Sorry to those who insist that Achilles and Patroclus were
NOT lovers, but this sentiment is just incorrect. The ancient
Greeks, both Hellenic and Hellenistic, had no where near the
attitude toward male/male sexual relationships I have seen
expressed repeatedly in this thread.
In fact, male/male love was prevalent amongst the
aristocrats, and seen as something of a rite of passage in
some cases. There was no stigma attached as long as it was
also a mentoring type relationship between an older, more
experienced man and a younger (though still adult) one who
was wooed with gifts, and as long as the relationship ended
with the marriage of either
(usually the elder man).
As for the ancient Greeks taking a dim view of the homosexual
leanings of Achilles, sorry, but that just ain't so either.
Achilles was seen as the embodiment of arete, and when
offered a choice between a long, mundane life and a short,
glorious one, Achilles chose the latter. This was the sort of
choice which appealed to Classical and Hellenistic Greeks
alike. Alexander the Great himself worshipped (literally)
Achilles (and slept with a copy of the Iliad under his
pillow), and even sacrificed to him when his army passed the
mound of Hisarlik (site of Troy), on their way to smash the
hosts of Darius III Codomanus at the Battle of the Granicus
River.
What's more, Alexander himself had a life-long love affair
with his boon comrade and best friend, Hephaestion. When
Hephaestion died, Alexander went nearly mad with grief.
To quote historian David Sacks:
"Ancient Greek literature and art clearly show that certain
types of homosexual relationships were considered natural and
even admirable in many Greek cities during the epoch between
about 600 B.C. and the spread of Christianity. Especially,
male homosexuality was encouraged in some (not all) forms.
Love between males was seen as harmonious with other Greek
social values, such as athletic skil, military courage, and
the idealization of male youth and beauty (reflected also in
surviving Greek sculpture). Such relationships provided males
with a romance not usually found in marriage, since Greek
society viewed women as morally and intellectually
inferior."
And here, from the Oxford Classical Dictionary:
"No Greek or Latin word corresponds to the modern term
homosexuality, and ancient Mediterranean societies did not in
practice treat homosexuality as a socially operative category
of personal or public life. Sexual relations between persons
of the same sex certainly did occur (they are widely attested
in ancient sources), but they were not systematically
distinguished or conceptualized as such, much less were they
thought to represent a single, homogeneous phenomenon in
contradistinction to sexual relations between persons of
different sexes. That is because the ancients did not
classify kinds of sexual desire or behavior according to the
sameness or difference of the sexes of the persons who
engaged in a sexual act; rather, they evaluated sexual acts
according to the degree to which such acts either violated or
conformed to norms of conduct deemed appropriate to
individual sexual actors by reason of their gender, age, and
social status. It is therefore impossible to speak in general
terms about ancient attitudes to 'homosexuality', or about
the degree of acceptance or toleration by particular
communities , because any such statement would, in effect,
lump together various behaviours which the ancients
themselves kept rigorously distinct, and to which they
attached radically divergent meanings and values. (Exactly
the same things could be said, of course, and with equal
justification, about heterosexuality.)"
Don't just take my word for it though. For further reading on
the subject I recommend:
Secondary Sources:
The Ancient Mediterranean by Michael Grant The Rise of the
Greeks by Michael Grant The Hellenistic Greeks by Michael
Grant Alexander the Great by Robin Lane Fox Alexander of
Macedon: A Historical Biography by Peter Green Alexander to
Actium: A History of the Hellenistic Age by Peter Green The
Greco-Persian Wars by Peter Green The Greek Way by Edith
Hamilton Peoples of the Ancient World by Joseph Ward Swain A
History of Sparta by W.G. Forrest The Penguin Encyclopedia of
Classical Civilizations Arthur Cotterell, ed. The Penguin
Encyclopedia of Ancient Civilizations Arthur Cotterell, ed.
The Oxford Classical Dictionary Hornblower and Spawforth,
eds. A Dictionary of the Ancient Greek World by David
Sacks
Primary Sources:
The History by Herodotus The Peloponnesian Wars by Thucydides
The Anabasis by Xenophon The History of Alexander by Arrian
The Fortune of Alexander by Quintus Curtius Rufus The History
of My Time by Ammianus Marcellinus
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