This ancient gay love story was once as popular as our Romeo and Juliet

Contents:

• WAS ACHILL GAY? WHAT WE KNOW FROM CLASSIL LERATURE
• 20 GAY GREEK GODS
• WERE ACHILL AND PATROCL GAY LOVERS?
• ACRDG TO HISTORY, WAS ACHILL GAY? HERE IS WHY THE LEGENDARY WARRR MAY HAVE BEEN A HOMOSEXUAL
• THIS ANCIENT GAY LOVE STORY WAS ONCE AS POPULAR AS OUR ROMEO AND JULIET
• THE PROFOUND GAY LOVE STORI OF THE OLD GUARD AND SONG OF ACHILL
• IS ACHILL GAY?
• ACRDG TO HISTORY, WAS ACHILL GAY? HERE IS WHY THE LEGENDARY WARRR MAY HAVE BEEN A HOMOSEXUAL

WAS ACHILL GAY? WHAT WE KNOW FROM CLASSIL LERATURE

One of the most asked qutns of all time is: was Achill gay? One of the ma arguments that suggt he might have been gay is the exprsn of love between Achill and his clost iend Patrocl, who he had known sce childhood.

Some thk he was bisexual, sce there is evince of his romantic attachments to both men and women, while others see his ep attachment to Patrocl as a nfirmatn that he was gay. Neher Achyl, nor Plato, nor Xenophon uld have imaged Achill and Patrocl as gay.

Patrocl’ self-doubts show that his (gay) sexualy is trapped a morn tensn between ncealment and Wolfgang Petersen, Pels and Thetis would not have been disturbed by the erotic turn of their son’s iendship. ” Siarly the Hebrew Bible David breaks to a lament upon learng of Jonathan’s ath wh whom he had sworn a venant of iendship: “I am distrsed for thee my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonrful, passg the love of women” (2 Samuel 1:26) make Achill and Patrocl gay is not historilly false the way would be if they were given Facebook acunts or were discsg multiculturalism over ppucco. Makg them homosexual impos upon them a fixed inty, like a heavy armor, an ontologil sence foreign to antiquy and one that nstras behavr.

20 GAY GREEK GODS

In twenty-first-century adaptatns of the story of the Trojan War, Achill and Patroklos are often portrayed as gay lovers. Breakg out of the “gay” vers “straight” dichotomy.

Today we generally tend to thk of people as beg eher “gay” or “straight, ” but this is not how the ancient Greeks generally thought of sexualy. The fact that Aisch uld treat as axmatic that Achill and Patroklos were a homosexual relatnship a speech that was meant to be livered ont of an Athenian jury clearly monstrat that, by the time Aisch was wrg the late fourth century BCE, this mt have been a fairly wily accepted terpretatn. A gay cupbearer on Mount Olymp?

While tolerance is often prented as a sign of civilizatn's advancement, a readg of Greek mythology reveals greater acceptance of homosexualy ancient Athens than n be boasted wh today's world religns. The LGBT Greek gods and migods prove gay culture is no morn ventn.

WERE ACHILL AND PATROCL GAY LOVERS?

While Homer never explicly stat a gay relatnship between Achill and sikick Patrocl, many scholars read a romantic nnectn between the two, as only Patrocl ever drew out a passnate si to the famoly arrogant warrr. Rearcher Johanna Hypatia-Cybelaia wr that lbian and gay vote worshipped her as Artemis Orthia, and that lbian port Pamphilia referred to the godss hymn as Artemis Pergaea. Above: Athena, center, a mural by John Sger SargentAphrodeWhile the godss of love is not intified promently as lbian herself, the Greek poet Sappho (as sapphic) of Lbos (y, as lbian) told many homoerotic tal and named Aphrode as the greatt patron and ally of lbians and homosexuals wh the Greek pantheon of gods.

Above: Enrique Simo, El Juic Paris (1904)ErosWhile the bt-known myths of Eros pict the son of Aphrode as a fertily god -- the versn that proved spiratnal to the popularized Roman god Cupid -- later Greek myths portrayed Eros as one of several wged erot, and the one regard as a protector of homosexual culture, acrdg to rearch the scholarly book Among Women: From the Homosocial to the Homoerotic the Ancient World. Much of the ntemporary LGBTQ+ lerature we are exposed to today mak beg gay the only thg the book is about.

Gay people didn’t jt happen to show up the past 100 years.

ACRDG TO HISTORY, WAS ACHILL GAY? HERE IS WHY THE LEGENDARY WARRR MAY HAVE BEEN A HOMOSEXUAL

It serv as a great example of LGBTQ+ reprentatn that approach and treats gay romance the same way straight romance would be wrten about. And sce is a well known fact that homosexualy was wispread Ancient Greece, I jt n’t help myself. Y, like I said, we know that the Ancient Greeks engaged homoerotic activi.

THIS ANCIENT GAY LOVE STORY WAS ONCE AS POPULAR AS OUR ROMEO AND JULIET

Notice two thgs about what I jt said: one is I ed the term men bee I will primarily talk about gay men and the send is that I ed the term homoeroticism rather than homosexualy.

THE PROFOUND GAY LOVE STORI OF THE OLD GUARD AND SONG OF ACHILL

Actually, the term homosexualy is a surprisgly new and scientific term ed a morn era. We also know that homoeroticism was prevalent the Athens telligentsia of the 7th and 6th centuri bee of the tal om the tim of men who openly liked both sex.

The reason we talk about at all is not so much bee of Homer’s epic poems but bee the 5th century, Achill’ homoeroticism much more to the fore the Myrmidon by Achyl (iscl), particularly his relatnship wh Patrocl, which feels more like a romantic relatnship than a iendship. So, nclns on their relatnship beg a homoerotic one are actually drawn on Plato’s Symposium, roughly om around a century later, where a war of words among notable men is picted, much of which revolv around eroticism, cludg homoeroticism. I don’t know when or why homoeroticism beme a normal thg but ’s possible that s acceptance by the olr and younger generatn may have been aid by a time of peace and by the wispread practice of perasty, which seems shockg to this day but entailed the nsensual pulatn of olr gentlemen wh adolcent boys – a practice that naturally though by today’s standards problematilly removed the generatnal obstacl that always prevent the acceptance of progrs wh morn societi.

It’s jt that prov how openly homoeroticism uld be discsed by such an ancient civilisatn, whereas almost every civilisatn that followed has treated sexualy and pecially homosexualy as sful or taboo. Early archaeology took place durg an era which homosexualy was owned upon and regard as s. Homosexuals were sulted and regard as effemate (as this was also an age when women were still nsired "weak").

IS ACHILL GAY?

Homosexualy was not a pot of ntentn as has been the more recent past. Achill Gay.

“Y, Achill is gay, ” he stat fively.

No gods and no gay men.

ACRDG TO HISTORY, WAS ACHILL GAY? HERE IS WHY THE LEGENDARY WARRR MAY HAVE BEEN A HOMOSEXUAL

I’m talkg about the love affair between Patrocl and Achill, whose iendship was tablished Homer’s epic poem the “Iliad” but was immortalized as a homoerotic relatnship by the ancient playwright, Achyl. ” (Can’t get much gayer than that).

In addn to Achyl’ sential fan fictn about Achill and Patrocl, their homosexual relatnship was also referenced by an Athenian polician, Ach, 345 CE. However, attempts have still been ma to challenge or discred the homosexual terpretatn. Cred: Once aga the book “Homosexualy and Civilizatn” by Louis Crompton has been stmental wrg this post and I highly remend checkg out.

Joe and Nicky aren’t the ma protagonists director Ga Prce-Bythewood’s film, but sce the film’s release on July 10, they’re the characters who have garnered a lot of attentn bee of how rare is that gay men are featured actn movi. That The Old Guard’s Joe and Nicky are unapologetic about their love allows queer people, and gay men particular, the opportuny to see that throughout all of history, we’ve been there all along — and such a mastream, typilly heteronormative medium, no ls. At s heart is a simple msage: that straight people might not ever fully unrstand what ’s like to be gay and to fd love.