Kathy Gaca, associate professor of classics at Vanderbilt University, delivered the Winslow Classics Lecture on Feb. 3 on the topic of "Eros and Fornication in Ancient Greek Society." Professor Gaca, author of The Making of Fornication: Eros, Ethics, and Political Reform in Greek Philosophy and Early Christianity, discussed the emergence of sexuality morality in the early Christian church under the apostle Paul and its relation to both Greek polytheism and philosophy.
Early Christianity was persistent in its mission against Greek polytheistic religion. Gaca said that current scholarship often assumes that the apostle Paul and the other patristic writers were equally averse to all Greek gods, but that she believes they paid special attention to female gods, which were often related to the areas of sexuality, marriage and reproduction. Goddesses such as Aphrodite, Artemis and Hera were central to the sexual and reproductive lives of Greek women, and getting women to stop invoking these deities in their daily lives was difficult. For example, Gaca said, when Greek men and women fell in love, they believed they had been struck by the supernatural power of Aphrodite, and invoked her power to ensnare their beloved as well. Hera, the goddess of marriage and motherhood, was featured prominently in those rituals.
Gaca said that the desire of the Christians to rid Greeks of this polytheistic worship led them to create a sexual morality that would be separate from these goddesses. Women and their sexual bodies were to be transformed into a new religious sphere that would focus entirely on the worship of Christ the Lord. As Gaca said, "Christian
women were to view their wombs as the craft shop of the Lord." Therefore, the Greek Bible, the Septuagint, forbid the inclusion of the Greek goddesses in sexual, marital or reproductive practice, as this would be not only idolatry but fornication. It also categorized sex between a Christian spouse and a polytheistic spouse as
fornication. Meanwhile, fornication was placed among the most heinous of sins, which caused direct submission to Satan and should be punished by death.
Also, Gaca said, the connection between Aphrodite and sexuality was so ingrained in the minds of Greeks that many early Christians called for the renunciation of all but reproductive sexuality in order to avoid worshipping an alien god. You can still see this philosophy of sexual renunciation in modern Christian religions that don't allow non-procreative sex, Gaca said. In fact, she said, the effects of the early Christian sexuality morality can still be seen in many modern Western traditions of sexuality, marriage and birth.
-- by Caroline R. O'Shea '07
