Homoerotic Unions Make Up for Unsatisfying Marriages Essay -- Marriage

Homoerotic Unions Make Up for unreal Marriages Marriage is undeniably effective for some things such as replication and rearing those produced children. Biologically, all creatures need heterosexual union of some mannequin to continue their species, but this union need not be a required companionable become. In ancient and classical Greece, as hale as in much of the world today, espousal is a social expectation. Elders encourage young men to choose their even younger wives at the expected time and to create a respectable typical household. only is marriage actually necessary or even what populate rely? Hellenic marriage seems to be constructed in such a delegacy as to leave many Greeks unsatisfied and discontent. Why else would adultery and property mistresses be so prevalent? One strong indicator of this habitual dissatisfaction is the prevalence of homoerotic relationships and their benefits compared to the benefits of marriage. Based on textual evidence pr ovided in Plato?s Symposium and Sappho?s lyric poetry, homoerotic relationships seem to be key and often essential unions that do not fit into the social construct of Hellenic marriages. ?We human beings will never attain happiness unless we sense perfect love (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 sports fan or life partner of the same sex. It seems that many intellectual Greeks silent that homoerotic desire was inherent in many people, yet marriage continued to prevail as the leading lifestyle. In Symposium, Plato has Aristophanes tell a... ...struct of marriage, homoerotic relationships allow power dynamics to be based on in the flesh(predicate) rather than societal stipulations, in that respectby being more fulfilling for many people. Since there was undeniable s ame sex desire in many people, these relationships were needed in ancient and classical Greece. Unfortunately, as long as these people lived in a society where heterosexual marriage was necessary, they could not dog their homoerotic relationships as lifelong partnerships. Pausanius and Agathon?s relationship was a idealistic exception, yet, they did not actually live together. Marriage required people to encumbrance 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.