[Main Index] | [Halsall - Political/Religion Pages] | [Halsall - Academic Pages]

People with a History
An Online Guide to
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans* History
Site Maintainer: Paul Halsall
©1997


Contents:
Section I: The Ancient Mediterranean

Go to the following pages for other parts of People with a History

Chapter 2: The Ancient Near East and Egypt

The oldest human cultures complex enough to be called "civilizations" seem to have emerged in Ancient Iraq and Turkey, and in Egypt. The basic historical distinction between the two areas is that Egypt had a more or less continuous "national" history from the earliest Pharoahs until the rise of Islam, while Iraq, Syria and Anatolia, being much more geographically exposed, were homes to succeeding and not entirely continuous cultures - Sumeria, Akkad, Babylon, Assyria, Persia, Seleucia, to name only a few.

Despite the immense time covered, research into homosexuality seems to have only just begun for these areas, and this is a section of this page that will be developed as more information becomes available. So far much of the discussion is based on Biblical texts, and on the assumption that the hostility of the Hebrew Bible to homosexual practice reflects homosexual activities associated with the surrounding religions.

An area which need more research is evidence of "homoaffectionalism" in these ancient societies: that is relationships based on desire but not necessarily sexual. The epic story of Gilgamesh contains one very important story in this regard.

Discussions:

Texts:

Web sites:

Back to Contents

Chapter 3: Ancient Greece

For modern western gays and lesbians, Ancient Greece has long functioned as sort of homosexual Arcadia. Greek culture was, and is, highly privileged as one of the foundations of Western culture and the culture of sexuality apparent in its literature was quite different from the "repression" experienced by moderns. The sense of possibility the Greek experienced opened up can be seen in a scene in E.M. Forster's Maurice where the hero is seen reading Plato's Symposium at Cambridge.

It would be too simple, however, to see Greek homosexuality as just a more idyllic form than modern versions. As scholars have gone to work on the -- plentiful -- material several tropes have become common. One set of scholars (slightly old-fashioned now) looks for the "origin" of Greek homosexuality, as if it were a new type of game, and argues that, since the literature depicts homosexual eros among the fifth-century aristocracy, it functioned as sort of fashion among that group. This is rather like arguing that because nineteenth-century English novels depict romance as an activity of the gentry and aristocracy, other classes did not have romantic relationships. Another, now more prevalent, group of scholars argue that term "homosexual", referring they say to sexual orientation, is inappropriate to discussions of Greek sexual worlds. Rather they stress the age dissonance in literary homoerotic ideals, and the importance of "active" and "passive" roles. Some stress these themes so intently that it comes as a surprise to discover that we now the names of quite number of long-term Greek homosexual couples.

As a result of such scholarly discussions, it is no longer possible to portray Greece as a homosexual paradise. It remains the case that the Greek experience of eros was quite different from experiences in the modern world, and yet continues, because of Greece's persistent influence on modern norms to be of special interest.

Discussions:

Reviews:

  • Jennifer Neils: Robertson, Martin: The art of vase-painting in classical Athens. [Review at Bryn Mawr Classical Review] Robertson, Martin, The art of vase-painting in classical Athens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
  • Earl Jackson Jr : Amy Richlin, ed.: Pornography and Representation in Greece [Review at Bryn Mawr Classical Review] Amy Richlin, ed. Pornography and Representation in Greece and Rome. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1991.
  • Thomas M. Falkner: Strauss: Fathers and Sons [Review at Bryn Mawr Classical Review] Barry S. Strauss, Fathers and Sons in Athens. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.
  • Michael W. Haslam: M.L. West, ed.: Iambi et Elegi Graeci ante Alexandrum cantati vol. [Review at Bryn Mawr Classical Review] M L. West, ed., Iambi et Elegi Graeci ante Alexandrum cantati vol. II, editio altera. Oxford University Press, 1992.
  • Ellen Greene: Williamson: Sappho's Immortal Daughters [Review at Bryn Mawr Classical Review] Margaret Williamson, Sappho's Immortal Daughters. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995.
  • Brad Inwood & Mark Timmins: Dean-Jones: Women's Bodies [Review at Bryn Mawr Classical Review] Lesley Ann Dean-Jones, Women's Bodies in Classical Greek Science. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994.
  • Froma I. Zeitlin: Rabinowitz: Anxiety Veiled (II) [Review at Bryn Mawr Classical Review] Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz, Anxiety Veiled: Euripides and the Traffic in Women. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993.
  • Gunhild Viden: Berggren/Marinatos, edd.: Greece and Gender [Review at Bryn Mawr Classical Review] Berggren, Brit & Marinatos, Nanno (edd.), Greece and Gender. Bergen: Papers from the Norwegian Institute at Athens 2, 1995.
  • Keith DeVries: Kilmer, Greek Erotica [Review at Bryn Mawr Classical Review] Martin F. Kilmer, Greek Erotica. London: Duckworth, 1993. 286; figs.
  • David M. Schaps: Loraux: Experiences of Tiresias [Review at Bryn Mawr Classical Review] Loraux, Nicole, The Experiences of Tiresias: The Feminine and the Greek Man. Translated by Paula Wissing. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.
  • Richard Hamilton: Garland, R.: The Greek Way of Life: (Richard Hamilton) [Review at Bryn Mawr Classical Review] Robert Garland. The Greek Way of Life: From Conception to Old Age. London: Duckworth 1990.
  • Richard Hamilton: Review of O. Murray ed. Sympotica: A Symposium on the Symposion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990. [Review at Bryn Mawr Classical Review]
    Long summary review on the nature of a symposium.
  • Anton Bierl: Craik, E.M. (ed.): Owls to Athens: (Anton Bierl) [Review at Bryn Mawr Classical Review] Owls to Athens: Essays on Classical Subjects Presented to Sir Kenneth Dover, edited by E. M. Craik. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990.
  • M.L. Lang: Cohen, David, Law, Sexuality and Society: The Enforcement of Morals in Classical Athens (M.L. Lang) [Review at Bryn Mawr Classical Review] David Cohen. Law, Sexuality and Society: The Enforcement of Morals in Classical Athens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
  • Pamela Gordon: Swain, Hellenism and Empire [Review at Bryn Mawr Classical Review] Swain, Simon, Hellenism and Empire: Language, Classicism, and Power in the Greek World AD 50-250. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.
  • Ralph Hexter: Wilhelm, ed.: Gay and Lesbian Poetry [Review at Bryn Mawr Classical Review] James J. Wilhelm, ed., Gay and Lesbian Poetry: An Anthology from Sappho to Michaelangelo. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, vol. 1874. New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1995.
  • James J. Claus: Bing, P. and Cohen, R. trans.,: Games of Venus [Review at Bryn Mawr Classical Review] Games of Venus. An Anthology of Greek and Roman Erotic Verse from Sappho to Ovid, Introduced, Translated, and Annotated by Peter Bing and Rip Cohen, Routledge: New York and London, 1991
  • Donald Lateiner: Versnel: Transition and Reversal in Myth and Ritual [Review at Bryn Mawr Classical Review] H.S. Versnel. Transition and Reversal in Myth and Ritual. Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion II. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1993.

    • Texts:

    For Greek texts, in addition to complete English texts (when available), there are also links, where possible, to PERSEUS, an Internet resources which gives access to texts in both English and hyper-linked Greek.

    Philosophical Views of Eros

    Homosexuality in Literature

    Homosexuality in Historiography

    Images of Homosexuality and Homoeroticism

    websites:

    Back to Contents

    Chapter 4: Ancient Rome

    Discussions:

    Reviews:

    Texts: Literary

    Texts: Historical

    Websites:

    Back to Contents

    © 1997, Paul Halsall, halsall@murray.fordham.edu [a picture!]
    Note: I read all mail, and keep much of it, but I will not be able to reply to all notes.

    Last updated April 10, 2007.