The Diver Roman Culture Analysis

Both Greek and Roman societies have interesting conceptualizations of sexuality. Greek society predates Roman society and definitely had an impact on Romans views on sexuality. It is evident that a system like Pederasty, to some extent, impacted Roman society, regardless of the fact that Roman society passed moral laws which further separated them from the Greeks. During the Archaic Age, dated around 6th century BC, there were big changes in Greek society. This time period saw the rise of the city-state and laws, as well as conflicts between classes and infighting among the elites. During this time, “The Diver” was painted by Paestum. The Diver is a great piece to consider when discussing Greek’s views on sexuality. This painting is depicted inside a symposium. A symposiums exact definition is “drinking together” but to elaborate, it was for upper class Greek men to reaffirm their elite status amongst their peers and to encourage male bonding. Essentially, it was supposed to be some form of a party with wine, women of a lower status, song, and adolescent boys. Inside the symposium, there are wine cups, and harps for music playing. There are four men wearing laurel wreaths on their head, which symbolizes their elite status. Two of the men are gazing into each others eyes topless on a bed of some sorts with two other topless men on a bed …show more content…
There are different opinions on what caused it’s sudden emergence in the Archaic age, such as it originated in Sparta, it was an initiation ritual, and it was originated from gym culture, but we don’t really know for certain what it did stem from. Skinner made a great comparison that if 500 years in the future, researchers had access to a fragment of our information like some 1950’s movies and a few sex in the city episodes from the early 2000’s, researchers would not be able to understand that jump in sexual expression