Given Mann's references to ancient Greek influences, it seems worthwhile to note the characteristics of homosexual relationships in that society.

“Greek men were expected by society to pass through predominantly homosexual stages of life on their way to full masculinity, marriage, and fatherhood.”  The relationship was asymmetrical (Sharon 5) and involved “older men (εραστοι, lovers) passionately and actively pursuing younger ones, called ερωμενοι, (beloved, or love objects)” (Henderson 205). The young men were “expected to reciprocate these attentions with all the shyness, coyness, and modesty characteristic of all love games, including the American adolescent's pursuit of the opposite sex“  (Henderson 205).  Sharon explains that “The young beloved was expected to look on impassively during the sex act, responding to the lover’s anxious longing with affectionate admiration for his mentor. In addition, the older man had a clearly defined moral and political function, serving as guide and teacher to help introduce the younger male to adult lifeand to teach him the virtues required of a citizen. When the boy reached adulthood the affair would typically come to an end and the two, ideally, would become fellow citizens and friends on equal terms” (Sharon 6). “In later adolescence, a Greek youth might become an εραστης, lover, himself and pursue younger ερωμενοι.  Finally, upon the assumption of manhood, he would arrange a suitable marriage, settle down into his role as father and citizen, and relegate homosexuality to a secondary role”  (Henderson 205).

“As an adult, the Greek male was predominantly heterosexual and his sexual responsibilities were primarily to his wife.  Homosexual gratification became, with marriage, at best a marginal luxury, and in its distinct secondary role did not usually become the focus of intense and lasting emotions of the kind we find exalted by Plato” (Henderson 205).

Works Cited

Henderson, Jeffrey. The Maculate Muse: Obscene Language in Attic Comedy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Sharon, Avi. Plato’s Symposium, Translation,introduction, and notes. Newburyport,MA: Focus, 1998.

It is important to give some background into pederasty in ancient Greece as a supplemental reference to the above material.

Pederasty in ancient Greece

Pg. 136, "For beauty, Phaedrus, mark thou well, beauty and beauty alone is at once divine and visible, it is hence the path of the man of the senses, little Phaedrus, the path of the artist to the intellect. But dost thou believe, dear boy that the man for whom the path to the intellect leads through the senses can even find wisdom and the true dignity of man? Or dost thous rather believe (I leave it to thee to decide) that it is periously alluring path, indeed, a path of sin and delusion that must lead one astray? For surely thou knowest that we poets cannot follow the path of beauty lest Eros should join forces with us and take the lead; yes, though heroes we may be after our fashion and chaste warriors, we are as women, for passion is our exultation and our longing must ever be love--such is our bliss and our shame (Death in Venice, Pg. 136)".

Greek pederasty, as idealised by the Greeks from archaic times onward, was a relationship and bond between an adolescent boy and an adult man outside of his immediate family, and was constructed initially as an aristocratic moral and educational institution.[citation needed] As such, it was seen by the Greeks as an essential element in their culture from the time of Homer onwards.[2] It is important to note, however, that marriages in Ancient Greece between men and women were also age structured, with men in their 30s commonly taking wives in their early teens.

The term derives from the combination of pais (Greek for 'boy') with erastēs (Greek for 'lover'; cf. eros). In a wider sense it referred to erotic love between adolescents and adult men.[citation needed] The Greeks considered it normal for any man to be drawn to the beauty of a boy—just as much if not more than to that of a woman.[3] What they disagreed upon was whether and how to express that desire.

Sixth and fifth c. ceramic paintings of pederastic courtship depict the older partner supplicating the younger, in a variation of the Greek gesture for pleading. Normally the supplicant embraced the knees of the person whose favor he sought, while grasping the man's chin so as to look into his eyes. The painted vases show the man standing, grasping the boy's chin with one hand and reaching to fondle his genitals with the other. The boys are shown in varying degrees of rejecting or accepting the man's attentions. When sexual relations are shown, it is intercrural intercourse, known as diamerizein (to do it between the thighs), that is depicted. The partners are shown standing face to face. The erastes embraces the youth, his head resting on the boy’s shoulder, while his penis is thrust between the clasped thighs of the eromenos.

Only very rarely is anal sex suggested or shown, and then it is depicted as eliciting surprise from the bystanders. A number of other sources also suggest it was seen as shameful. Among these is a fable attributed to Aesop which tells that Aeschyne (Shame) consented to enter the human body from behind only as long as Eros did not follow the same path, and would fly away right off if he did.[28] Later literary sources suggest it became more common in late antiquity. Likewise, some epigraphic records, such as the Theran graffiti, have been interpreted as evidence that in other locations it may have been more accepted.[29]

K. J. Dover states that the eromenos was not "supposed" to feel desire for the erastes, as that would be unmanly.[30] More recent evidence suggests that in actual practice (as opposed to theory) there was, in fact, reciprocation of desire. As Thomas Hubbard points out in a critique of David Halperin's contention that boys were not aroused, some vases do show boys as being sexually responsive, and "Fondling a boy's organ (cf. Aristophanes, Birds 142) was one of the most commonly represented courtship gestures on the vases. What can the point of this act have been unless lovers in fact derived some pleasure from feeling and watching the boy's developing organ wake up and respond to their manual stimulation?"[31]

The theme of mutuality of desire was a topic of discussion in ancient times as well. While the passive role was seen as problematic, to be attracted to men was often taken as a sign of masculinity, and it was thought that the boys who most sought the company and affections of men were the most likely to be successful in life.

Works Cited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece