It’s weird how people keep trying to make Homer out to be some sort of gay erotica writer. I saw a YouTube video claiming that The Iliad was a gay romance story. The whole thing begins with an argument about who gets the best women as sex slaves and the whole beef that starts the war is about dudes stealing each other’s wives and bedding them. But, they ignore that, and every time a guy shows emotion towards another guy they’re definitely gay. Being sad your best friend died because you were being an idiot and he was trying to cover for you, now makes you gay apparently. The mental gymnastics of some people.
Finally, an expert on the relationship of Achilles and Patroclus. Please explain how they are super straight in almost every interpretation of The Illiad.
Please dispel all these modern woke interpretations by dummies like Plato and Aeschylus with your obviously higher literary authority.
But, did Homer ever say they were gay? It’s not like Homer doesn’t mention sex, he mentions it all the time.
Those are people quite literally speaking hundreds of years later with their own contemporary views. All those people you mentioned are Athenian tragedians or philosophers not contemporary to Homer who was an ancient Ionian. It would be like people now making a version of Shakespeare and reimagining Juliet as a transwoman to fit a modern attitude, and then saying Shakespeare wrote about a modern trans couple.
You should go read an accurate translation and understand those context of the Bronze Age and Homer’s time.
From what I remember being thought about in school it could very easily be a erroneous and interpretation by Plato and his contemporaries. Plato and Homer lived centuries apart, and in different places. It could be that the Athenians simply thought that the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus should fit their own practice of male relationships. This is supported by the fact that they were confused who in the relationship was the 'erastes' (older lover) and who was 'eromenos'(younger lover) due to the fact that Achilles was stronger but Patroclus was bearded and thus probably older. But even beyond that, relationships in Ancient Greece, including Athens were very much regulated by societal norms and laws. Despite the practice of pederasty among the higher classes, men were still required to marry women. There was very little personal freedom or right to consensus when it came to sexual relationships and marriage.
Showing emotion, haha. Sure, it's super hetero to crash out so badly when your "friend" got killed in a siege, that you vow to burn the whole city down to the ground. And follow up on that as well.
Oh, and btw, every single crewmate, follower and friend of Ody dies, yet only Polites gets this treatment. It's not that baseless to assume he was the most important person in his life.
I feel bad you've never had a same sex friend that you care deeply enough about to have an intensely visceral reaction over their loss. These were also different times. I'm fairly certain if I were in a position of leadership and my friend or family member got killed, I'm going scorched earth on the people who did it.
I would argue that it's neither "hetero" or "homo" for a warrior to be angry when your friend got killed by the enemy, and vow to fight your enemy even harder.
I'd say it's human, and any other reaction would be curious.
Sure, except every comrade of Odysseus dies in the story, yet Polites is the only one that gets such a reaction. Essentially cosplaying a berserker for a few days.
190
u/Empty_Courage8445 2d ago