The Myth Of The Ancient Greek 'Gay Utopia' - CURVE

Contents:

• 20 GAY GREEK GODS
• THE MYTH OF THE ANCIENT GREEK ‘GAY UTOPIA’

20 GAY GREEK GODS

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.

THE MYTH OF THE ANCIENT GREEK ‘GAY UTOPIA’

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.

While tolerance is often prented as a sign of civilizatn's progrs, a readg of Greek mythology reveals greater acceptance of homosexualy ancient Athens than n be seen wh today's world religns.

The first terpretatn of the Ganyme tale is born om the homosexual relatns that were acknowledged some ancient Greek stat. The relatnships were not what we would today ll homosexual. Even as they emphasised the Christian msage of this scene, homosexual artists of the Renaissance were not bld to the more obv meang of the Ganyme myth.