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

Contents:

• WERE THE SPARTANS GAY? HOMOSEXUALY SPARTA, ANCIENT GREECE
• THE MYTH OF THE ANCIENT GREEK ‘GAY UTOPIA’

WERE THE SPARTANS GAY? HOMOSEXUALY SPARTA, ANCIENT GREECE

In the cultur of the ancient world, there was no need for signatns such as LGBTQ+ bee there was no difference noted between what is now fed as "homosexual" and "heterosexual" relatnships. There are not even words the ancient languag which translate to the morn-day "homosexual" and "heterosexual" which were only ed 1869 CE. Scholar Col Spencer not, "Bisexualy the male was accepted as natural and never drew adverse ment, but passive homosexualy ma the Egyptians feel uneasy.

The tale of Sodom and Gomorrah om the Book of Genis is also monly ced attacks on the gay muny, but even Church Fathers such as Sat Ambrose (d. Heterosexualy and homosexualy were both enuraged and expected at different stag life, wh homosexualy, mon wh prevalent ancient Greek thought, beg seen as the ial form of love and heterosexualy as sential for procreatn. One historil suatn that is often sourced the name of gay pri is the ancient Greek society and several ancient Greek historil figur that are falsely portrayed as gay pop culture.

Many morn terpreters of the story, however, have felt fortable wh g the characters’ relatnship as evince of gay glorifitn ancient Greek lerature and culture. Even though the available historil sourc clearly dite that the Greek kg had different female lovers each night, he is nsired the most famo gay man of antiquy, simply bee a screenwrer Hollywood imaged him as one. Sce then, as MacDowell pots out, homosexualy ancient Greece “has been discsed a good al, maly om a soclogil and anthropologil pot of view.

THE MYTH OF THE ANCIENT GREEK ‘GAY UTOPIA’

It wouldn’t be much of an exaggeratn to speculate that a rated and experienced historian such as Dover avoid this acunt of the official stance of Athens on homosexualy. Instead, he based his rearch and nclns on certa piec of such art as vase patg and the ialized pictn of homoerotic relatnships scribed briefly by Plato some of his works. As noted an article on “In ancient Greece, there was not a word to scribe homosexual practic: they were simply part of aphrodisia, love, which clud men and women alike.

The rt of the ancient Greek cy-stat would be classified as “macho” societi nowadays, wh Sparta beg disapprovg of men who engaged homosexual activi.

Vlent bate, enthiastic wrgs, shamefaced silence, flights of fantasy: few aspects of ancient society are so hotly ntted as Greek perasty, or - as we shall see below - homosexualy. There are many sourc of evince: lyril poetry, vas, statu, myths, philosophil treatis, speech, scriptns, medil texts, tragedi, edi, curs (example), and anecdot which homosexual practic are mentned, ld, ignored, and sometim disuraged. In ancient Greece, there never was a word to scribe homosexual practic: they were simply part of aphrodisia, love, which clud men and women alike.