Yeah, very much so. Intercural sex was the Socially Acceptable way of bottoming, they still had a very strong taboo about sodomy proper.
For a citizen to be sodomized was seen as disgusting and highly looked down upon, though they were fine with doing such things to slaves.
Even the intercural, it should be noted, it was only socially acceptable to bottom if you were a young man, an Eromenos, which is… basically like if you put the concepts of Twink and Femboy inna blender and made them a sort of time-limited third gender (Typically the 16-25 range though we have examples of Eromenos being up to 29 sometimes) that one was supposed to grow out of as one aged and became a Man.
Greek homosexuality and the cultural norms around it are more complicated than most realize, as is usually the case with historical examples of pre-modern cultures that in some way were accepting of homosexuality.
Yeah, I’m vaguely aware of what you talk about as I’ve been on a bit of an antiquity bender for the last year, but I’ve not covered this topic on much detail. Any books or sources you could recommend?
Huh. Thigh guys eh?
Yeah, very much so. Intercural sex was the Socially Acceptable way of bottoming, they still had a very strong taboo about sodomy proper.
For a citizen to be sodomized was seen as disgusting and highly looked down upon, though they were fine with doing such things to slaves.
Even the intercural, it should be noted, it was only socially acceptable to bottom if you were a young man, an Eromenos, which is… basically like if you put the concepts of Twink and Femboy inna blender and made them a sort of time-limited third gender (Typically the 16-25 range though we have examples of Eromenos being up to 29 sometimes) that one was supposed to grow out of as one aged and became a Man.
Greek homosexuality and the cultural norms around it are more complicated than most realize, as is usually the case with historical examples of pre-modern cultures that in some way were accepting of homosexuality.
(Small correction - eromenos.)
Woops! Thank you for the correction! I always end up adding that extra s, always been better with the Latin spelling than the Greek.
My Latin skills, such as they were, have completely decayed. I need the legionary from Life of Brian to terrify me into remembering the grammar.
Yeah, I’m vaguely aware of what you talk about as I’ve been on a bit of an antiquity bender for the last year, but I’ve not covered this topic on much detail. Any books or sources you could recommend?
The author I recommend elsewhere in this thread is great - James Davidson. His books are Courtesans and Fishcakes and The Greeks and Greek Love.
Nice, thanks