Plutarch On Sex

Abstract

One of the less expected treatises included in Plutarch's Moralia consists of the nine books of ‘Table-talk’ or topics suitable for discussion by the participants at the strictly male and private drinking party or symposium (612Cff.) But even when the association of symposium and the erotic is acknowledged or we note the interest of ancient philosophers in the general area of eugenics (e.g., Arist. Pol. 1334b29 ff. and Plutarch on the Spartan marriage, Lye. 15.3–9) or we identify the type of prejudice which later led Christians to believe that a child conceived on a Sunday will be a leper or epileptic, the sixth question analysed in Book 3, ‘the right time to make love’ (653Bff), is perhaps considerably more surprising. The conclusion eventually reached, however, will occasion no alarm: the right time for men and women to sleep together would appear to be at night when it is dark (cf. 654D–E) – after all, we are busy and preoccupied throughout the day and are not animals like the cock eager for sex first thing in the morning. But in the evening we are relaxed and at our ease, and so the time is right provided, of course, we have neither eaten nor drunk to excess. This is hardly a conclusion, however, to be warmly welcomed by the sexually liberated for whom intercourse is there to be enjoyed wherever, and at whatever time of night or day, excitement mounts. But when it comes to sex, Plutarch is no revolutionary keen to experiment.

What could Paul have meant by ‘against nature’ (παρὰ φύσιν) as written in Romans 1:26? Striving for the well-being and health of all people

“…Foucault demonstrates that since that time same-gender sex was seen as a punishable sin. However, Augustine's interpretation of the Greek expression para phusin as 'against nature' represents a trend also found in the thinking of non-Christian writers such as Plutarch (c. 48 CE -c. 119 CE) (Walcot 1998) and Themistios (317-387 CE) 10 .…”

Cena apud Catones: ideology and sympotic behavior

“…On male sexual behavior in Plutarch in general see P. A. Stadter, 1995, P. Walcot, 1998, T. Duff, 1999, pp. 94-7, J. Beneker, 2003and M. Beck, 2007a.…”

Sex, Eroticism, and Politics

“…These figures exhibit similar variety and complexity in other sorts of private behavior, as well as in their public actions as military leaders and statesmen. Their private lives and their public conduct are, in fact, closely intertwined, and Plutarch really has no interest in narrating their sexual activity unless it explains, or at least helps to explain, the motivation for a political or military action (see Walcot (1998); Duff (1999) 94-97). When we consider episodes of sexual behavior in light of Plutarch's biographical method, therefore, we find that Plutarch includes them in the Parallel Lives as part of his larger project to reveal the character of individual statesmen in an analytical way; that is, not only to describe a statesman's role in history but also to reveal how he came to play that role.…”