Homosexuality In Ancient History
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Another great piece Sandhya! You'll not believe that this topic is in my mind from a long time to write.
You have done full justice by giving brief history of all the major civilizations.
Your stories are so informative and interesting. I loved learning about the history of homosexuality, particularly as it relates to lesbians. I never knew the history.
In the recent past, homophobic slanderers considered homosexuality as a deviant from nature. That homosexual acts were never performed in the past. The truth is, male homosexualism was tolerated, if not favored, in the ancient cultures. Lesbianism? Not so much.
This article might encompass more of female homosexuality or Lesbianism as it has not been as well represented as male homosexuality in ancient history.
The term “Lesbian” refers to women who indulge in romantic or sexual acts with other women.
But the term was derived from an island “Lesbos” from ancient Greece. So, Lesbian used to be anyone or anything from Lesbos, just as I am an Indian from India.
Later, “Lesbian” was to represent homosexual women after Sappho (a speculated-homosexual woman from Lesbos) who lived in 630 BC.
myrrh poured on your head
and on soft mats girls with
all that they most wished for beside them
A translated (by Mary Barnard) excerpt from Sappho’s poem.
More than ignored, Lesbianism was not understood and hence, considered a sinful act. The men of ancient times did not even want to acknowledge it as a prevalent act. Why?
Because women did not have a penis! It’s funny how everything was phallocentric. Their ideology was — you are a woman; you don’t have a penis; you cannot penetrate, so sex with another woman is impossible.
But one notable thing was that, though lesbianism was not considered, it was also not as harshly punished in the medieval period when Christianity started portraying homosexuality as blasphemy.
In ancient Greece, homosexuality was accepted, in fact, widely celebrated if it was between two men (one dominant, from the upper-class and the other submissive, generally a younger slave boy). The adolescent boys, commonly between ages 12–20, were considered boy-wife or boy-mistress.
But, there was a catch to it. The people generally extolled the penetrator and ridiculed the submissive (boy slaves, or women). Therefore, it can be observed that the act was not unaccepted but the one on the receiving end was.
One famous example is that of the Greek God, Zeus, and his cup-bearing slave boy, Ganymede.
However, there are also romantic relationships, of which one example is that of Apollo and Hyacinth (A little gossip: Hyacinth was also coveted by Zephyr, the god of West Wind).
Moving on to the poorly represented Lesbianism, only Sappho’s work had survived, it is in parts. But there are many subtle references to Lesbianism.
The first is the story of Iphis. Born a girl, her mother hoped to disguise her gender to protect her from the wrath of her father and named her Iphis (an androgynous name). Later, Iphis’s father got her engaged to a gold-haired maiden, Ianthe, believing Iphis to be a boy. As irony will have it, Iphis and Ianthe fell in love and probably had a sexual relationship.
But patriarchy would have nothing of it. Men deliberately converted the same-sex love story into a heterosexual one where Iphis gets changed into a boy.
Though Artemis and Callisto were not portrayed, explicitly, as Lesbians, there is one instance where Callisto gets impregnated by Zeus, who takes the guise of Artemis.
Artemis curses Callisto to transform into a bear, not for having sex but for having sex with a man. Callisto, being seduced by Artemis’s form, is an indication of Lesbianism.
Just like in Ancient Greece, Romans practiced paiderastia, in which older men copulated with young male slaves. Famous exemplifications are Hadrian and Antonius, and multiple sex escapades of Emperor Nero.
Lesbianism was frowned upon, probably due to the gender reversal in roles. There were multiple instances where men murdered their wives for indulging in homosexual affairs, which was considered a greater sin that of heterosexual adultery.
But, a mural on the wall of a suburban bath in Pompeii shows two women in a sexual embrace.
There are several instances of male homosexualism, most distinguished being that of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep. Another is that of King Pepi II and General Sasenet, where King Pepi frequented Sasenet’s place at nights to “do whatever his majesty desires” which was a fancy term for coitus.
Though Lesbianism was not recorded, we can derive that there were no restrictions on sexuality from the below excerpt from Book of Dead by a female author, dating back to 970 BC:
I never had sex with a woman in the temple.
The above statement shows that women practiced same-sex copulation and were not reluctant to talk about it.
While talking about one’s sexuality was never ostracized, adultery was forbidden, whatever might be the sex of a person.
Indian culture used to be very liberal before the invasion of Islam and colonization by Europeans. Precedences can be seen in the Kamasutra, and Khajuraho temple. To know more check out:
An article on numerous taboos in India and comparing it with ancient Hindu ideologies.
There is also speculation that emerged in the 14th century Bengali scripture, regarding King Bhagiratha’s birth.
According to this, King Dilipa died, unable to sire a son and continue the lineage. His co-wives, Chandra and Mala, began a sexual relationship, and Mala gave birth to Bhagiratha (Bhaga means Vulva (or Vagina)).
There is also a story in Hindu Mythology where Lord Vishnu, in the form of Lady Mohini unites with Lord Shiva and gives birth to Lord Ayyappan. This can be taken either as a story of gender-change or same-sex union.
Ming Dynasty literature, such as Bian Er Chai (弁而釵/弁而钗) consider the same-sex relationship among men to be as enjoyable as heterosexual ones.
Though the men were expected to marry and bear children, their relationship with other men was tolerated and considered as neither detrimental nor righteous. In a 6th-century poem by Liu Xiaozhuo,
She dawdles, not daring to move closer, / Afraid he might compare her with leftover peach.
Here, the term “leftover peach” indicated the man’s male concubine or sexual partner.
Lesbian relationships were latent because most of the writers were men and wrote from a man’s point of view. Moreover, the Chinese considered homosexuality to be male-exclusive, and the role of women must be to bear children and raise them.
While same-sex relationship among men was appreciated in ancient cultures and equally scrouged in the medieval period, Lesbianism was more subdued as men feared what was not known to them.
Our society has now become a lot more open-minded with regards to homosexuality as a whole. But, there’s still a long way to go before homosexual people enjoy the same privilege as the heterosexual. I hope equality is attained in the immediate future.
There might be many other cultures that had embraced homosexuality. This article gives instances of same-sex relationships and does not proclaim that homosexualism was restricted to the above-mentioned cultures.
This article made into the top 3 honorable mentions for The Collector's September Writing Challenge.
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