red-figure homoerotic images

[meridannight]

Actually there were protocols about homosexual relationships but it has been a long while since I have read much on the subject. I suppose you could google homosexuality in the ancient world or some such. Whether it was Greek or Roman I can't recall but I do remember reading about the routine for an older maninitiating a younger one. there was a dish of olive oil involved. Extra virgin olive oil? One hopes.

That depended a lot on where in Greece you were, actually. Sparta and Crete were different than Athens, which was different than Boeotia, for example.

From my understanding of this subject, men still did what they wanted to do. They did not have to adhere to any protocols, actually. Just, some forms of expression were deemed nobler than others by the public opinion, and, as said, that varied according to region (and according to individual within that region, I would say).

Even the scholars still haven't figured out this subject, despite the apparent consensus on some of the particulars. Some of that has come by through opinion and subjective interpretations rather than what we can call 'facts'. In my opinion, we can't claim anything with reasonable certainty here (outside the observation that homosexuality existed).

And nor do I think we should try to form theories on what they did or thought about it. Because it is impossible for us to know that, and everything we have to say on the subject comes through one bias or another, which unnecessarily and fatally muddles up the whole topic. Unless we unearth some text titled ''history of homosexuality and relationships between men'' written a couple of centuries BCE, we will never know.

I personally don't think they were that different from us. Men are men, whether they lived in 500 BCE or 2016 CE.

(P.S. Rome is a bit different story, with a clearer view than Greece).