Greek Myths, Plot Diagrams, & Homosexuality
3 Students, 3 Greek Legends…
During the past four weeks, I have had three of my elementary Language Arts students complete their reading of The Twelve Labors of Hercules in our own unit, where they analyzed exposition and rising plot charts before they wrote their own creative “6 Labors” legend using genre modeling! In every session, I am continuously blown away and inspired by the imagination my students possess. As one of my high school students reads The Odyssey, we are able to enter into deeper discussions of myths and their ties to history.
Many times, my students inspire me to conduct my own research into deeper topics of history, art, and social issues that are never brought up in session. This time around, my “myth” students reminded me of the research I had begun in college, but never completed on homosexuality within Ancient Greece in contrast to our own society…
Namely, how homosexuality somehow became “homophobia.”
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 as recently as 2000 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.
So, here’s a few posing questions: Why does modern society have so much fear and hate towards non-heterosexuals? What has changed in the last two thousand years to change our perspective on homosexuality so drastically? What was different in the ancient Greek culture so a citizenry was seemingly born tolerant of non-heterosexual individuals? Without echoing the past, is there anything to learn from it?
________________________
“Greek Homosexuality.” Livius.org. Livius. 7 June 2017. www.livius.org/articles/concept/greek-homosexuality/.
Holmen, Nicole. "Examining Greek Pederastic Relationships." Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse2.02 (2010). http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=175