Contents:
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. 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.
20 GAY GREEK GODS
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. Lookg, to the ia that they were homosexual lovers now is provg to be hard for me to fd nvcg proof for the argument.
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.
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.