Musonius Rufus, Lectures 12.1

Lecture 12: On sexual indulgence.

Not the least significant part of the life of luxury and self-indulgence lies also in sexual excess; for example, those who lead such a life crave a variety of loves, not only lawful but unlawful ones as well, not women alone but also men.

Sometimes they pursue one love and sometimes another, and not being satisfied with those which are available, pursue those which are rare and inaccessible, and invent shameful intimacies, all of which constitute a grave indictment of manhood.

In my time at studying and teaching philosophy, I only came across one other fellow who formally taught about the Stoics in his classes. Academic fashions can sadly be rather narrow, so when I found a professor who asked his students to read the actual Stoic texts, I stuck to him like glue.

He put together a wonderful reader for one of his courses, including selections from all the classics by Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. He even had fragments from the early Stoics in there, and he also added major bits from Musonius Rufus.

I followed along with him, but I noticed a gap in the text. Lectures 12 and 15 were not mentioned at all. Being the naïve fool that I have always been, I asked him why. Were they not important? Did they just cover earlier topics again? Was their source somehow questionable?

He was one of the last professors who still dared to smoke in his office, even as it had been forbidden by the authorities, and I swear he dragged his way through half a cigarette before answering me. I will always remember his wry smile and the way he would wink.

“Please, go look them up in the library, and I do encourage you to do that. I just can’t teach those sections in the classroom anymore. You’ll understand when you read them.”

When I looked them up, I saw exactly what he meant. They were about sex.

Now please remember, I may come across as an old coot, but this was not in the 1950’s, where sex was a taboo topic. No, this was in the late 1980’s, where sex was all we wanted to talk about, the dirtier the better. That Musonius spoke of sex wasn’t the issue; how he spoke of it was the issue.

My professor was honestly afraid about ruffling political feathers, by even suggesting that jumping into bed with anyone you came across might be a bad idea. He knew that such unpopular values would make waves, and he didn’t want to go against the current.

“How dare Musonius talk about sexual excess? Isn’t it all good, as long as it’s consensual?”

“Who is he to say what is lawful or unlawful? Isn’t it right if I desire it?”

“Where does he come off being such a sexual fascist? Surely that dead Roman was a hateful homophobe?”

I know exactly why my old professor dodged all of this; I had to do much the same when I myself became a teacher.

Sexuality, unhindered and free of consequences, is one of our new gods. And I should stop right there, because I will surely offend the new moral majority.

But you know me well enough. I won’t stop there. You also know me well enough to realize that I won’t preach down at you. No, I will only respectfully ask you to think it through before you act on a feeling.

Written in 12/1999