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Houghts on Greek LGBT mythology

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by Magenta Mucus, Feb 5, 2016.

  1. Magenta Mucus

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    I recently read an article of controversial Ancient Greek mythology where it states that when we (humans) were firdt made, we were all double. Like, we were all two people joined back to back, and we moved with cartwheels and stuff. But Zeus, lord of the sky, began to worry about how powerful we were and about how we could overthrow the gods if we wanted to. So he made a decision. He split all of us in two, effectively halving our power but doubling the amount of worshippers. Easy, right? No. He saw that instead of running around worshipping him, we ran around looking for the ones we were split from. Literally, we were searching for our soul mates. And this piece said that that is how love began. It began with the separated halves finding each other and loving each other like they love themselves, because, frankly, they were once themselves! What made me think though? We had three genders, not two. We had male-male, male-female, and female-female, instead of just male or female. So according to that piece, LGBT was conpletely normal.

    It made my day and put a smile on my face :slight_smile:
     
  2. Renegades

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    Cool! I have never heard that before.
     
  3. Mr Spock

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    When you look at the Greeks and the Romans (before Christianity) there were plenty of homosexuals. It's been around since the beginning of time, and in different cultures has played many different roles.
     
  4. davidfreckelton

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    Well the ancient Greeks were very smart
     
  5. beastwith2backs

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    Yeah there's a lot of homosexuality in greek mythology, like Zeus and Ganymede, Coriolanus and Tullus Aufidius ( that's Roman but whatever.) and Even Achilles and Patroclus might have been a gay couple. Ancient greek society didn't mund same sex relationships, and one roman emperor might have had the first ever documented same sex marriage! It was as normal as anything, just like today. Society changes. Let's hope it doesn't flip coins centuries from now and change again... I wonder if Norse/ Germanic mythology had any LGBT themes in it?
     
    #5 beastwith2backs, Feb 7, 2016
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2016
  6. Ouroboros

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    I've never heard about the joining at the back story. That's pretty neat. What's interesting to me is that the idea of a third sex is not exclusive to ancient Rome or Greece even during that time. You can also look at Hindu philosophy for "third sex" acknowledgement in the ancient world. Similar examples were found in ancient egypt, mesopotamia, Israel, among the Mayans and even within the Inca tribe. The last example is especially fascinating to me because these people were often selected to be Shaman's and ritual priests, positions that were held in the highest regard. This third gender thought to be between male and female was said to be symbolic of the transition between life and death for example.

    Having said that going back to ancient Rome and egypt for a second it's important to view these examples of homosexuality within their cultural and temporal context. Romantic relationships were common among men in ancient Rome. But it gets less admirable when you look at the actual act of sexual intercourse. Sexual relationships among men were often about subjugation rather than romance. In a true paradox, having sexual relationship with another man was completely acceptable..just so long as you were the one doing the penetrating. Being penetrated was a sign of being subservient, being a lesser man or to deem another man as beneath you. The way around this was to simple have sexual relationships with men who were not citizens slaves for example.

    Back in Greece there were often romantic relationships between men, a sort of amplified admiration. A strong example of this was pedantry in Ancient Greece. Wherein men would take on younger boys as protoges. They would teach them to become men and as a result the bond between the two of them was more or less romantic. However these relationship were rarely sexual. The word platonic actually comes from the pedastic relationship between Plato and Socrates in that it was a romantic relationship with amplified admiration and care that wasn't sexual.

    I say all this because I feel that people fall into the trap of over-romanticizing the past as a time that was thousands of years ahead of its time in terms of social justice and acceptance. They didn't have distinctions among sexual orientation like we do but they also used homosexual relationships as displays of power. They also had a very different idea of what romantic relationships meant. It's important to keep in mind the cultural context of what you're studying is all I'm saying.

    Note: Sorry about grammar and spelling mistakes, typed this on a phone and now my thumbs hurt :frowning2:
     
    #6 Ouroboros, Feb 7, 2016
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2016