Homosexuality in Antiquity

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that poetry, pottery and philosophy leave no doubt as to the acceptability of homosexuality in antiquity; however, it is difficult to estimate just how much it was valued. The author points out that the sexuality of the Roman male centered on three traditional protocols governing sexual practices: (1) A self-respecting Roman man must always give the appearance of playing the insertive, and not the receptive, role in penetrative acts; (2) apart from his wife, freeborn Romans were officially off-limits as sexual partners for a Roman man and (3) there was a noticeable proclivity toward smooth young bodies. The paper suggests that homosexual affairs took place between men of comparable age and some of them lasted many years; however, it is not clear if affairs continued after either party married: Other men were for emotional relationships but alliances and children depended on women.

From the Paper:

"The Romans were living before either a sin or medical model of homosexuality and while aware of differing inclinations did not consider these important enough to establish a separate social category. Exclusive preference for one sex or the other was not an issue and most men we hear about liked both. In Rome of the early Empire, there were many men who threw off the conventions of traditional Roman manhood and instead assumed an "effeminate" appearance and manner, thereby, in the usual case, advertising their eagerness for sexual encounters with other males. These were the molles and the cinaedi. Their numbers cannot even be guessed, but, in a city of a million persons, they might easily have numbered in the tens of thousands. The Apostle Paul, with his usual provincial primness, adduces overt homosexual behavior as his chief example of the capital's decadence."

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• Essay # 31383 : "Male Homosexuality In Chinese History"

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