| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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During that time Aeneas’ courage and perseverance are tested as he endures hardships, subterfuges, the seductions of women, and fierce battles. The story of Aeneas has numerous psychological truths to tell about the journey men make through life, most notably the desire to reconnect with the long absent father and the issue of male loneliness (Baber, 1992). Throughout the epic, Aeneas is pictured as the ideal of Roman manhood, primarily that a man must face much suffering and hardship before he can reach his destination.
Along with the warrior-leader masculinity model presented in Greek and Roman societies was the widespread acceptance of homosexual and pederast sexual relations. Horace called homosexuality or ephebic love the “Greek vice,” and though it was more prevalent and accepted in Greek society, it was practiced by the Romans too (Berardino, 1997). This practice did not seem problematic for most of society, and it certainly did not undermine the masculine ideal of the time. Rather, it was an acceptable part of an established role identity of the male gender and relations of the time.
The Christian era brought massive changes in values that profoundly influenced the course of Western culture and gender roles. Jesus’ and the Christian church’s emphasis on love and self-renunciation was a radical departure from classical ideals. Moreover, Jesus consorted with women during his ministry and exhorted a new paradigm for husbands and wives in the family (Ephesians 5:21–6:9). The Christian understanding of masculinity emerged from the writings of the early church fathers and from the fourth and fifth century monastic movement. Labeled the spiritual man, this masculine ideal “endorsed celibacy, or at least infrequent sexual experiences, as well as a turning away from earthly pursuit” (Doyle, p. 29). In short, the model spiritual male “was one in whom the spiritual was preeminent over the worldly” (Doyle, p. 29). He was motivated toward an afterlife above all else. St. Paul, the Christian missionary to the gentile world who helped establish the Christian church in the Roman Empire, and numerous saints, such as Benedict, founder of the monastic movement in Italy, and Francis of Assisi became objects of the spiritual male ideal.
Connected with the spiritual male model was the Christian church’s stance against homosexuality. Although the Greek and Roman worlds accepted the practice of homosexuality, it was considered by early Christianity as evidence of the moral depravity of the pagan world.