Homosexuality In Greece Today
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You may have heard that homosexuality was celebrated in ancient Greece more than any other place and time. Some scholars have even called ancient Athens a gay paradise, where same-sex romance flourished without discrimination and prejudice. However, sexuality was framed very differently in ancient Greece than it is in the modern Western World.
In recent years, we have witnessed an undeniable advancement of the LGBT rights through several legal cases and political campaigns. For many years, LGBT people had to remain silent and hide their sexual preference, but that’s not the case anymore. Sociologists suggest that this is nothing but the result of decades of oppression. Like other oppressed minorities, gay people have a reason to voice their hardships and accomplishments. However, violating and altering history in the name of gay pride is not necessary.
One historical situation that is often sourced in the name of gay pride is the ancient Greek society and several ancient Greek historical figures that are falsely portrayed as gay in pop culture. The relationship between Achilles and Patroclus is an example of this. In the Iliad, Homer describes a deep and loving friendship between the two men, but never explicitly casts the two as lovers. Many modern interpreters of the story, however, have felt comfortable with using the characters’ relationship as evidence of gay glorification in ancient Greek literature and culture.
Achilles tending Patroclus wounded by an arrow, identified by inscriptions on the upper part of the vase. Tondo of an Attic red-figure kylix, circa 500 BC. From Vulci. ( Public Domain )
Alexander the Great is another popular example. Even though the available historical sources clearly indicate that the Greek king had different female lovers each night, he is considered the most famous gay man of antiquity, simply because a screenwriter in Hollywood imagined him as one. In reality, Alexander the Great most likely slept with more women than Hugh Hefner! But how did we end up with these false misconceptions about ancient Greek society and homosexuality?
The whole thing officially opened up by Kenneth Dover's work Greek Homosexuality in 1978. Since then, as MacDowell points out , homosexuality in ancient Greece “has been discussed a good deal, mainly from a sociological and anthropological point of view.” However, few mention Athenian laws against homosexuality . It wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration to speculate that a decorated and experienced historian such as Dover avoided this account of the official stance of Athens on homosexuality. Instead, he based his research and conclusions on certain pieces of such art as vase painting and the idealized depiction of homoerotic relationships described briefly by Plato in some of his works.
A painting by Charles Le Brun depicting Alexander and Hephaestion (in red cloak),
There’s no doubt that same-sex activity existed in ancient Greece, just like it always existed in every corner of the planet – in men, women, and even animals. What’s critical to understand though, is that homosexuality never flourished in Greece as so many people falsely believe today. The biggest misconception of all is that there was a term known as “homosexuality.” Contrary to popular belief, the word "homosexual" is a modern invention. It was used for the first time in 1869 by the Hungarian physician Karoly Maria Benkert (1824-1882). As noted in an article on Livius.org: “In ancient Greece, there was not a word to describe homosexual practices: they were simply part of aphrodisia, love, which included men and women alike.”
To put it simply, some Greek men didn’t discriminate when it came to sex - to them any sexual activity was just “sexuality.” Not homosexuality or heterosexuality. They framed it as more on the terms of “giving” and “receiving”. Unless you were a woman, however, it was looked down upon to enjoy receiving. Interestingly, those who enjoyed “receiving” were stigmatized within the Athenian society and were kinaidoi (men who allowed other men to penetrate them). This was a degrading word, suggesting ancient Athens, the so-called open-minded Greek city-state of antiquity, wasn’t gay-friendly at all.
The rest of the ancient Greek city-states would be classified as “macho” societies nowadays, with Sparta being disapproving of men who engaged in homosexual activities. It was a general characteristic of macho societies that being dominant (or “giving”) was noble, while being submissive (“receiving”) was the opposite. For a Corinthian or a Spartan male to deliberately choose a submissive sexual role, he was seen as a type of traitor, one who accepted being ignoble for sexual pleasure, when he could be noble.
Spartan Girls Challenging Boys (1860) Edgar Degas
If anything, the ancient Greeks viewed homosexuality as a shameful default by nature. That is why in the entire Hellenic literature of the ancient era, there is not a single description of a homosexual act, whereas there are plenty of heterosexual acts described in detail, with Zeus being one of the most prominent heterosexual alpha males of antiquity.
What we learn from Xenophon is that Socrates wasn’t a teacher who took advantage of his younger students as modern pop culture commonly presents. Instead, the legendary philosopher did not allow any physical contact between him and his younger students. According to his teachings , any kind of sexual activity or “other physical contact between a teacher and student were simply unacceptable.”
The most famous student of Socrates, Plato, is another notable ancient Greek whose writings have been totally misunderstood and taken out of context. Indeed, Plato wrote that “the only type of real love is the love between two men”, and he dedicated two of his dialogues to that subject: the Symposium and the Phaedrus. However, the kind of love he meant didn’t include homosexuality or any kind of sexual activity. James Davidson, a professor of ancient history at the University of Warwick, wonders in an article published by The Guardian , how someone like Plato who “worshiped” love between men could at the same time describe sex between men as an “utterly unholy act”. The answer is very simple.
The kind of love between two men that Plato described in Symposium focuses on the beauty of the soul above that of the body. As Plato clearly states in his works, the love (or friendship if you prefer) between two men is above the love a man has for a woman, as in most cases this kind of love includes sex. According to Plato, spiritually loving another male highlights the absolute beauty of the soul and is the epitome of selfless love that can be compared only with the love between a parent and his/her child. In other words, Plato worshiped what youngsters would nowadays describe as “bromance,” but he was strictly against what we define today as homosexuality.
Munro, A. (2018) ‘The Myth of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece.’ Council of European Canadians. Available at: https://www.eurocanadian.ca/2018/04/the-myth-of-homosexuality-in-ancient-greece.html
Blanchard, A. (2017) ‘ Friday essay: the myth of the ancient Greek ‘gay utopia.’ The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-myth-of-the-ancient-greek-gay-utopia-88397
MacDowell, D. (2000) ‘Athenian Laws About Homosexuality.’ Revue Internationale des droits de l'Antiquité . Available at: http://local.droit.ulg.ac.be/sa/rida/file/2000/macdowell.pdf
Davidson, J. (2007) Mad about the boy.’ The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/nov/10/history.society
Livius.org (2018) ‘Greek Homosexuality.’ Livius.org. Available at: http://www.livius.org/articles/concept/greek-homosexuality/
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Greek homosexuality which involved pederasty (sexual relations between a man and a boy with the boy as a passive partner) was a central feature of Greek civilization among the upper classes.[1][2] The writer E. M. Foster had a fictional character in the work Maurice call Greek homosexuality "the vice of the Greeks".[2]
The Old Testament scholar Gordon Wenham declared concerning Greek homosexuality:
Most of the ancient Near East adopted an attitude to homosexuality very similar to that of classical Greece and Rome which simply accepted it as long as it was done among consenting adults. Indeed Greeks and Romans often approved homosexual acts between adult men and youths where it was part of an ongoing educational relationship. This practice of pederasty does not seem to have been approved in the ancient orient, but in other respects the classical and oriental outlooks seem similar.[3]
What is known about homosexuality in Greece is mainly revealed through and Greek tragedies (dramas) and mythological stories of Greek gods, and this historical record is overall fragmentary. Of the approximately 1,000 Greek tragedies that were produced in Athens, the learning capital of Greece in little over one century, only 33 have survived. In addition, this and other literary evidence of homosexuality in ancient Greece consists almost completely of public forms, and lacks the evidence of private journals and letters. A further issue is that it is difficult to determine if homosexuality was at all common among all classes, rather than mostly remaining among the upper classes of society. Some assert that pro-homosexual authors have been extrapolate prevalent homosexuality out of little evidence.[4]
The largest amount of material pertinent to the history of homosexuality in Greece is from notable philosophers and writers such as Plato, Xenophon, Plutarch, and pseudo-Lucian, to plays by Aristophanes, to Greek artwork and vases. James B. De Young notes that homosexuality seems to have existed more widely among the ancient Greeks more than among any other ancient culture. The main form of this was pederasty, a custom that seems to have been practiced mostly among the upper classes, in which an older man (the erastest) would make a young free boy (the eromenos) his sex partner, and become his mentor. This was regulated by the State as an institution. However, this practice was usually a supplement to marriage,[5] and thus is seen as being done by bisexuals. The practice of pederasty is mentioned in Homer's Iliad, and is evidenced to have existed at least 4500 years ago in ancient Egypt.[6]
In the Amores (the loves) of Lucian, an Assyrian rhetorician (125 to approx. 180), which many think was written by another in a later period, and thus it is called, pseudo-Lucian, extensive discourses are given on the subject of homosexual affections and relations. In Amores 10, Lycinus describes the Athenian character Callicratidas as one who was well provided with handsome slave-boys and all of his servants were. pretty well beardless. They remained with him till the down first appeared on their faces, but, once any growth cast a shadow on their cheeks, they would be sent away to be stewards and overseers of his properties at Athens.[7] This man is set in contrast to the character Charicles who loves females, and who supports the cause of normal heterosexual passion, first most because of their ability to procreate.
However, homosexual "orientation" is also indicated on the part of Callicratidas, at least toward boys, as in Amores 20 he is said to be reluctant to go to the temple of Aphrodite because he was going to see something female, while Charicles describes those who engage in homosexual sex as having "bought a little pleasure at the cost of great disgrace. Sternly reproving homosexuals he also states, With what blind insensibility have you engulfed your souls that you have missed the mark in both directions, avoiding what you ought to pursue, and pursuing what you ought to avoid? (22)
Charicles also laments those who attempted basic sex change operations through castration: The daring of some men has advanced so far in tyrannical violence as even to wreak sacrilege upon nature with the knife. By depriving males of their masculinity they have found wider ranges of pleasure. But those who become wretched and luckless in order to be boys for longer remain male no longer, being a perplexing riddle of dual gender, neither being kept for the functions to which they have been born nor yet having the thing into which they have been changed. (21)
For his part Callicratidas forwards an polemic that is used today by homosexual apologists, that homosexuality was not seen in early times, "for intercourse with women was necessary so that our race might not utterly perish for lack of seed", (35) and postulates that doing away with martial relations would be a good thing, if children could be hand another way, lamenting the efforts women must go through to make themselves attractive. Yet he sees the efforts that a child must go through as making him an attractive object of homosexual affection for all men. (38-46)
The famous philosopher Plato (427 B.C. - 346 B.C.) around 348 B.C. describes and implies the widespread practice of homosexuality, and advocates laws to regulate it.[8] One of the most explicit records of disapproval of homosexuality is found in Laws 636c, in which Plato, speaking through the character of the Athenian stranger, describes homosexual relations as an "enormity" or "crime" (tolmema), and explains that it derives from being enslaved to pleasure. He plainly rejects homosexual behavior as "unnatural" (para physin), as “When male unites with female for procreation the pleasure experienced is held to be due to nature, but contrary to nature when male mates with male or female with female”.[9][10] Homosexuality is also described regarded as shameful by barbarians and by those who live under despotic governments: Homosexuality is regarded as shameful by barbarians and by those who live under despotic governments just as philosophy is regarded as shameful by them, because it is apparently not in the interest of such rulers to have great ideas engendered in their subjects, or powerful friendships or passionate love-all of which homosexuality is particularly apt to produce.[11]
In Plutarch's Dialogue on Love,[12] he has Daphnaeus disparage "union contrary to nature with males" (he para physin homilia pros arrenas), as contrasted to "the love between men and women," which is characterized as "natural" (te physei). A few sentences later, Daphnaeus complains that those who "consort with males" willingly are guilty of "weakness and effeminacy," because "contrary to nature (para physin)," they "allow themselves in Plato's words 'to be covered and mounted like cattle'" (Dialogue on Love 751C, E). However, he also wrote that "The noble lover of beauty engages in love wherever he sees excellence and splendid natural endowment without regard for any difference in physiological detail",[13] and which many use to endorse homosexuality.
Plato's Symposium, a collection of ideas on love by several friends of Socrates, with the latter's thoughts at the end, acknowledges homosexuality as a condition. Aristophanes posits that there were three kinds of beings from the beginning, that of the male, the female - and a third androgynous - type of person. Zeus is said to have cut these humans in half so that they seek their other sexual counterpart, or in the case of composite being, their own sex. Aristophanes then describes the latter as being such as prefer their own gender, in which he includes lesbianism, and all of which the pagan philosopher commends.Young notes that in Symposium,[14] Plato anticipates virtually every element in the modern discussion the homosexual condition. This reality stands in opposition to the premise which many pro-homosexual writers rely upon, in seeking to disallow the universal condemnation of homoeroticism in Romans 1.[15]
Additional sources in Plato's Symposium which evidence and advocate homosexuality in Greek culture, including some that speak of a predisposition towards it, include The Speech of Pausanias (181b-185c), The speech of Socrates (209c-d; 210e-211e). The Speech of Alcibiades (215a-222b). Selections from the Phaedrus (231c-240c) also give indications of how homosexuality was thought of in Greek philosophy.[16]
Though the Greeks also practiced homosexual relations existed among equals, it was considered problematic, as while the predominate man was considered to be masculine, the one who played the female role would be seen as inferior.[17] In Amores 24, Charicles invokes Plato as saying that "as long as his beard was not yet fully grown, he was beloved by all. But, after he had passed from boyhood to manhood, during the years when his hitherto immature intellect now had its full powers of reason, he was hated by all." This role more likely pertained to slaves, or male youths who were not yet citizens.
Attitudes toward homosexuality varied in Greece, as general strictures against same-sex eros existed in parts of Ionia, while in Elis and Boiotia (e.g., Thebes), it was approved of and sometimes celebrated.[18]
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↑ http://history-world.org/greece%20economy.htm
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2.0 2.1 http://www.assemblage.group.shef.ac.uk/issue7/matthews.html
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↑ The Old Testament Attitude to Homosexuality, Gordon J Wenham, Expository Times 102 (1991): 259-363
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↑ http://homosexualityinancientgreece.wordpress.com/
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↑ Dover, K.J., Greek Homosexuality (Harvard University Press, 1989, as summarized in "Homosexuality," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, August 2002)
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↑ Homosexuality, By James B. DeYoung p. 322
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↑ PSEUDO-LUCIAN, AFFAIRS OF THE HEART, 10
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↑ Laws 636a-c; 835-c; 836a-e; 838b-839b; 840de; 841de
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↑ David E. Malick, "The Condemnation of Homosexuality in Romans 1:26-27"
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↑ First Things, Peter L. Berger, Leadership U.
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↑ Quoted by John Boswell in "The Church and the Homosexual: An Historical Perspective" (1979).
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↑ Dialogue on Love 751C, E
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↑ Plutarch, Dialogue on Love, 146.
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↑ 182e-184b, 186b-e, 187c, 192b-c, 193c, 200a-201c-e
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↑ Young, Homosexuality, pp. 189-204
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↑ Young, Homosexuality, pp. 205-214
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↑ John Boardman et al, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World, 1986, pp. 225-226.
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↑ cf. Dover, 1989; Halperin, 1990
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