Male and Female Homosexuality in Ancient Greece (a Thread)

Ancient Greece is well-known for it’s colorful mythology, long list of gods, goddess, titans and monsters, and it’s influence on theatre, politics, war and art is immeasurable. However, a strange cornerstone of ancient Greece is it homosexuality.

Many myths and gods surround aspects of the LGBTQ+ community and hopefully in this thread, I can list these figures and provide an accurate summary of homosexuality in ancient Greece. Now, before I begin, please remember that this was an Ancient civilization.

Some practices then which would be illegal and incredible taboo now, were normal and rational back then. I do not condone these actions, and pederasty in general so I’ve decided to cut them out of this thread, as to not trigger anybody.

Anyways, let’s begin.

In ancient Greece, homosexuality was fairly widespread, especially between two men. Many classical writers such as Plato, Herodotus and Xenophon had explored and detailed the aspects of homosexuality in Greece, as well. However, ancient Greeks did not concieve or follow

sexuality orientations like we do today, as Greeks did not discern sexual desire by gender, but rather by the roles they played in sex— active or passive. These were not conceived to be directly related to one gender, however, the active role was perceived as more masculine,

and the passive roles as more feminine. However, these roles were still found with male homosexual relationships. Speaking of those, Greek society placed a heavy important on the cultivation of adult male masculinity, and homosexual relationships between men was seen

as the best way to further this idea. This is mainly why you don’t hear much of lesbianism in ancient Greece outside of Sappho’s poetry. We’ll get to her later, though. Back to male homosexuality— These relationships between men were very commonplace and made their

way into many mythos. The most well known one is Achilles and Patroclus. These two were the first recorded instance of deep, emotional bonds between two adult men and they appear in the Iliad. As their myth goes, the two were infatuated with one another, and after Patroclus’s

death, Achilles took to avenging his lover, despite it costing him his own life. This appearance in the Iliad isn’t the only example of homosexuality within mythology, as Apollo, Dionysos, Hermes and Eros were gods who frequently took up male lovers.

Speaking of Apollo, his myth with Hyacinthos is another example of deep, romantic bonds between two men. Apollo’s lover, Hyacinthos is killed by a discuss by the jealous Zephyrus, who sought after Hyacinthos, and couldn’t bare to see him with another man. Many more

myths are out there, categorizing homosexual relationships between gods and mortals, and many cultural practices of homosexuality between Greecians.

Despite it’s lack to attention in mythology and research, Lesbianism and sapphic love found it’s root in ancient Greece.

This is mainly credited to Sappho, a poet who lived on the island of Lesbos. She wrote many love poems addressed to women. Sappho had wrote close to 12,000 lines of poetry on her love for other women. Despite the fact Sappho herself was bisexual, her poetry and the island

she resided in have been terms to identify with the lesbian community, and the term sapphic comes from her name. Another poet, Alcman had documented and wrote about female homosexuality in Greece, despite being a male.

Many of Sappho’s surviving poems, however, regale and discuss her sexual contact with other women, and the breaking of typical active/passive roles in ancient Greek homosexuality.

Aside from Sappho’s poems and Alcman’s very brief references,

all other sitings of lesbianism in ancient Greece are few and far between, and often frame this love as taboo. In an epigram by Asclepiades, he describes lesbians as rejecting Aphrodite’s “rules” and perpetrators of "other things which are not seemly". This epigram

contains much of the hostility towards female homosexuality, that was commonplace at this time. This is especially shocking when reading Asclepiades’s other pieces of work, where he discusses his own homosexuality and desires.

No myths contain overt or concrete female homosexuality, however many female figures have been interpreted as lovers, such as Callisto and Artemis, or the myth of Amazonian women being interrupted as homosexual women. Homosexual women were

occasionally depicted in art work— mainly sexual acts or courtship. These pieces were usually found on plates or vases, and are some of the only examples of explicit homosexuality between females in ancient Greece outside of Sappho’s poems.

Unfortunately, other documentation of homosexuality in ancient Greece has been well preserved— the most that can be said is from what little we have found and from what assumptions can be made. I hope I didn’t miss anything important or crucial to the

history of homosexual relationships in ancient Greece, and I hope you all enjoyed this thread