that at Thebes and Lacedemon the attachment of an elder friend to a beloved
youth was often deemed to be a part of his education; and was encouraged by
his parents--it was only shameful if it degenerated into licentiousness.
Such we may believe to have been the tie which united Asophychus and
Cephisodorus with the great Epaminondas in whose companionship they fell
(Plutarch, Amat.; Athenaeus on the authority of Theopompus). (5) A small
matter: there appears to be a difference of custom among the Greeks and
among ourselves, as between ourselves and continental nations at the
present time, in modes of salutation. We must not suspect evil in the
hearty kiss or embrace of a male friend 'returning from the army at
Potidaea' any more than in a similar salutation when practised by members
of the same family. But those who make these admissions, and who regard,
not without pity, the victims of such illusions in our own day, whose life
has been blasted by them, may be none the less resolved that the natural
and healthy instincts of mankind shall alone be tolerated (Greek); and that
the lesson of manliness which we have inherited from our fathers shall not
degenerate into sentimentalism or effeminacy. The possibility of an
honourable connexion of this kind seems to have died out with Greek
civilization. Among the Romans, and also among barbarians, such as the
Celts and Persians, there is no trace of such attachments existing in any
noble or virtuous form.

(Compare Hoeck's Creta and the admirable and exhaustive article of Meier in
Ersch and Grueber's Cyclopedia on this subject; Plutarch, Amatores;
Athenaeus; Lysias contra Simonem; Aesch. c. Timarchum.)

The character of Alcibiades in the Symposium is hardly less remarkable than
that of Socrates, and agrees with the picture given of him in the first of
the two Dialogues which are called by his name, and also with the slight
sketch of him in the Protagoras. He is the impersonation of lawlessness--