Homosexuality in Ancient Greek History essays

Homosexuality in Ancient Greek History essays In Ancient Greek history, homosexuality was considered a culture and way of life; it was displayed in its visual art, books and in its customs; in today's modern society, it is viewed with disappointment and negativity. This paper will discuss homosexuality and its acceptance in Greek society. Homosexuality is believed to have begun in the Greek period. The practice of " homosexuality" in Greek culture was not practiced or used like it is today. The Greeks had no concept of the word as we use it presently. In modern society they would be referred to as " bisexuals". This is because sexual activity for men with partners of both sexes was accepted. In the Greek culture procreation and sexuality were not thought of as the same thing. They believed sex was necessary and marriage was used for only procreation. There are little cases in which you would see a man and his wife together for love. An example of a normal arrangement between husband and wife during these times would be: a noble man marrying a female for procreation and having a male lover on the side. Many men practiced this form of "homosexuality" because they believed women were not their equals. They had many forms of sexual pleasure outside of marriage, these forms include, young boys, slaves, and prostitutes. Since romantic love had not really developed yet, a man could still be promiscuous and be considered honorable. Although sexual pleasure and marriage were not necessarily linked, sexuality and domination among men, were considered a custom. In Greek culture sex was always something someone did to somebody via of the penis. The penis was considered to be the thing that did the doing. The Greeks used special terms to describe sexual activity such as, paedico meaning " to penetrate anally". They did not believe in penetrating by force or unwillingly. As it was stated earlier, men had homosexual acts because of the bal...