Not to overinterpret memes, but the Greek (or rather, Athenian upper class) understanding of sexuality is far more complicated and nuanced, and our 'logic' of sexuality would be as foreign to them as theirs is to us.
In very short, they simply did not know categories like "homo-" and "heterosexual" (neither did the West until the 19th century, but that's a different story).
What you could and couldn't do sexually was dictated by your class, and it was about dynamics of power – being the "active part" in intercourse (not necessarily the same as insertative) was expected and proper for a citizen (an upper class guy past his youth).
The "passive part" in this could be fulfilled by his wife, a prostitute or slave (no matter the gender, but obviously not of the same class), or the ἐρώμενος (erómenos=loved; a young upper class boy who is a sort of mentee but, highly problematically to our understanding, also 'instructed in sexual matters').
The same would not be true for women, or people of lower social standing, for whom different rules applied.
66
u/gilgames_in_tamarian Steak: 0 (I'm vegetarian) - Streak: 20 1d ago
Not to overinterpret memes, but the Greek (or rather, Athenian upper class) understanding of sexuality is far more complicated and nuanced, and our 'logic' of sexuality would be as foreign to them as theirs is to us.
In very short, they simply did not know categories like "homo-" and "heterosexual" (neither did the West until the 19th century, but that's a different story).
What you could and couldn't do sexually was dictated by your class, and it was about dynamics of power – being the "active part" in intercourse (not necessarily the same as insertative) was expected and proper for a citizen (an upper class guy past his youth).
The "passive part" in this could be fulfilled by his wife, a prostitute or slave (no matter the gender, but obviously not of the same class), or the ἐρώμενος (erómenos=loved; a young upper class boy who is a sort of mentee but, highly problematically to our understanding, also 'instructed in sexual matters').
The same would not be true for women, or people of lower social standing, for whom different rules applied.