii, p. 564.
It would appear that almost the only indications outside Greece of
_paiderastic_ homosexuality showing a high degree of tenderness and
esthetic feeling are to be found in Persian and Arabian literature, after
the time of the Abbasids, although this practice was forbidden by the
Koran.[22]
In Constantinople, as Naecke was informed by German inverts living in that
city, homosexuality is widespread, most cultivated Turks being capable of
relations with boys as well as with women, though very few are exclusively
homosexual, so that their attitude would seem to be largely due to custom
and tradition. Adult males rarely have homosexual relations together; one
of the couple is usually a boy of 12 to 18 years, and this condition of
things among the refined classes is said to resemble ancient Greek
_paiderastia_. But ordinary homosexual prostitution is prevalent; it is
especially recognized in the baths which abound in Constantinople and are
often open all night. The attendants at these baths are youths who
scarcely need an invitation to induce them to gratify the client in this
respect, the gratification usually consisting in masturbation, mutual or
one-sided, as desired. The practice, though little spoken of, is carried
on almost openly, and blackmailing is said to be unknown.[23] In the New
Turkey, however, it is stated by Adler Bey that homosexual prostitution
has almost disappeared.[24]
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