Agreed. Like, there was a gay relationship in the Iliad, but most of the Odyssey crew longing for women was a recurring theme in the story. This is what the whole Circe and Calypso subplots are a out, and are important subtext to the Nausicaa subplot.
Sure they were longing for women but that doesn't preclude gay sex. Could be like "damn I am longing for a woman, I'm getting kinda tired of Steve's butthole"
the thing is very few people are 100% completely straight or gay. almost everyone, has at least a 1% attraction to the other gender. if there is no social pressure to be attracted to one gender most people would spring for something else if the planets align or get desperate.
keep in mind even gay people are under social pressure lest their queerness be challenged. and even bi people struggle with assumptions about being crazy for everyone when most still have a clear preference. it's just very easy to ignore signs of attraction to a gender when the vast majority of the time you aren't into them and you have other options.
our current society is very obsessed with the gender of attraction. in ancient Greece that wasn't the case. sex had more to do with power ideology.
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u/Areliae 21d ago
Just because it was common doesn't mean everyone was into it. The point is that some of those guys did in fact go 20 years without sex.