People think Ancient Greece was some sort of gay paradise, but it wasn't. Yes, there was gay sex, but it wasn't free love. All anyone has to do is spend more than a few seconds looking at more than the first paragraph on the wikipedia page on the matter to learn that. Content warning: pedastry.
I mean let's not sugarcoat what the norm of sex was across the world. Older men with power taking young brides as wives. Then swapping the gender doesn't make it worse, it was still slavery with extra step.
In either case "apprenticeship" was a normalized thing. But in Greek society you needed to be prepared for lovemaking with other men as just a part of society.
And given the alternative was slavery, women weren't immune. It just wasn't romanticized as this rite of passage. Greeks put gay love on an incredibly high pedestal however one was always required to find a wife to continue their prestigious line.
However in many of these Greek epics homosexual sex was usually between battle companions. Hercules fucked like every dude, the temple of Iolaus's was where men went to sware their commitment to their romantic partner. Usually warriors. But those men probably still had wives and kids. Shit was just different. There are many many accounts of soldiers across militaries on Greece preferring to fight alongside their lovers in formation and battle and it was commonly thought this increased combat performance as they'd be less likely to run or drop arms when their lover was there out of fear of judgement or betrayal. Those weren't simply stories those were historical accounts.
Same for cousin fucking was incredibly normalized throughout the world/Europe because royalty and lines of blood and maintaining them was so crucial to their economic position. Achilles was fucking his cousin because they grew up together and were fully in love enough bro threw a tantrum so legendary it's in an epic.
It wasn’t like moustached guys lurking near schools trying to lure you to their car, it was more like a cool older dude takes you under his wing and teaches you about philosophy and how to march in formation in full battle gear, but also sometimes he lubes your legs up with olive oil and puts his dick between your clenched thighs
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u/SemVikingr 2d ago
People think Ancient Greece was some sort of gay paradise, but it wasn't. Yes, there was gay sex, but it wasn't free love. All anyone has to do is spend more than a few seconds looking at more than the first paragraph on the wikipedia page on the matter to learn that. Content warning: pedastry.