About it:
Homophobic religious groups spread myths that the chosen orientation in homosexuality is a symptom of moral decline: Greece and Rome fell when their acceptance of homosexuality arose (immorality was a primary cause of their fall.) - Myth by the Christian religious group.
Most men in Ancient Greece and in Rome engaged in at least one occasional homosexual contact, and a not insignificant number of the marriages consummated in both civilisations were homosexuals.
Homosexuality was celebrated in the arts, the theaters and in cultural activities. Literature of ‘straight society’ makes it clear that homosexuality was widely acknowledges and not immoral or ‘sinful’. Ancient views of homosexuality was that it was innocuous and harmless.
Neither Greek nor Roman cultures began their declines with an increased tolerance of homosexuality; rather the opposite.
Pederasty among the greeks, the reality is that while common among the military occupations, the familiar forms that homosexuality takes among Americans was the rule among the Greeks and Romans as well.
Gender among Greeks and Romans was very different, they recognised that a person may well not see themselves as ‘male’ or female’, but rather a combination of both traits. Gender was not as strict compared to modern Europeans and Americans.
Marriage between members of the same sex was common and accepted. There is many rich literature celebrating same sex relationships.
In Augustinian Rome, not only was male prostitution allowed, but it was even taxed.
During the period of the Roman Republic when Rome was governed by the senate, homosexuality was greatly tolerated.
That all began to change with the “conversion” of the emperor Constantine to Christianity.
Most men in Ancient Greece and in Rome engaged in at least one occasional homosexual contact, and a not insignificant number of the marriages consummated in both civilisations were homosexuals.
Homosexuality was celebrated in the arts, the theaters and in cultural activities. Literature of ‘straight society’ makes it clear that homosexuality was widely acknowledges and not immoral or ‘sinful’. Ancient views of homosexuality was that it was innocuous and harmless.
Neither Greek nor Roman cultures began their declines with an increased tolerance of homosexuality; rather the opposite.
Pederasty among the greeks, the reality is that while common among the military occupations, the familiar forms that homosexuality takes among Americans was the rule among the Greeks and Romans as well.
Gender among Greeks and Romans was very different, they recognised that a person may well not see themselves as ‘male’ or female’, but rather a combination of both traits. Gender was not as strict compared to modern Europeans and Americans.
Marriage between members of the same sex was common and accepted. There is many rich literature celebrating same sex relationships.
In Augustinian Rome, not only was male prostitution allowed, but it was even taxed.
During the period of the Roman Republic when Rome was governed by the senate, homosexuality was greatly tolerated.
That all began to change with the “conversion” of the emperor Constantine to Christianity.
My opinion
To know that homosexuality was accepted to this extent at some point in life brings into my mind many questions. Did it all come down to the start of christianity that people started to find abnormal to be homosexual? The fact that people in Greece and Rome didn’t see people with genders, but with what they wanted to be seen like also makes me wonder why people suddenly changed their minds over religion or other aspects of it. I really wonder if being homosexual was also a factor of popularity, because there used to be more same sex marriages and same sex couples then there are now in one country.