Ancient Greece was very gay, but only for the men. There are very few surviving accounts of female sexuality in general, let alone female homosexuality. The men of ancient Greece only documented female sexuality in a context that served to further explain a man’s story. Sappho’s writings on the island of lesbos is one of the single historical account from ancient Greece that alludes to female homosexuality.
I think people forget how patriarchal ancient Greece was. Of course there were likely plenty of lesbian relationships at the time, but they wouldn’t have been acknowledged, let alone celebrated by the people of the time.
Western history likes to celebrate the liberal aspirations of the ancient Greek. However, in actuality ancient Greek society was run by patriarchal slavers, who treated anyone who wasn’t a wealthy male Greek aristocrat like property.
Ancient Greece was very gay, but only for the men. There are very few surviving accounts of female sexuality in general, let alone female homosexuality. The men of ancient Greece only documented female sexuality in a context that served to further explain a man’s story. Sappho’s writings on the island of lesbos is one of the single historical account from ancient Greece that alludes to female homosexuality.
I think people forget how patriarchal ancient Greece was. Of course there were likely plenty of lesbian relationships at the time, but they wouldn’t have been acknowledged, let alone celebrated by the people of the time.
Western history likes to celebrate the liberal aspirations of the ancient Greek. However, in actuality ancient Greek society was run by patriarchal slavers, who treated anyone who wasn’t a wealthy male Greek aristocrat like property.