Were the Spartans Gay? Homosexualy Sparta, Ancient Greece | World History

Contents:

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

WERE THE SPARTANS GAY? HOMOSEXUALY SPARTA, ANCIENT GREECE

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. 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.

The Greek term arsenoko, translated as "homosexual" the Bible for the first time 1946 CE, never existed until was ed by St. 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. 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. The synchronistic approach: scholars ncentrate upon homosexualy fifth and fourth-century Athens, where was tegral part of social life.

THE MYTH OF THE ANCIENT GREEK ‘GAY UTOPIA’

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.

The often outspoken poems and the philosophy of Plato (427-347) have rulted our exprsn "Greek prcipl" to scribe male homosexualy. 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. Prostutn, which was an important aspect of Athenian life, had ltle to do wh male domance; nor was - and this is important - Greek homosexualy rtricted to perasty between a domant adult and a shy boy.

GAY HERO OF ANCIENT GREECE

Another objectn to the tradnal renstctn of Athenian homosexualy is that there is simply no evince that the prents shown on vas had any pedagogic or didactic value. 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. 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.