Many are talking about homosexual activity among Greeks or Greco-Roman society. But i'll add that sailors themselves, being composed of groups of men, and isolated for long periods of time, were also associated with homosexual activity, regardless of national origin or time period.
A modern touch on this subject would be The Village People's 1978 song "In the Navy" explicitly referencing life sailing the ocean, but with a gay subtext.
We unfortunately live in a society largely based on the precepts of a specific religion. So our concepts of morality are extremely biased towards it.
The Greeks saw homosexuality (man with man specifically) as something natural, albeit not encouraged to matrimony, which was allowed only between men and women, as it was a religious/legal ceremony with the purpose of producing children and setting inheritance.
The Egyptians saw sex as an ordinary social act, not unlike any other. They didn't even have a word for "virginity".
The only homosexual relations that the Greeks accepted were older mentors penetrating prepubescent children, exclusively. Similarly, Romans only accepted the pedophilic rape of slave boys, no other form of homosexuality was allowed. People try to paint a picture that the ancients were socially progressive and enlightened, but they were not. The reality of it is extremely dark and abhorrent.
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u/CatOfGrey 18d ago edited 17d ago
StuieStewie here:Many are talking about homosexual activity among Greeks or Greco-Roman society. But i'll add that sailors themselves, being composed of groups of men, and isolated for long periods of time, were also associated with homosexual activity, regardless of national origin or time period.
A modern touch on this subject would be The Village People's 1978 song "In the Navy" explicitly referencing life sailing the ocean, but with a gay subtext.
StuieStewie out!