SOME CULTURAL ASPECTS OF GREEK MALE HOMOSEXUALITY

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Abstract
A brief examination of Greek social structures, history, and cosmology reveals several points about the nature of, and attitudes towards, male homosexual practices in the classical period. First, due to the overwhelming importance of the Hellenic family, few men seem to have engaged exclusively in homosexual acts. Second, historical sources for Attica indicate that, although most men may have married, homosexual behavior was widespread among all levels of society and was considered no more opprobrious than heterosexual behavior. Third, the Greek cosmology, with its unbounded sexuality and constant blurring of sex roles, provided an atmosphere in which homosexuality was regarded by Athenians as neither irreligious nor unnatural.

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