Were there any ancient cultures that accepted homosexuality?
score:10
A note: it's important to draw a distinction between modern and ancient concepts of sexuality. Our paradigm where one is classified as somewhere on a spectrum between hetereosexual and h*m*sexual simply doesn't apply to other periods. As other commenters have noted, attitudes towards men having sex with men varied in classical antiquity, but much of it had to do with social status, age, and "masculine" versus "feminine" roles, and not male/female preference as we would understand it. So it may be better to ask if there were ancient cultures that accepted same-gender romantic or sexual relationships (which, of course, there were many of).
Upvote:-3
As you might know, the myth that Alexander, David, Jonathon, Shakespeare, etc were h*m*sexual is a complete falsehood. It's a fanciful retelling of history.
You might be aware of this since you said you "do not count pedophilia", but the Greeks practiced pederasty. Virgil recounts something very similar to pederasty in The Aeneid and it's very likely almost all open h*m*sexual relationships in classical antiquity were of this nature.
Quoting from this article:
"Same sex intercourse with prostitutes, slaves or war captives was considered totally acceptable as it did not threaten a freeborn’s masculinity as long as the Roman citizen took the active role in penetration. Same sex activity amongst soldiers of equal status was punishable by death."
Upvote:9
At least some ancient Greeks accepted h*m*sexuality. Thebes and Sparta are both reported to have military units made up of h*m*sexual couples, the reasoning basically being that this would inspire them to fight harder to protect their lovers. Some sources say that Sparta considered h*m*sexuality superior to heterosexuality because they believed women were inferior to men and thus not worthy of true love -- a woman was only good for reproduction. For the most part Greek h*m*sexuality appears to have been pedophilia, at least, they routinely talked about the older man as the "lover" and the younger as the "beloved", though I don't know what the upper limit on the age of the beloved was. Plato quotes Socrates as saying that when he was a boy he was proud of his abilities to seduce older men.
Homosexuality was certainly known and practiced by the Romans, but it was widely condemned. Or at least, the surviving history books were written by people who condemned it. But for example, according to Plutarch, when Julius Caesar was a young man, he was appointed ambassador to Illyria, and had a h*m*sexual affair with the king of Illyria. But Plutarch says this brought widespread criticism, opponents taunting him as the "Queen of Illyria" and the like.
According to the Bible, Sodom and Gomorroh accepted h*m*sexuality.
I don't know of any other ancient cultures who accepted it. Of course that doesn't prove there were no others: I don't claim to know all about every culture that ever existed.
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