Supervirile Men

“What from the beginning struck me most, but now appears perfectly clear and indeed necessary is that among the homosexuals there is found the most remarkable class of men, namely, those whom I call supervirile. These men stand by virtue of the special variation of their soul-material, just as much above Man, as the normal sex man does above Woman. Such an individual is able to bewitch men by his soul-aroma, as they — though passively — bewitch him. But as he always lives in men's society, and men, so to speak, sit at his feet, it comes about that such a supervirile often climbs the very highest steps of spiritual evolution, of social position, and of manly capacity. Hence it arises that the most famous names of the world and the history of culture stand rightly or wrongly on the list of homosexuals. Names like Alexander the Great, Socrates, Plato, Julius Caesar, Michel-angelo, Charles XII. of Sweden, William of Orange, and so forth. Not only is this so, but it must be so. As certainly as a woman's hero remains a spiritually inferior man, must a man's hero — well be a man's hero, if in any way he has the stuff for it.

“Consequently the German penal code, in stamping homosexuality as a crime, puts the highest blossoms of humanity on the proscription list.” — Professor Dr. Jaeger, “Die Entdeckung der Seele,” pp. 268, 269. [Presumably translated by Edward Carpenter.]