XENOPHON
MEMORABILIA, Book 1, Chapter 5, Section 4
Agape in context with “sexual intercourse” and “prostitution”
c. 401 BC
agap…
Original Greek (transliterated):
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0207&layout=&loc=1.5, Xenophon, Memorabilia, Greek (transliterated), 1.5.4:
[4] en sunousiai de tis an hêstheiê tôi toioutôi, hon eideiê* tôi opsôi te kai tôi oinôi chaironta mallon ê tois philois kai tas pornas agapônta mallon ê tous hetairous; ara* ge ou chrê panta andra, hêgêsamenon* tên enkrateian aretês einai krêpida, tautên prôton en têi psuchêi kataskeuasasthai;
“pornas” has to do with “prostitution.” “sunousiai” is the direct Greek word for “sexual intercourse.” “philois” is also there, but “agapônta” love is something one does with “prostitutes.”
English translations:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0208:book=1:chapter=5:section=1, Xenophon, Memorabilia, English, 1.5.4:
[4] In social intercourse[sexual intercourse] what pleasure could you find in such a man, knowing that he prefers your sauces and your wines to your friends, and likes[agape loves] the women[prostitutes]1 better than the company? Should not every man hold self-control to be the foundation of all virtue, and first lay this foundation firmly in his soul?
http://www.classicreader.com/book/1792/5/, The Memorabilia by Xenophon, “Book I, V” (the [4] is out of place):
Or to take an example from social intercourse[sexual intercourse], no one cares for a guest who evidently takes more pleasure in the wine and the viands than in the friends beside him--who stints his comrades of the affection due to them to dote[agape love] upon a mistress[prostitute]. Does it not come to this, that every honest man is bound to look upon self-restraint as the very corner-stone of virtue:[4] which he should seek to lay down as the basis and foundation of his soul?
Here’s one identifying the prostitute correctly:
http://thriceholy.net/Texts/Memorabilia.html, XENOPHON’S MEMORABILIA OF SOCRATES, BOOK I, “CHAPTER V”:
4. In society[sexual intercourse], too, who could find pleasure in the company of such a man, who, he would be aware, felt more delight in eating and drinking than in intercourse with his friends, and preferred the company[agape love] of harlots to that of his fellows? Is it not the duty of every man to consider that temperance is the foundation of every virtue, and to establish the observance of it in his mind before all things?
FYI:
Divry’s English-Greek and Greek-English Desk Dictionary, 1996, p. 695 (Greek-English), “συνουσία (sunousia)”:
