Gay greek love stories
Greek love
Athens, Greece
Zack Cahill walks the city where homosexual was invented: the one and only Athens.
The movie – an explosion of CGI bloodshed and homoeroticism set in ancient Greece – contains a line of dialogue that caused a small furore at the time. In an exchange between the uber-butch King Leonidas and some lackey, the Spartan king offhandedly refers to the less war-like Athenians as ‘boy lovers’. At the time it felt like another throwaway example of Hollywood homophobia, but on a tour of Athens focusing on gay love stories, I learned the more nuanced revelation from my reference Nicos.
History is far more complex and interesting than the simplified stories we tend to inform ourselves about it. Ancient Greece provided the world with democracy, Socratic inquiry and even under-floor heating. And yes, gay sex was indeed socially approved – the first Greek philosopher Herodotus listed ‘copulating with boys’ as one of the superb pleasures of being. But it wasn’t paradise lost for liberals, or even San Francisco in togas.
It was, by today’s standards, both incredibly conservative and in
In our sexual histories series, authors explore changing sexual mores from antiquity to today.
In recent years, we have seen significant advances won for LGBT rights through hard-fought legal cases and well-targeted political campaigns. Yet it is worth remembering that for decades, recourse to such methods was not available to LGBT people. The law-court and the parliament were deaf to their pleas. For many, it was only in their dreams that they could evade oppression.
One should not underplay the importance of such fantasies. They provided succour and hope in a grim world. It was comforting to imagine a time before Christianity told you that the acts of love that you committed were a sin or the law pronounced that your public displays of affection were acts of “gross indecency”. The persistent dream of a “gay utopia” is one of the constants in gay and lesbian historical imaginings over the last years.
One place in particular attracted the longings of gays and lesbians. This was the world of ancient Greece, a supposed gay paradise in which same-sex love flourished without dis
Love Stories of Greek Myth
Naturally, love was one steamy topic amongst the Greeks, and the proliferation of romantic themes—most of them tragic— is astounding. Of course, the Greeks honored love, but surprisingly, they did not particularly laud the goddess of treasure, Aphrodite. Her epithets—which are extremely indicative of how the Hellenes felt about this powerful emotion—include Androphonos [killer of men], Epitymbidia [she upon the graves], and Melaina [the blackened one].
Aphrodite really had no important festivals, and her favorite consort was Ares, god of war.
Romance was extremely important—and hurtful, deadly, and destructive. However, love was vital to the scheme of being, and the Greeks felt they had to give homage to itbut not necessarily revere it.
I evaluate myself one of the most stoic, antagonistic, anti-"love" wenches on the meet of this planet. However, requests for tales of love [and love lost] are among my most numerous, so I include decided to share a few of my favorites. Again, not all of the stories of amour wer
February is LGBT History Month, and importantly marks the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality, which makes this a great time to hold a look at some of the object histories that may have been marginalised within museum culture.
In today&#;s post, Shaun, Visitor Team Co-ordinator at Manchester Museum, takes a look at same-sex desire in the Spartan and Athenian cultures. But first, a brief peek at some of the changes in the ways that oppose histories have been represented in museums.
And for more about our archaeology collection, have a stare at the curator&#;s blog, Ancient Worlds at Manchester Museum.
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The representation of same-sex desire and fluid ideas of gender have all too often been considered inappropriate, with museum interpretation focusing rather on aesthetics (Osborne, , “Greek History”), technical production, and chronology, rather than the social history of these objects.
It is only in recent years that there has been a conscious drive to acknowledge the diversity, and commemorate the queerness of many histor