Homosexual behavior in Ancient Greece

[Georg Ebner]

I took a class in college that dove deep into sexuality in Ancient Greece, and the frank answer is that most of us really misrepresent the Greeks' attitude toward "homosexuality."  According to this professor and using a very simplified version, the thinking behind male/male sexual relationships in Greece was that due to men being superior to women, philosophy dictated that actual "love" could never occur between a man and a woman (it would be one fundamentally superior thing loving another inferior thing and could never constitute "true 'love'").  Women were viewed as property and sorts of human "pets," and male/male sexual encounters would inevitably happen among the more philosophically minded in their dinner parties.  However, no Ancient Greek would tolerate two guys down the street living as "husband and husband" or anything like that; that would be completely unnatural and an affront to the gods.  Also, I don't think "homosexual" relationships were anywhere near as common among your average Greek males as they were among those who were more likely to author or be invoked in surviving literary works.

Yes, many of our sources on Greek homosexuality are from Athenian elites. It is a matter of debate how widespread homosexuality was among ordinary Greeks, although historians agree it was strongly linked with Athens’ democratic culture.

No, it wasn't - the opposite is true: It was linked to the cult of agon and maleness in Sparta (and among the Dorians in general).

[Georg Ebner]

I took a class in college that dove deep into sexuality in Ancient Greece, and the frank answer is that most of us really misrepresent the Greeks' attitude toward "homosexuality."  According to this professor and using a very simplified version, the thinking behind male/male sexual relationships in Greece was that due to men being superior to women, philosophy dictated that actual "love" could never occur between a man and a woman (it would be one fundamentally superior thing loving another inferior thing and could never constitute "true 'love'").  Women were viewed as property and sorts of human "pets," and male/male sexual encounters would inevitably happen among the more philosophically minded in their dinner parties.  However, no Ancient Greek would tolerate two guys down the street living as "husband and husband" or anything like that; that would be completely unnatural and an affront to the gods.  Also, I don't think "homosexual" relationships were anywhere near as common among your average Greek males as they were among those who were more likely to author or be invoked in surviving literary works.

Yes, many of our sources on Greek homosexuality are from Athenian elites. It is a matter of debate how widespread homosexuality was among ordinary Greeks, although historians agree it was strongly linked with Athens’ democratic culture.

No, it wasn't - the opposite is true: It was linked to the cult of agon and maleness in Sparta (and among the Dorians in general).

I meant within Athens; of course the segregation of military-aged males from the rest of society in Sparta was associated with homosexuality there. However, to say that Greek homosexuality was a mostly Spartan phenomenon is very untrue.

As said it was a Doric phenomen, taken over by Attica (as the bridge between Dorians and Ionians&Aiolians). U.v.WILAMOWITZ-MOELLENDORFF meant, that it was caused by the long womenless journeys of the Dorians towards Greece, but that's unlikely, i'd say.
And within Athens it was rather the reactionary pro-Sparta/Delphi party, that favoured it.

[Georg Ebner]

I took a class in college that dove deep into sexuality in Ancient Greece, and the frank answer is that most of us really misrepresent the Greeks' attitude toward "homosexuality."  According to this professor and using a very simplified version, the thinking behind male/male sexual relationships in Greece was that due to men being superior to women, philosophy dictated that actual "love" could never occur between a man and a woman (it would be one fundamentally superior thing loving another inferior thing and could never constitute "true 'love'").  Women were viewed as property and sorts of human "pets," and male/male sexual encounters would inevitably happen among the more philosophically minded in their dinner parties.  However, no Ancient Greek would tolerate two guys down the street living as "husband and husband" or anything like that; that would be completely unnatural and an affront to the gods.  Also, I don't think "homosexual" relationships were anywhere near as common among your average Greek males as they were among those who were more likely to author or be invoked in surviving literary works.

Yes, many of our sources on Greek homosexuality are from Athenian elites. It is a matter of debate how widespread homosexuality was among ordinary Greeks, although historians agree it was strongly linked with Athens’ democratic culture.

No, it wasn't - the opposite is true: It was linked to the cult of agon and maleness in Sparta (and among the Dorians in general).

I meant within Athens; of course the segregation of military-aged males from the rest of society in Sparta was associated with homosexuality there. However, to say that Greek homosexuality was a mostly Spartan phenomenon is very untrue.

As said it was a Doric phenomen, taken over by Attica (as the bridge between Dorians and Ionians&Aiolians). U.v.WILAMOWITZ-MOELLENDORFF meant, that it was caused by the long womenless journeys of the Dorians towards Greece, but that's unlikely, i'd say.
And within Athens it was rather the reactionary pro-Sparta/Delphi party, that favoured it.

The story of Harmodius and Aristogenes, the tyrant killers and Athenian icons of democracy, traditionally held them to be in a pederastic relationship, which is an example of the link between Athenian democracy and homosexuality.

Aristogeiton and H. were abused by Athens' nontyrannic wing of democrats in order to hide the reality: Both were aristocrats, while the tyrants were a product of democracy, overthrown 510 by conservative Sparta. In the ancient world it was Democrats/Tribuns vs. Republicans/Senators.