As he continued his brow darkened. Telemachus drew himself forward towards the four men standing before him.
'Among the Hellenes the optimum virtue is arete, the pursuit of excellence. In Homer or Socrates or Aristotle it is arete which infuses the Greek view of life. Arete is goodness, arete is achievement, arete is manly excellence, arete is when our actions rise above the conflicts of life and we achieve high honor. Arete propels our Olympic Games. Arete drives Greeks to Victory! Arete is life! The spirit of arete is the most important facet of the training of youths to full manhood,' the ageing soldier and farmer proclaimed with intensifying emotion.
'In days long ago our forefathers told that a man's masculine power, his arete, is carried in his life fluids. His living blood, sweat, and semen convey the masculine energies. Especially, they said, his semen, which is the source of his regenerative powers. Semen propels the seed of life of a man, and conveys within it a man's domination of his world. Our physicians say a man's semen, when sown into the body of a woman, nurtures and ripens and grows in her nourishing moistures until it blooms and fruits into a newborn child. Preferably a son.
Likewise, those ancients said, when it is planted in the body of a youth it nurtures and grows spiritually. The arete ripens into masculine traits worthy of participating in the society of mature men, for deeds of courage, honor and decisiveness.
The ancients said a student, an eromenos, partakes of his trainer's — the erastes' — male energy by ritually absorbing his vital spirit and vital fluid. By intimately relating to his erastes over time, the eromenos is imbued with the erastes' gift of the power to pursue excellence, to achieve victory, to be a leader of his people, and also in the breeding of straight-limbed sons. He learns how to act like a man in the competitive arena of life.
In return the younger man shares his friendship and his body's perfection with his erastes in both spiritual and physical ways. This has long been the way of the Hellene elites, my son. It has a noble pedigree over many generations.'
His listeners were deathly silent.
Antinous fumbled for an appropriate response. He was made apprehensive by such a candid exposition of the eromenos' role.
'I think I understand, sir, and I salute the heritage,' he waffled. 'But, Father, I humbly seek your advice on an aspect of this matter which concerns me and remains barely spoken among my tutors and peers. It is a clouded matter. It is this. Women and even young girls who have attained menarche are said to enjoy and delight in the reception of the male seed from a worthy partner, their husband. We are told their bodies are created to desire their husband's dominion and penetration so as to nurture his seed into living offspring, our sons.
They display a Nature-given satisfaction with his lust, just as we see among all the farmyard and forest creatures around us. But does an eromenos seek and enjoy penetration by his erastes? Is this the understanding of the tradition? In truth, Father, I do not think I would enjoy such an imposition upon my body or willingly succumb to another man's domination readily — even so great and noble a man as Caesar! What is your advice on this issue? It is a concern for me.'
Telemachus sat impassively for some moments, his eyes resting upon his troubled son.
'Yes, this is certainly a question for a worthy eromenos,' he said. 'You are correct to raise the matter, to be frank. It's an area where polite fictions may prevail.
Yet you already know how it is natural for men to be driven by Aphrodite's urging or her child Eros's impulses? It is natural and proper for men to be hot blooded and lustful, especially the young. The urge to inject seed is common to all male creatures. The urge to receive seed by a male is less obvious, though it too exists among many creatures around us. We see it in the farmyard or forest more often than we recall, and there are many among us disposed by temperament to its appeal. However, for an erastes and his eromenos there is a subtle dispensation about the matter.
In the times since our forefathers it has been held how receipt of an erastes' semen need not be bodily, Antinous, it need not penetrate the body physically. Several ancient philosophers of the Hellenes have even proposed it should be entirely spiritual, not a bodily invasion aroused in the heat of lust. But 'spirituality' is an ambiguous term of uncertain meaning.
For the mutual expression of Eros among the wellborn a mode of intimate friction between the thighs has been given the tacit sanction of the Greeks. It is not talked of readily. As an eromenos you need not have your body's integrity and your personal honor compromised, if this is how you view such relations. Personal regard and intimacy can be shared without abject submission or penetration. You both retain your pride and there is no shame to either you or your relationship, meanwhile an erastes' and an eromenos' satisfaction can be gratified. Do you understand?'
'I see, Father,' Antinous said with lingering doubt. Telemachus continued.
'In this way the elites of the Greek world have reconciled their suitor's passion yet found ardor and solace with honor,' the old soldier continued. 'Think of Achilles and Patrocles, or the heroic tyrant-killers Aristogeiton and Harmodius, or King Alexander of Macedon and his Prince Hephaestion, where no shame is known, only glory. Yet it's also true how fierce emotion too can erupt between friends under certain circumstances, with its fulfillment consummated vehemently. Eros toys with us interminably, while we mortals are only flesh and blood.'
The four men stood silently immobile lost in wonder.
'For example I recall, Antinous, my own great friendship when two years prior to your age while serving in Dacia with an erastes companion of noble bearing and toughened military skills. His name was Hippothales of Nicaea. He shared his fighter's spirit and his arete with me, a callow youth from the wilderness back blocks of Bithynia. We shared pains, joys, sweat, spittle, blood, and each other's body in close encounter often. Yes, Antinous.
He died bravely at Salinae in Dacia while defending me from a fierce barbarian ambush. We each here today should be eternally thankful, thanks be to Apollo Protector. I often pray for the comfort of Hippothales' shade and make offerings or pour libations of wine to his great honor.
Some years later when my beard had matured and my fighting skills were far better-honed, I became an erastes successively to two younger ephebes. This was prior to my marriage to your mother, Antinous. It was through a long, hard campaign fought on the plains of Pannonia.
It may come as a surprise to you to learn how Lysias's father, our heroic Lysander of Claudiopolis, was the second of these two meirakia young men. Our mutual friendship of that time has been the source of the close bond between our two houses long after Lysander's death at Pannonia.'
Telemachus then turned to me standing by Antinous. I was instantly alerted, even alarmed, at what might follow.
'Your father Lysander,' he announced to my astonishment, 'who was my greatest friend ever and four years my junior, died in brave combat with front line Greek auxiliaries of the Legion II Adiutrix under the command of Hadrian himself. This was many years before Hadrian's elevation to the purple after Trajan's death.
Lysander was cruelly overcome by three Sarmatian Jazyges madmen warriors, one of who he destroyed with his pilum lance while the other two fell to my blade. But the damage was already done. Lysander was mortally wounded. He took two days to die despite my every care and precaution against corruption in his wounds.