Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 - Sexual Inversion by Havelock Ellis
page 23 of 587 (03%)
page 23 of 587 (03%)
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relation to homosexuality (O. Kiefer, "Socrates und die
Homosexualität," _Jahrbuch für 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 Homosexualität_, 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 Näcke 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 |
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