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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32178 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 23, 2023

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Well, it's funny what rabbit holes you end up going down! I was trying to see if there was anything in the Summa concerning the various races of mankind, then I went on to the samples of the Church Fathers, and for some reason stumbled upon this by someone I never heard of, one Bardaisan, entitled "Book of the Laws of Countries" with this little nugget embedded within:

But in the North, and in the country of the Gauls and their neighbours, such youths among them as are handsome the men take as wives, and they even have feasts on the occasion; and it is not considered by them as a disgrace, nor as a reproach, because of the law which prevails among them. But it is a thing impossible that all those in Gaul who are branded with this disgrace should at their Nativities have had Mercury posited with Venus in the house of Saturn, and within the limits of Mars, and in the signs of the zodiac to the west. For, concerning such men as are born under these conditions, it is written that they are branded with infamy, as being like women.

The text seems to be damaged in places, and there is bitter controversy over what the Greek word here means:

Laws in Hatra. — There is a law in force in Hatra, that whosoever steals any little thing, even though it were worthless as water, shall be stoned. Among the Cashani, on the contrary, if any one commits such a theft as this, they merely spit in his face. Among the Romans, too, he that commits a small theft is scourged and sent about his business. On the other side of the Euphrates, and as you go eastward, he that is stigmatized as either a thief or a murderer does not much resent it; but, if a man be stigmatized as an arsenocœte[either "homosexual" or "male prostitute" depending on what side you take], he will avenge himself even to the extent of killing his accuser.

Laws....— Among. ..boys...to us, and are not...Again, in all the region of the East, if any persons are thus stigmatized, and are known to be guilty, their own fathers and brothers put them to death; and very often they do not even make known the graves where they are buried.

The speaker is tying in astrological influences and human actions, and giving various examples of how behaviour in one land is praised or condemned in another, and it can't be said that every person who does X was born under the same astrological conditions, so that rules astrology out as an explanation for human behaviour.

So who is this Bardaisan?

The Book of the Laws of Countries (henceforth referred to as the BLC) is best described as a philosophical dialogue in defense of free will that aims to set definite limits on the scope of the power of astral determinism. The principal speaker is Bardaisan of Edessa (154-222), the “Aramaic philosopher” who propounded his own unique form of Christianity at the court of King Abgar VIII of Edessa.

So wider point - some places and times approved of, or were neutral towards, homosexuality while others strongly condemned it. This has been a long-running debate and we're not going to solve it here.

A cure for dysphoria?

In Syria and in Edessa men used to part with their manhood in honour of Tharatha; but, when King Abgar became a believer he commanded that every one that did so should have his hand cut off, and from that day until now no one does so in the country of Edessa.

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