How Did a Third-Century Catholic Sat Bee a Gay In? Here’s the Homoerotic History of Sat Sebastian

Contents:

• SAT SEBASTIAN AS A GAY IN
• HOW DID A THIRD-CENTURY CATHOLIC SAT BEE A GAY IN? HERE’S THE HOMOEROTIC HISTORY OF SAT SEBASTIAN

SAT SEBASTIAN AS A GAY IN

Even tegori like male/female, gay/straight, or Christian/non-Christian risk sentializg, oversimplifyg, or anachronism. This approach is not exclively about gay, lbian, transgenr, or straight dividuals but about the potential for multifaceted, erative, and plex inty dynamics.

Before examg the fluidy of ias like genr and sexualy the Middle Ag and Renaissance, is important to acknowledge that many of the terms we e today (and ntue to velop and refe) such as hetero-, homo-, bi-, and a-sexual, did not exist at the time. The illumatns do not pict any scene of homo-social/-sexual enunter, hospaly towards strangers, or vlence, all of which are typil associatns wh or terpretatns of this story. Sats Mrice and Theos—third-century CE soldiers of the Sacred Band of Theb North Ai and Christian martyr-sats—are among the fac of the past who had a homosocial relatnship, volvg iendship, fily, or a bond among members of the same sex (a bromance, so to speak, but on a eper level).

Some scholars have suggted that the oath of brotherhood taken by the Theban Legn was purely homosocial, but others ht that sexual enunters may have taken place between Mrice and his panns. Homosocialy n be found unexpected rners of premorn lerary and eccliastil culture. Froissart’s “outg” of the French biblphile would later spire art historians to terpret imag books owned by the de to reveal his homosexual sir.

HOW DID A THIRD-CENTURY CATHOLIC SAT BEE A GAY IN? HERE’S THE HOMOEROTIC HISTORY OF SAT SEBASTIAN

For example, is there a potential “gay” (or sodomil) unrpng to Gvanni Anton Bazzi’s drawg of Christ Carryg the Cross, given that the artist appears to have loved boys and men “more than was cent, ” as we are told by Vasari? The prent thors have crged mm galleri when tour guis or visors fixate on Gvanni Anton’s bgraphy to the pot at which a drawg like the one above, or a patg of The Martyrdom of Sat Sebastian, is rced to ttg a visor’s gaydar, so to speak.

Sancty Homoeroticized The third-century, middle-aged Roman soldier-martyr Sebastian, who by the 15th century began to be reprented as a mcular youth wearg only a locloth, has bee somethg of a gay in. Devotn to the sat creased followg the Black Death (1348), and imag of his toned body and serene exprsn the face of tremendo torture and imment ath have a lastg appeal for the gay muny today, pecially the wake of the AIDS panmic of the 1980s.

Homoerotic sire. In one sense Sebastian replaced classil myths of same-sex attractn or sexual enunter, such as Ganyme and Zs narrativ of same-sex love, that engage qutns of homosexual inty.