10 Gay Greek Mythology Books - BookAvatar

Contents:

• 20 GAY GREEK GODS
• WAS ACHILL GAY? WHAT WE KNOW FROM CLASSIL LERATURE
• GAY HERO OF ANCIENT GREECE
• WAS ORN, THE HUNTSMAN, GAY?
• MSO: A GREEK MYTHOLOGY GAY RETELLG (BOOK 1 OF THE MYTHOLOGAY SERI) KDLE EDN
• GREEK MYTHOLOGY AS AN ALLEGORY FOR GAY DATG
• 10 GAY GREEK MYTHOLOGY BOOKS
• 10 GAY GREEK MYTHOLOGY BOOKS
• WAS ORN, THE HUNTSMAN, GAY?

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.

WAS ACHILL GAY? WHAT WE KNOW FROM CLASSIL LERATURE

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.

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. But rerds of the LGBT romanc survived homophobic revisnists and still stand as celebratns of the origal Greek (and Roman) love. A seri of poems about Catull' gay love affairs has drawn more attentn ntemporary tim; some of gets outright vulgar.

GAY HERO OF ANCIENT GREECE

Alexanr the Great and HephatnAlexanr III, the famed kg of Macedon, que likely mataed a gay relatnship wh his general Hephatn. Ined, two of the most famed generals of their day, Epamondas and Pelopidas, were lovers who fought wh this famo band of gay warrrs.

Pdar and TheoxenThe most famo love poem wrten by Pdar to clare his love for the young Theoxen was scribed by gay rights scholar Magn Hirschfeld as "one of the most perfect love songs the Greek language. Ort and PylasThe relatnship between the two men was celebrated by Greek scholars as a tale of the wonr of homoerotic romance.

WAS ORN, THE HUNTSMAN, GAY?

He lived wh longtime lover Psanias, who was quoted extensively on the subject of homosexual sire Plato's work. 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. 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.

MSO: A GREEK MYTHOLOGY GAY RETELLG (BOOK 1 OF THE MYTHOLOGAY SERI) KDLE EDN

Ancient Greece has cultivated a b of a reputatn recent years for s society’s relatnship wh homosexualy. Same-sex relatnships did not suffer om the same nstrictg taboos that they would later perds of European central belief system ancient Greece reflected this, wh multiple myths and legends cludg gay relatnships or characters. Homosexualy ancient Greece is a topic wh enough pth to be s own say.

)Words like gay, lbian, bisexual, homosexual, etc., do not have a direct equivalent ancient Greek. This nsistency is only ma more prevalent for queer myths sce later rerdgs would sometim om those elements due to homophobic bias. It would be dangero to promote the ia of emulatg or romanticizg the queer myths are an important part of gay history.

GREEK MYTHOLOGY AS AN ALLEGORY FOR GAY DATG

Queer myths ( and the mythology of Greece and Rome general) also played an sential role early gay lerature. Jam Jenks of Valanurt Books explas an terview wh HuffPost that mentns of Greek and Roman mythology signalled gay them or sympathi novels. “Historil Views of Homosexualy: Ancient Greece.

Only the abstract of Historil Views of Homosexualy: Ancient Greece was ed as a source for this article.

Homosexualy Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook of Basic Documents. Check out my latt blogpost for the Gay and Lbian Review. Along wh Achill and Patrocl the Iliad (whom the ancient Greeks mostly saw as a uple), Harmodi and Aristogeon were the biggt gay hero of ancient Greece.

10 GAY GREEK MYTHOLOGY BOOKS

Their story shows how different cultural attus toward gay love n be. Anyway, here is the blog post: If you’re terted this kd of gay history , sign up for our mailg list. Harmodi and Aristogeon are a big theme our gay history tour of Italy “Gay Italy, om Caar to Michelangelo tour, ” which will take place this year on October 9-19.

They are the bt remag py of the monument to the gay hero of ancient Greece that stood the Athenian agora ancient tim. Fally, they even put an appearance on our “Gay Secrets of the MFA” tour Boston, which we did May and hope to repeat some time this tumn.

As an admirer of the work of B J Irons, I am exced and trigued by this new Mythologay Seri which will clu creative retellgs of other classics of Greek Mythology. And to the light of many fans of anachronistilly queer terpretatns of the Iliad, Patrocl and Achill are here and they’re que gay.

10 GAY GREEK MYTHOLOGY BOOKS

Kuoroi are as ditive to the valu of ancient Greece as Has is to our own ’t They Kda Gay, Though? But pulsory homoeroticism is not the same as queerns.

It wasn't homosexualy then, was jt sexualy. That's why, if morn texts there is even a ht of a same-sex storyle, you n probably bet some Christian scholar has dulled down and that the origal is more wonrfully gay than the versn we have now.

WAS ORN, THE HUNTSMAN, GAY?

Left: Mid-century gay artist Gee Quatance certaly knew that sometim a Hydra is more than a Hydra. Depictns of Antas wh his legs the air were also found many gay men's hom the last century as a sort of visual to visors that they belonged to "the club.

This is perhaps the most lc of all the versns of this myth that we uld is no overtly homosexual si to the story of the battle between Antas and Hercul, yet the nsistent voluptuons of the var versns is hard to ny wh morn ey. This is another example of a sculpture found gay men's hom the middle of the last century -- sometim as a lamp ' son, Dmes, Kg of the Biston, Thrace, offers newers to his hors for dner. The were not solely sexual relatnships - they were ep and voted iendships full of love and passn, but probably ls sertive than what the morn-day gay man would Hermann Wilhelm Bissen, Hylas, 1846Plutarch, the Greek historian (and eventual Roman cizen), wrote that Hercul' list of male lovers was beyond numberg.

Its mercial succs led to a 1959 sequel, Hercul Hendrick Goltzi, Farne Hercul, 1592A perfect partg shot of Goltzi's etchg of the ancient Roman statue known as the Farne Hercul, which had been disvered the Baths of Caralla Rome 1546 and stalled a urtyard of the Farne fay's palace on the banks of the is not one thg about this etchg that is not supergay, om the credible renrg of the mcl to the morn-day queens peerg up om the right to the astoundgly phallic (uncut as well) pediment that Hercul rts on. The Song of Achill tak this story and foc on Achill and his iend/lover Patrocl, fully embracg the homosexualy of their relatnship that so many other retellgs ignore.