
The Myrmidons
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Myrtilus — Ἀκαδημαικός, πρὸ τῶν γάμων ταῖς παρθένοις ὡς παιδικοῖς νόμος ἐστὶν ὁμιλεῖν. καὶ γὰρ ὁ νομοθέτης Σόλων ἔφη·
Solon, quoted by Myrtilus — μηρῶν ἱμείρων καὶ γλυκεροῦ στόματος.
Myrtilus — Αἰσχύλος τε καὶ Σοφοκλῆς ἀναφανδὸν ἔφασαν, ὃ μὲν Μυρμιδόσιν·
Aeschylus, quoted by Myrtilus — σέβας δὲ μηρῶν ἁγνὸν οὐκ ἐπῃδέσω, ὦ δυσχάριστε τῶν πυκνῶν φιλημάτων,
Myrtilus — ὃ δ’ ἐν Κολχίσιν περὶ Γανυμήδους τὸν λόγον ποιούμενος·
Sophocles, quoted by Myrtilus — μηροῖς ὑπαίθων τὴν Διὸς τυραννίδα.
Myrtilus — οὐκ ἀγνοῶ δὲ ὅτι τὰ περὶ Κρατῖνον καὶ Ἀριστόδημον
…Academic says, it is the custom before marriage to lie with girls as with boys. For even the lawgiver Solon said: “longing for thighs and a sweet mouth.” Aeschylus and Sophocles both spoke openly, the one in the Myrmidons: “You did not respect the holy reverence of thighs, ungrateful for our many kisses”; the other in the Colchian Women, speaking of Ganymede: “setting alight the power of Zeus with his thighs.” But I am not unaware that the story about Cratinus and Aristodemus…
Agnon was a philosopher of the Academy, Plato's school. Solon gave Athens its laws in the early 6th century BC and also wrote poems. Aeschylus' Myrmidons and Sophocles' Colchian Women are lost plays.
The Spartan custom comes from Agnon alone, and Myrtilus does not dwell on it. Solon's line is the second half of a couplet; Plutarch quotes the first, about loving a boy in the lovely flower of youth (<i>Dialogue on Love</i> 751b).<br><br>In the <i>Myrmidons</i> Achilles speaks over the body of Patroclus. The idea that they were lovers is not in Homer, and Plato's Phaedrus in the <i>Symposium</i> blames Aeschylus for making Achilles the lover, since Achilles was the younger and the more beautiful (180a). Sophocles' line is about Ganymede, whose beauty fires Zeus himself.
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