Plato on Homosexuality

A letter to the NY Times by Professor Reginald E. Allen, Professor of Classics at Northwestern University written February 27, 1993

To the Editor:

In "What Plato Says" (letter, Feb. 13), Catherine Glass suggests that Phaedrus in the "Symposium" says what Plato thought. This gets Phaedrus and Plato wrong, for Phaedrus is praising pederasty, not homosexual intercourse in general, and Plato condemns homosexual intercourse in both the "Laws" and the "Republic." The "Laws" (Book VIII) rejects homosexual intercourse because it can render men unfit for marriage and because it is contrary to nature and a shameless indulgence.

The "Laws" recommends that homosexuality, like adultery, fornication and the use of prostitutes, not be engaged in; that if it is engaged in, it be kept private or closeted, and that if it is discovered, it be punished by deprivation of civil rights, a severe penalty. In effect, the "Laws" recommends criminalization.

In the speeches of Phaedrus and others in the "Symposium" Plato portrays Athenian attitudes of the fifth century B.C. to pederasty, but those attitudes were not his own, nor those of Socrates.