Greek Myths, Plot Diagrams, and Homosexuality

5 Students, 5 Greek Legends…

During the past year, I've had five of my elementary Language Arts students complete their reading of The Twelve Labors of Hercules in our own tutoring unit where they analyzed the genre and learned about character traits, rising/falling plot arcs, and the writing process before they wrote their own creative “6 Labors” legend using a problem/solution structure! In every session, I am continuously blown away and inspired by the imagination my students possess. One student took our sessions to outer-space where her heroine had to defeat invading aliens, while another wrote the superhero story for the missing sister of Marvel's Flash! When one of my high school students read The Odyssey for his class, we were able to enter into more philosophical discussions of myths and Greek norms, which spurred my inspiration into researching homosexuality within Ancient Greece in contrast to our own American society…

How do the differing views on homosexuality in ancient Greece and in 20th century Western culture cultivate either gay tolerance or homophobia in their respective societies? The ancient world held very different views on homosexuality than we do today, as evident in Shakespeare’s work, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Shintoism in the Samurai era of Japan, and with Plato’s own personal relations. What is perhaps mind-boggling to our modern society today is that in Classical Greece, a sexual relationship between two men was often viewed as a sacred bond between pupil and teacher. This specific relationship was called pederasty, where an older man, the teacher, instructed his younger student, the pupil, in both his trade and society’s expectations of manhood. It was seen as a benefit to the pupil’s learning if he shared a sexual relationship with his mentor; once he achieved ‘manhood’ and was no longer seen as a pupil, however, the sexual relationship between pupil and teacher, at least as far as pederasty goes, was supposed to end. Additionally, once a man was married, it was no longer socially acceptable to have sexual intercourse with another man. Within this paradigm of ancient Greece, having sex with other men before marriage was simply an act of ‘sowing one’s wild oats,’ but once a man became an adult and a husband, he was expected to curb his appetites exclusively to female lovers. (Holmen).

Research into this time period supports the concept of pederasty as being commonplace within ancient Greek society, yet new evidence within the last two decades has come to light that the ancient Greeks also experienced homosexuality in their society. Homosexuality, unlike the previous educational dichotomy between a pupil and his teacher in regards to one’s sexual interest, refers to an individual who sexually desires someone of the same sex. In pederasty, the pupil was not supposed to feel desire for his male teacher, but rather be a placid participant as the older man instructed him. New evidence from ancient Greek mural paintings and pottery, where the emphasis appears centered on the male figure’s beauty and sexual arousal, has indicated that these pupils did experience lust for men and their teachers, and that men in ancient Greek society may have viewed homosexuality even more tolerably than previously thought. Whether homosexuality was tolerated in Ancient Greek society solely due to pederasty, is still open for scholarly debate. ("Greek Homosexuality").

Two thousand years after the Greeks viewed homosexuality as a normal, and almost integral part of their culture, those views have drastically changed in our current society. Compared to Classical Greece, modern Western views on homosexuality are homophobic. Discrimination, hate crimes, and violence against homosexuality have been common for the last several hundreds of years, and in the United States, it was not until the 1950’s and 60’s that society finally started to see some change. The Civil Rights Movement brought more awareness and legislative rights for the LGBT community; unfortunately, many still argue that the reviling attitude towards such individuals has not shown tremendous improvement. Prejudice and discrimination towards homosexuality, and more recently, other nontraditional sexual preferences, remains rampant in our society.

Why does our society have so much fear and hate towards non-heterosexuals? What did the ancient Greeks have or do to create a citizenry who were tolerant of non-heterosexual individuals, and is there something we can learn or emulate from them in the push for a forward-moving culture that can cultivate universal tolerance?

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“Greek Homosexuality.” Livius.org. Livius. 7 June 2017. https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/greek-homosexuality/

Holmen, Nicole. "Examining Greek Pederastic Relationships." Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse2.02 (2010). http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/175/examining-greek-pederastic-relationships