Was Achill Gay? What We Know From Classil Lerature

Contents:

• 20 GAY GREEK GODS
• GAY HERO OF ANCIENT GREECE
• WAS ACHILL GAY? WHAT WE KNOW FROM CLASSIL LERATURE
• LOVER'S LEGENDS: THE GAY GREEK MYTHS
• LOVER'S LEGENDS: THE GAY GREEK MYTHS
• 10 GAY GREEK MYTHOLOGY BOOKS
• GREEK MYTHOLOGY AS AN ALLEGORY FOR GAY DATG

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.

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.

GAY HERO OF ANCIENT GREECE

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 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. Please be aware, however, there is some vlence this story, as well as homophobia at some plac.

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. Their story shows how different cultural attus toward gay love n be.

WAS ACHILL GAY? WHAT WE KNOW FROM CLASSIL LERATURE

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.

LOVER'S LEGENDS: THE GAY GREEK MYTHS

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. And to the light of many fans of anachronistilly queer terpretatns of the Iliad, Patrocl and Achill are here and they’re que gay. 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. 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.

LOVER'S LEGENDS: THE GAY GREEK MYTHS

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.

10 GAY GREEK MYTHOLOGY BOOKS

It would be dangero to promote the ia of emulatg or romanticizg the queer myths are an important part of gay history.

Queer myths ( and the mythology of Greece and Rome general) also played an sential role early gay lerature.

GREEK MYTHOLOGY AS AN ALLEGORY FOR GAY DATG

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.