Husband and wife key to stability, said Aristotle

Before Christ, the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, lived in a society in which male homosexuality was widespread. He thought profoundly about life.

In his Nicomachean Ethics (1162a), he discussed marriage. My translation runs as follows (my own clarifications in brackets): “The friendship between husband and wife seems to exist by nature; for human beings are naturally more disposed to live in pairs (husbands and wives) than to form political units, insofar as the family is an older and more essential institution than the state. Human beings (i.e. husbands and wives) cohabit, not only for the sake of procreation, but also for the service of life’s needs; for from the outset, human functions are divided, and those of a man (i.e. husband) differ from those of a woman (i.e. wife); thus, they satisfy each other’s needs, contributing their individual talents to the common good of both.”

In his Politics (1253a), Aristotle describes man as “as by nature a political animal” who can, therefore, achieve his true worth only as a citizen of a well-ordered state, which itself consists of a community of marital families. For this philosopher, marriage is based on the unique, procreative union of a man and a woman; this union is by nature, and of necessity, complementary; its preservation (we may infer) cannot be divorced from the preservation of the state itself and thus from the stability of society.