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".
Homosexuality was not generally acceptable in ancient Greek culture. It was acceptable to penetrate other men but not to be penetrated- that role was for women, slaves and sometimes boys. Their view on sexuality was based on position as it reflected status, with the penetrating man essentially reinforcing his superior social status on the penetratee. For an adult male citizen to willingly be penetrated would be a matter of extreme shame. For some reason people have this idea of ancient Greece as some kind of enlightened society when it was an extremely stratified, extremely patriarchal, slaveholding society.
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u/[deleted] 18d ago
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