Double Standard. In sexual matters, the ancient Greeks held to a double standard throughout the Archaic and Classical Periods. Thus we find in the Iliad (circa eighth-seventh centuries B.C.E.) that heroes such as Agamemnon may have both a wife at home and concubines won in military conquests. In contrast, a respectable girl was expected to be a virgin upon marriage, and a wife was supposed to have only one sexual partner, her legal husband. Because contact with wellborn members of the opposite sex was extremely limited in ancient Greek society, particularly in Classical Athens, males turned to other sexual partners—concubines, slaves, prostitutes, flute girls, dancing girls, and boys. Yet, in spite of these social practices, the Greeks believed that women had stronger sexual appetites than men and less control over these impulses, as illustrated by the myth of...