Viking society – or rather Old Norse and Old Danish culture, since the ‘Vikings’ were merely the subset of that culture which went raiding – is well known for being extremely macho. A great deal of emphasis was placed on independence, toughness, and the kind of bloody-minded aggression that seems almost pathological to us in our gentler modern society. Would we, for example, praise a son who raked the equivalent of a dozen stiletto blades down his father’s back because he was tired of doing a job he thought was for milksops? Probably not. But in Grettir’s saga, this is seen as an early example of Grettir’s indomitable spirit, very suitable for a hero.
A man’s reputation was worth more to him than his life. I’m trying to remember the name of the saga, but hopefully better informed readers can tell me the one I’m thinking of; the hero has been captured and held as a servant by a strong household. Eventually, he contrives to escape without anyone in the household knowing about it. He’s on the brink of getting entirely away when he thinks to himself ‘what am I doing, sneaking out like a slave or a woman?!’ Horrified at the thought that everyone will know he behaved like a coward, he turns back, kills everyone, and then escapes, happy that this time he has dealt with the matter like a man.
This was a culture which valued men for their hardness, and where reputation was all. As a result, there could be no worse thing that your enemies could do to you than to publically insult you and call you soft. In fact, the Vikings were extremely touchy about the whole subject of insults.
To quote from Gunnora Hallakarva, whose essay is the best treatment I’ve seen on the subject:
The Old Norse word used in the law code and literature for an insult was níð , which may be defined as “libel, insult, scorn, lawlessness, cowardice, sexual perversion, homosexuality” (Markey 75). From níð are derived such words as níðvisur (“insulting verses”), níðskald (“insult-poet”), níðingr (“coward, outlaw”), griðníðingr (“truce-breaker”), níðstöng (“scorn-pole”) (Markey 75, 79 & 80; Sørenson 29), also níða (“to perform níð poetry”), tunguníð (“verbal níð”), tréníð (“timber níð”, carved or sculpted representations of men involved in a homosexual act, related to niíðstöng, above) (Sørenson 28-29). Níð was part of a family of concepts which all have connotations of passive male homosexuality, such as: ergi or regi (nouns) and argr or ragr (the adjective form of ergi) (“willing or inclined to play or interested in playing the female part in sexual relations with another man, unmanly, effeminate, cowardly”); ergjask (“to become argr”); rassragr (“arse-ragr”); stroðinn and sorðinn (“sexually used by a man”) and sansorðinn (“demonstrably sexually used by another man”) (Sørenson 17-18, 80). A man who is a seiðmaðr (one who practices women’s magic) who is argr is called seiðskratti (Sørenson 63).
Calling a man by any term which suggested he played the ‘passive’ or ‘feminine’ part in homosexual sex was considered an insult so severe that the person who had been insulted had the right to avenge it in combat. Just the insult itself might be enough to get a man outlawed.
There is no apparent equivalent derogatory term for a man who played the ‘active’ part in homosexual sex. Indeed in ‘Guðmundar saga dýra’ Guðmundar plans to rape a male captive in order to break his spirit. This reflects badly on the slave, but not on the rapist, who is merely demonstrating his manliness.
Both castration and rape of defeated foes was seen as a good way of making them more effeminate, and therefore easier to control.
In this context – where the penetrator is regarded as perfectly normal and admirable, but to be the one being penetrated is to be shamed, broken, treated as a slave and ridiculed thenceforth as unmanly – it’s hard to imagine many m/m relationships existing as between equals.
There certainly seem to have been the Viking equivalent of call-boys, but they were cheap and low status, and regarded as essentially slaves. In this the Vikings were very similar to the Romans – it didn’t matter who you fucked, but if you were to be regarded as a real man it mattered very much that nobody fucked you.
Despite this attitude, some ‘passive’ homosexual men may have gained a certain amount of power by practicing seiðr magic. This was a traditional form of women’s magic that seems to have involved ritual sex. No doubt the seiðmaðr were ridiculed as other ‘soft’ men were, but this may have been counterbalanced by a fear of their uncanny powers.
Aside from being ridiculed, insulted and regarded as being on a par with slaves, I’m not aware that ‘argr’ men were punished for it before the introduction of Christianity. Toleration with contempt seems to have been the order of the day.
To sum up, it’s a perfect society for a master/slave, BSDM sort of relationship, but there are big psychological and cultural problems for any couple who want to think of themselves as equals.
For a much fuller treatment of the subject, I highly recommend
Gunnora Hallakarva:
The Vikings and Homosexuality:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/gayvik.html
September 30, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Firstly I’m really impressed -not just with the article, but that my PC showed all the odd Norse characters.
I had to giggle (albiet very wrongly) at the man who snuk back in killed everyone and THEN left. It reminds me very forcibly of how men play video games (the killing) to how I play them (the sneaking)
I had an idea that the society was like this, but wasn’t sure, so it’s interesting to note. It would make a HEA difficult too, which is a nuisance.
Thanks Alex – fascinating article!
October 1, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Ah, the Vikings. They’d probably go into shock if they were somehow transported into modern day Scandinavia…
Also, speaking as a Dane with an occasional interest in what words mean and where they come from, did you know that the word “arg” is still in use in modern day, though the meaning has changed somewhat. It no longer has specific sexual connotations, but simply means that something is bad or evil. To say that someone is your “argeste fjende” is a slightly oldfashioned way of saying that they are your worst enemy.
“Forarge”, on the other hand, means to somehow morally offend or affront someone. Those aforementioned time-displaced Vikings would probably be very forargede…
October 1, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Firstly I’m really impressed -not just with the article, but that my PC showed all the odd Norse characters.
I had to giggle (albiet very wrongly) at the man who snuk back in killed everyone and THEN left. It reminds me very forcibly of how men play video games (the killing) to how I play them (the sneaking)
I had an idea that the society was like this, but wasn’t sure, so it’s interesting to note. It would make a HEA difficult too, which is a nuisance.
*g* I think it was the Vikings who finally put me off the idea of doing things the macho way. It’s so stupid and self (and other) destructive. I still feel some of the glamour on occasions, but I’m now sufficiently in touch with my feminine side to think that there must be a better way of doing things 🙂 I approve of your low impact method.
You probably could have a HEA if both characters fought each other to a standstill over the course of the book, and they both agreed that neither would ever tell anyone their shameful secret. They’d still have to marry women though, because not being married was suspect too.
October 1, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Ah, the Vikings. They’d probably go into shock if they were somehow transported into modern day Scandinavia…
Also, speaking as a Dane with an occasional interest in what words mean and where they come from, did you know that the word “arg” is still in use in modern day, though the meaning has changed somewhat. It no longer has specific sexual connotations, but simply means that something is bad or evil. To say that someone is your “argeste fjende” is a slightly oldfashioned way of saying that they are your worst enemy.
“Forarge”, on the other hand, means to somehow morally offend or affront someone. Those aforementioned time-displaced Vikings would probably be very forargede…
It is a bit of a turn-around, now that Scandinavia is so peaceable and easy going. I prefer the modern style myself!
Oh, it’s interesting that the word is still in use, though slightly shifted over the centuries. Ooh, can you tell me something I’ve puzzled about for ages? Do you pronounce the ‘r’ at the end of things, like ‘argr’ and Baldr and ‘Heimdallr’? I’ve seen Heimdallr written with the r and without. What’s that about?
October 1, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Okay, I’m going out on a limb here…was I the only one whose eyes glazed over while reading all the various words and their slight changes?
I had to read it twice, but I loved the article. Timely, because a group of us were thinking of doing a Viking anthology…and as I was going to write a m/m story…well, let’s just say I’m going to have to rethink my plot to match history. Back to the research lab!
Sigh.
Still you gotta love those bloodthirsty Vikings!
Thank God you didn’t go into all the horrific ways they killed their enemies.
October 6, 2008 at 10:01 am
*g* I’m afraid I rather enjoy rootling through old word-lists. I find them so evocative. But I’ve had quite a bit of practice with Anglo-Saxon, so a list of Viking words is not so much of a culture shock 🙂
Yay! I’m really glad this turned up at the right time for you to use it. I think there are ways you can get around this, but it’s nice to be forewarned 🙂
LOL! I think there’s been some sort of a campaign recently to make them out as not being as bad as everyone thinks, but I think the truth is that they were, and then some ;D
October 6, 2008 at 8:01 pm
I’m afraid I’m not an expert on the pronounciation of Old Norse words. In Danish, none of those words end in the gr ending – either the r has vanished, as in arg and Heimdal, or an e has been added, as in Balder. Normal language development, as far as I know. In fact, I’m not even sure there is any Danish words with such an ending… I suspect that you would probably have more luck asking someone from Iceland – Icelandic is widely considered the modern language closest to Old Norse.
That said, when I try to pronounce them, my mouth wants to make the ending “r” from all the way down in the throat, like in “rødgrød”. On the other hand, Danish is notoriously difficult for non-native speakers to learn, because there is precious little relation between the written and the spoken word.
October 8, 2008 at 10:48 am
Thanks Oneiriad! That actually makes a lot of sense, if it’s a representation of a sound which isn’t exactly like ‘r’, but isn’t exactly like nothing at all either. It makes it easier to see how it could give rise to both nothing *and* ‘er’. Myself, I puzzle over why Old English needed two different letters to represent ‘th’ (æ and Þ) when to my ear I can’t hear the difference between them.
October 9, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Over the course of history there have been a number of pederastic relationships between adult men and adolescent boys which have become part of the historical record. In some of these cases one or both members are notable historical figures, while in other cases the individuals involved are only minor personages, often remembered only for this particular aspect of their lives.
The legal status of these relationships has varied with culture and jurisdiction. At present pederastic relationships between unrelated individuals above the local age of consent are legal in most jurisdictions.
Though all of these relationships are by definition homoerotic in nature, the individuals involved do not necessarily identify themselves as homosexuals.[1] The nature of the relationships have ranged from overtly sexual to what is now commonly referred to as platonic,[2] sometimes out of religious principle.[3]
Contents [hide]
1 Limitations of the historical record
2 Known or presumed pederastic couples
2.1 Ancient and premodern Asia
2.2 Middle Ages
2.3 Pre-modern period
2.4 Seventeenth century
2.5 Eighteenth century
2.6 Nineteenth century
2.7 20th century
3 See also
4 Sources
5 References
6 External links
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Limitations of the historical record
In the pre-modern and modern West, their equivocal status has made pederastic relationships difficult to document, since it was in the interest of both participants to keep the relationship secret. According to historian Michael Kaylor,
[S]ince in Victorian England ‘homosexual behaviour became subject to increased legal penalties, notably by the Labouchère Amendment of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, which extended the law to cover all male homosexual acts, whether committed in public or private’, expecting ‘verifiable data’ concerning their unconventional desires is the ultimate scholarly presumption.[4]
Another obstacle to the documentation of such relationships has been the destruction of “incriminating” personal and public records, either to “preserve the honor” of the individuals involved, or as retribution against their perceived transgressions.
Some examples of this destruction of personal records by solicitous next-of-kin are the burning of the papers of Richard Francis Burton (among which his autobiographical magnum opus) by his wife at the time of his death, a project reported to have taken a number of days. Likewise, the sister of Horatio Alger destroyed his correspondence upon his death. The same fate befell the personal papers of Philip II, Duke of Orléans, whose wife entered his chambers upon his death and disposed of his voluminous correspondence with his various minions. Death is not the only occasion when such records are lost. The wife of André Gide burned thirty years of almost daily correspondence between them (“The best of myself,” he later claimed) upon learning of his elopement to London with Marc Allégret, his teenage boyfriend, declaring she had been left with “nothing else to do.”
Nevertheless a very small percentage of these relationships have become public knowledge, usually because one of the members disclosed it as part of his artistic production, or because the relationship came to the attention of the authorities and the legal record was preserved. In recent years, with the greater public acceptance of homosexual expression, such information has become somewhat easier to come by, especially in those cases where the relationship is no longer illegal.
Known or presumed pederastic couples
In the following list the couples are listed in chronological order, and the name of the older partner precedes that of the younger. Although many more men are known to have engaged in such relationships, only those instances in which the name of the younger partner is known are included. In keeping with various traditions which allow (and actually privilege) chaste pederastic relationships (See Philosophy of pederasty and Nazar ila’l-murd), included below are also relationships in which there is evidence of an erotic component even in the absence of actual sexual relations. The more famous partner is usually the older one but not always so.
This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy certain standards for completeness.
Revisions and sourced additions are welcome.
Ancient and premodern Asia
This article or section possibly contains original research or unverified claims.
Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (May 2008)
Gong Wei and Wang Qi
According to 孔子 Confucius, Gongshu Wuren, known as Gongwei, son of King Zhao of 魯 Lu, had Wang Qi as his boy-favorite. Gongwei rode to meet the army of 齊 Qi in his war chariot with his favorite beside him. The two died in battle and their wakes were held at the same time. The people of Lu considered not giving the lad Wang Qi a funeral. They consulted Confucius who said, “If someone can wield the lance to protect his country, how can you not give him a funeral?”[5]
Gaozu of Han and Jiri
Reigned 206-195 BCE.
Emperor Hui of Han and Hongru
Reigned 194-188 BCE. Before the tradition of meritocracy took root, male favorites rose to rank and power.
Yu Xin and Wang Shao
The great writer (513-581) was disowned by his beloved upon the latter’s rise to power.
Walibah ibn al-Hubab and Abu Nuwas
Both poets, the younger (b. 756 C.E.) becoming by far the greater of the two.
Image:Mahmud and Ayaz and Shah Abbas I.jpg
Mahmud Mahmud of Ghazni & AyazMahmud of Ghazni and Ayaz
The two, sultan and slave, are paragons of male love in Islamic culture. Their story depicts the power of love of a man for a youth, where the king becomes a slave to his slave. Mahmud appointed Ayaz ruler of Lahore in 1021. See Malik Ayaz for anecdotes of their relationship
Mahmud of Ghazni and Mir Ud-Dowlah
The younger male was rumored to have had a brief but close friendship with the older Mahmud. If there was a relationship that existed between them it was likely a chaste one however.
Shah Hussain and Madho Lal
Shah Hussain’s love for a Brahmin boy called “Madho” or “Madho Lal” is famous, and they are often referred to as a single person with the composite name of “Madho Laal Hussain.” Madho’s tomb lies next to Hussain’s in the shrine.
Caliph Abd-ar-Rahman III of al-Andalus and Pelagius of Cordova
The Caliph became in love with Pelagius when he was 13. Pelagius refused the Caliph’s offer for freedom and remained with him for three years longer. Although Christian records tell us that this was because Pelgaius refused to convert to Islam, this may be because of Christian strong biases in blurring the nature of their relationship to hide any pederastic interpretations and tried to demonize the Muslim Abd-ar-Rahman.
Middle Ages
Ahmad al-Bahnas and Ibr al-Akram
Ibn Ammar and Muhammad Ibn Abbad Al Mutamid
In 1053 the nineteen year old poet Ibn Ammar was appointed tutor to the thirteen year old future ruler of Sevilla, with whom he promptly fell in love. Separated from the boy by his father, they were later reunited but eventually fell out. Al Mutamid killed his old lover with his own hands in 1086, only to then give him a sumptuous funeral.[6]
Muhammad Ibn Abbad Al Mutamid and Saif
“Henri Peres tells us: ‘Sodomy is practised in all the courts of the Muluk al-Tawaif. It is sufficient to point out here the love of al-Mutamid for Ibn Ammar and for his page Saif…'”[7]
Raoul II, Archbishop of Tours and Jean, Archbishop of Orléans
Raoul appointed his adolescent lover (also known as “Flora”) in 1097 to the post in Orléans over the vehement objections of other prelates.[8]
Ailred of Rievaulx and Simon
Ailred, the abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Rievaulx who was in his mid-twenties in 1135, was in love with a young monk named Simon, about fourteen years of age. The relationship is thought to have remained chaste.[9]
Frederick of Baden and Conradin
The sixteen year old king of Sicily and his nineteen year old best friend and lover were captured by the forces of Charles of Anjou. They were both tried, found guilty of treason, and decapitated.[10]
Nicoleto Marmagna and Giovanni Braganza
In 1357 the Venetian court I Signori di Notte (“The Gentlemen of the Night”) sentenced the boatman and his young servant to be burned at the stake. Their relationship of many years standing had been discovered during a voyage from Mestre to Venice.[11]
Pre-modern period
Image:Radu cel Frumos.jpg
Radu cel FrumosImage:Gian Giacomo Caprotti – Salai.jpg
il SalainoImage:Cecchino de’ Bracci, tomba, chiesa dell’Aracoeli, Roma – Foto di Giovanni Dall’Orto – cropped.jpg
Cecchino de’ BracciImage:Caravaggio – Amor Vincit – detail.jpg
Francesco BoneriMehmed II and Radu cel Frumos
While a hostage at the Ottoman court in the 1440s, Radu (whose epithet, “cel Frumos” means “the Handsome”), younger brother of Vlad III the Impaler, became the beloved of the Sultan, after first refusing his favors and wounding him with his own sword.[12]
Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Cavalcanti
Ficino lived with the youth at his villa for many years, only separating briefly in 1473, occasion of ardent love letters.[13]
Leonardo da Vinci and Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno (il Salaino)
Il Salaino entered his service in 1490 at 10, and remained for thirty years. [14] [15]
Babur and Baburi
According to Babur’s autobiography, some time around the year 1500,
In those leisurely days I discovered in myself a strange inclination, nay! as the verse says, I maddened and afflicted myself” for a boy in the camp-bazaar, his very name, Baburi, fitting in…. From time to time Baburi used to come to my presence but out of modesty and bashfulness, I could never look straight at him; how then could I make conversation and recital? In my joy and agitation I could not thank him (for coming); how was it possible for me to reproach him with going away? What power had I to command the duty service to myself? One day, during that time of desire and passion when I was going with companions along a lane and suddenly met him face to face, I got into such a state of confusion that I almost went right off. To look straight at him or put words together was impossible…. In that frothing up of desire and passion, and under that stress of youthful folly, I used to wander, barehead, bare-foot, through street and lane, orchard and vineyard.[16]
Leonardo da Vinci and Francesco Melzi
Melzi was Leonardo’s last love. In 1506, he joined Leonardo’s household at the age of 15. Later he went to France with him and finally inherited the artistic and scientific works of the great Italian master. Talking about Leonardo’s affection for him, Melzi described it as “un ardentissimo e sviscerato amore,” a fiery and passionate love.[17][18][19]
Benedetto Varchi and Giovanni de’ Pazzi
Varchi’s first love affair, around 1525, was with Giovanni, the adolescent son of a local aristocrat. The father had Varchi knifed upon finding his son stole out of the house to spend his nights with his lover. Varchi survived to have other lovers.[20]
Nicholas Udall and Thomas Cheyney
Udall, headmaster at Eton College resigned in 1541 after confessing to having “committed buggery” with his pupil, for which he spent a short time in Marshalsea gaol.[21]
Michelangelo and Cecchino de’ Bracci
The artist composed fifty rhymed epitaphs for his friend, dead at sixteen in 1543. A few verses refer clearly to their shared physical joys.[22]
Pope Julius III and Cardinal Innocenzo Ciocchi Del Monte
The future pope hired the illiterate 14-year-old street urchin for his charms in 1547. Gossip called the boy Pope Julius III’s “Ganymede,” and the Venetian ambassador reported that Innocenzo shared the pope’s bedroom and bed. The relationship became a staple of anti-papal polemics for over a century: it was said that Pope Julius III, awaiting Innocenzo’s arrival in Rome to receive his cardinal’s hat, showed the impatience of a lover awaiting a mistress, and that he boasted of the boy’s prowess. Upon being appointed pope in 1550, he raised the boy to the post of cardinal and indulged in pederastic orgies with him and other young cardinals. Pope Julius III poured benefices on Innocenzo that gave him one of the highest incomes in Europe, even more than that of the Medicis (http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/julius_III.html)
Theodore Beza and Audebert
Among his 1548 Juvenilia poems was one which was understood to point to his bisexuality, in which he compared his passion for two young lovers, “little Candida” and “little Audebert,” concluding he loved Audebert the best. Later this poem would be held against him in particular and against Calvinists in general as a proof of moral failing.[23][24]
Benedetto Varchi and Giulio della Stufa
Giulio, the subject of many passionate letters around 1552, complained to his teacher to send fewer letters and more subdued in language, since his father had read one and exclaimed, “This is nonsense! What kind of love is this?”[25]
Marc Antoine Muret and Memmius Frémiot
The two lovers had to flee Toulouse in 1554, where they were later burned in effigy as sodomites. Muret and his young pupil had been warned of the danger by a friend in parliament who sent him only a verse of Virgil: “Oh, flee this cruel land, flee the bitter shore.”[26]
Benvenuto Cellini and Fernando di Giovanni di Montepulciano
Ended after five years, in 1556, when Cellini, 56, had a falling out with his teen apprentice.
Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox and James I of England
Esmé Stewart became the first favourite of the future king of England, in 1579, when James was only thirteen years old. [27]
Anthony Bacon and Isaac Burgades
While living in Montauban in 1587, the elder brother of Francis Bacon was convicted of sodomy with a page who at the trial declared that “there was nothing wrong with sodomy” and that “Theodore Beza of Geneva approved of it.”[28] The two escaped conviction and probable death by burning only due to the intercession of Henry IV of France.[29]
Prospero Farinacci and Berardino Rocchi
The Italian lawyer and judge, noted for his harsh sentencing of sodomites, was himself accused in 1595 of repeated sexual relations with Berardino Rocchi, a sixteen year old page in the Altemps palace, where Farinacci lived. He was excused of the crime by Pope Clement VIII, who famously made a pun of Farinacci name (which alludes to “flour” in Italian) by claiming that “The flour is good but the bag it’s in is not so clean.” (http://andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/biof1/fari1.html)
Seventeenth century
Image:Henri Coiffier de Ruzé, Marquis of Cinq-Mars.jpg
Marquis de Cinq-MarsImage:Comte de Vermandois (1667-1683).jpg
Louis de BourbonMichelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and Francesco (‘Cecco’) Boneri
The youthful Cecco modelled for many of Caravaggio’s most famous paintings, including his 1602 Amor Vincit Omnia, and became a well-known artist himself, known as Cecco del Caravaggio.
James I of England and Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset
The 41-year-old king fell in love with the 17-year-old ex-page at a 1606 jousting bout. Their love lasted several years, though as the boy matured the king was powerless to prevent Carr’s “creeping back and withdrawing yourself from lying in my chamber, notwithstanding my many hundred times earnest soliciting you to the contrary.”
Charles de Luynes and Louis XIII of France
Counselor and friend to the Dauphin who was 23 years his junior, de Luynes was his lover from at least 1615, when the future Louis XIII – already experienced in male love – was 14.
Louis XIII, King of France, and the Marquis de Cinq-Mars
Cardinal Richelieu introduced the eighteen-year-old marquis to his king in 1638, thinking the youth would be easy to control. Instead, the marquis tried to convince the king to have Richelieu executed. Cinq-Mars induced some French nobility into revolt, but the effort failed and Richelieu had him beheaded in 1642.[30]
Cyrano de Bergerac and Chapelle
After befriending the seventeen year old Chapelle in 1643,[31] de Bergerac passed him on to his friend d’Assoucy, another in his libertine circle.[32]
Charles Coypeau d’Assoucy and Chapelle
D’Assoucy and Chapelle fell deeply in love. As d’Assoucy later recalled: “I could not live without him, and he could hardly live without me.”[33]
Charles, marquis du Bellay, and Richard de la Monnerie
Du Bellay, when already of an advanced age and hunchbacked obtained in 1661 his young valet in exchange for fifty louis d’or from the soon to be notorious Jacques Chausson, who ended his days on a pyre for various sodomitical acts. The marquis, also known as the Prince of Yvetot, died without issue, thus extinguishing the line.[34]
Molière and Michel Baron
Molière’s wife, exasperated over his infatuation with the fifteen year old Michel, in 1668, presented the playwright with an ultimatum: her or the boy. The result was the wife moved out and Molière continued to live with the young actor until his own death five years later.[35]
Henry III of France and Anne de Joyeuse
Known as “The King’s King” for his influence over his royal patron,[36] de Joyeuse was one of the two principal mignons of the king, having first won the king’s favor at the age of fourteen in 1674.[37]
Philippe de Lorraine and Louis de Bourbon, Count of Vermandois
Louis, the fourteen year old bastard son of Louis XIV, fell into royal disfavor in 1682 upon discovery of his relationship with the lover of Monsieur, the king’s brother, and was sent away from court by the anti-sodomitical king. A year later he was given the chance to redeem himself at the siege of Courtray. Ill with a high fever, he joins the battle despite the advice of the royal physician, and succumbs to the disease shortly thereafter. The king does not mourn him.[38]
Jean-Baptiste Lully and Brunet
In 1685 the 53-year-old composer was denounced for his dalliances with his young page. The boy confessed to Roman orgies involving so many of the great lords that all was hushed up.
Eighteenth century
Image:William Courtenay – Kitty 1.jpg
William Courtenay (Kitty)Hans Hermann von Katte and Frederick II of Prussia
The 18-year-old crown prince Frederick sought to flee his brutal father in 1730, together with his twenty six year old lover, whom he had met during private instruction in mathematics and mechanics the previous year. Betrayed, they were caught, von Katte being sentenced to death before his friend’s eyes. Catching sight of each other at the last moment, the prince exclaimed: “Pardonnez moi, mon cher Katte,” (Forgive me, my dear Katte!) “La mort est douce pour un si aimable Prince,” (Death is sweet, for such a kind prince,) came the answer.[39]
Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues and Hippolyte de Seytres
Both belonged to a French regiment that fought in Bohemia since 1740. Hippolyte, also an aristocrat, was 18 and Vauvenargue 8 years older when they became companions. The younger of the two died during the Siege of Prague in 1742. De Clapiers addressed his philosophical work Conseil à un jeune homme (Advice to a young Man) to Hippolyte de Seytres. “He understood all the passions and opinions, even the most singular, that the world blames.” —Vauvenargues about his friend.
William Thomas Beckford and William Courtenay
Beckford, 19, fell in love with Courtenay, 10, nicknamed Kitty and “one of the most beautiful boys in England,” in 1789. Both pursued lifelong involvement with boys. In a letter to Courtenay’s aunt he describes his feelings: “You know, he was never so happy as when he reclined by my side listening to my wild musick or the strange stories which sprang up in my fancy for his amusement. Those were the most delightful hours of my existence.”[40]
Nineteenth century
Ali Pasha and Athanasi Vaya
A native of Tepeleni, the same town as Ali Pasha, the Greek youth eventually rose to be the most trusted subordinate of the Pasha.[41]
Cheng I and Chang Pao (Cheung Po Tsai in Cantonese)
Cheng I was a pirate of the Chinese coast, who kidnapped the 15 years old Chang Pao in 1801. Chang Pao later became the leader of Cheng’s pirate fleet.
Lord Byron and Nicolò Giraud
Lord Byron fell in love with the French-Italian lad in 1810, when the boy was 15. [42] “It is about two hours since, that, after informing me he was most desirous to follow him (that is me) over the world, he concluded by telling me it was proper for us not only to live, but ‘morire insieme’. The latter I hope to avoid – as much of the former as he pleases.”[43] Byron wrote to a friend that he and the boy were having anal sex (in code, “the Pl. & opt. C.” short for “coitum plenum et optabilem”).[44]
Franz Desgouttes and Daniel Hammeler
Daniel moved in with his twenty five year old lover, a Swiss lawyer, at the age of sixteen in 1810, and lived with him for seven years, until he was murdered by Frantz in a fit of jealousy. His lover was executed by being broken on the wheel, an event that galvanized the early Swiss homosexual emancipation movement.[45]
Hail-Storm and Rabbit
Of the two Oglala Lakota he met in 1847, Parkman recounts, “Hail-Storm and [Rabbit] were inseparable: they ate, slept and hunted together, and shared with one another almost all that they possessed. If there be anything that deserves to be called romantic in the Indian character, it is to be sought for in friendships such as this, which are quite common among many of the prairie tribes.” Hail-Storm was an older adolescent entering manhood, while Rabbit was still a boy. [46]
Edward John Eyre and Wylie
The Australian explorer met Wylie in 1840 and took him as companion, together with two other Aboriginee boys and a European, on his 1841 expedition across the Nullarbor Plain. Afterwards he formed repeated close associations with such boys.[47]
James Brooke and Charles (Doddy) Grant
Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, a man uninterested in women and with a penchant for falling in love with adolescent boys, fell in love with a young recruit, Charles Grant (grandson of the seventh Earl of Elgin), sixteen at the time. His love was reciprocated by the boy.[48]
Digby Mackworth Dolben and Martin Le Marchant Gosselin
He marked his romantic attachment to another pupil a year older than him, Martin Le Marchant Gosselin, by writing love poetry
Edward Carpenter and Andrew Beck (a master of Trinity Hall)
According to Carpenter, the two formed a close relationship that had ‘a touch of romance’. Beck eventually ended their relationship and denied the attachment, causing Carpenter great emotional heartache.
Walter Pater and William Money Hardinge
Recently uncovered documents reveal an affair with a 19 year old Hardinge.
William Johnson Cory and Charles Wood
William Johnson, master at Eton, wrote a book of Uranian verse, Ionica, dedicated to his pupil, in 1850.(http://anglicanhistory.org/bios/halifax/halifax2.html)
Charles John Vaughan and Alfred Pretor
Vaughn, headmaster at Harrow School, in 1851 was engaged in a long-standing love affair with Pretor, the head boy at the school, a youth known as “the house tart.”[49] Pretor boasted of the affair to his friend, John Addington Symonds. The latter eventually divulged matters to his father who blackmailed Vaughn into resigning. Pretor never forgave John his indiscretion.[50]
John C. Frémont and Jesse Shepard
The adventurer and politician took on the thirteen year old boy as his page, a role he filled for two years, until 1863. Jesse had been chosen because he was queer, and the two were constantly together.[51]
Russell Conwell and John Ring
During the American Civil War Conwell, a non-believer at the time, was attended by a sixteen year old aide de camp named Johnny Ring, a youth who shared his tent and was also charged with safeguarding the captain’s saber and was devoutly Christian. The boy “idolized Conwell and was always with him,” an affection which Conwell returned. On one occasion, Conwell being away from camp, the platoon was forced into a hasty retreat, setting fire to a bridge to block pursuit. Ring, attempting to save his captain’s sword, crossed the burning bridge and enemy lines, retrieving the sword and crossing back through the flames, dying later of his burns. Upon hearing the news, Conwell lost consciousness and spent days in delirium of grief, converting later so as to be able to rejoin his friend after death. According to his own account, is is the memory of the love they shared that gave him the energy to accomplish his works in life.[52]
John Addington Symonds and Norman Moor
Symonds was introduced to the schoolboy in 1868 by a common friend, and for Norman’s sake sought an appointment as teacher at his school, Clifton College.[53]
Image:Carjat Arthur Rimbaud 1872 n2.jpg
Arthur RimbaudPaul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud
Both major poets, they became lovers in 1871, at age 27 and 17 respectively. [54]
Henry Morton Stanley and Kalalu
Stanley wrote a book about his love for the African boy, around 1870, “My Kalalu.”
Reginald Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher and Ernlé Johnson
Inspired by his tutor and close friend William Johnson Cory, Brett engages the fifteen year old Ernlé in a romantic but chaste mentorship of many years duration starting in 1874.[55]
Oscar Browning and George Curzon
After fifteen years a master at Eton College, Browing, a former student of William Johnson-Cory,[56] was dismissed in 1875 over his “overly amorous”[57] (but purportedly chaste) relationship with the sixteen year old Curzon.[58][59]
Wilhelm von Gloeden and Pancrazio Bucini
Image:Il Moro.jpg
Il Moro
Von Gloeden, a famous fin de siècle photographer of Italian youths, hired Bucini in the early 1880s, when the boy was 13 or 14. Bucini, called “il Moro,” was his lover, assistant and finally his heir. In 1936 Bucini, as curator of the collection, successfully defended himself against the charge of keeping pornography, accusation made by the Italian fascists, who destroyed most of the remaining three thousand picture plates.
Lord Henry Somerset and Henry Smith
Though Somerset had met the commoner when the boy was only seven, their intimate relationship only blossomed about ten years later. The lord had to take refuge (and permanent exile) in Italy shortly thereafter as a result of his irate wife publicizing the affair.[60] Driven to poetry, he produced a collection titled Songs of Adieu which was reviewed by Oscar Wilde:
Lord Henry Somerset’s verse is not so good as his music. Most of the Songs of Adieu are marred by their excessive sentimentality of feeling and by the commonplace character of their weak and lax form. There is nothing that is new and little that is true in verse of this kind […] It can be produced in any quantity. Lord Henry Somerset has too much heart and too little art to make a good poet, and such art as he does possess is devoid of almost every intellectual quality and entirely lacking in any intellectual strength. He has nothing to say and says it.[61]
Arthur Rimbaud and Djami Ouddei
While in Ethiopia in 1883 the adventurer hired a local boy of fourteen to sixteen years of age who became his constant companion for the remainder of his life in Africa. After his return to France, while on his death bed, “it was Djami’s name that was always on his lips when he finally sank into unconsciousness.”[62]
Walt Whitman and Bill Duckett
They were together from 1884 to 1889
Oscar Wilde and Robbie Ross
Image:Robert Ross at 24.jpg
Robert Ross at twenty-four
Ross, at 17 a journalist and future literary executor to Wilde, seduced his 32 year old mentor in 1886. [63]
Robbie Ross and Christopher Millard
Ross had a sexual relationship with Millard while the latter was a teenager.
Charles Kains Jackson and Cecil Castle
Jackson, active in the turn-of-the-century Uranian circles had the fourteen year old Castle as his boyfriend in 1888. The boy also posed nude for Henry Scott Tuke’s The Bathers and for Frederick Rolfe’s camera. (Rictor Norton on British pederastic art)
Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky and Vladimir Lvovich Davïdov
The composer and his nephew (b. 1871) were lovers for five years, from c. 1888 until the elder’s death at 53. [64]
Lord Arthur Somerset and Algernon Alleys
Somerset, an intimate of the Prince of Wales, fell in love with a London telegraph boy who moonlighted at at Charles Hammond’s male brothel at 19 Cleveland Street. He wrote the lad a number of incriminating letters, which, once revealed in the investigation of the Cleveland Street scandal, prompted his self-imposed exile on the continent in 1889.[65]
John Ellingham Brooks and Somerset Maugham
Brooks, an impoverished British pianist about twenty six at the time, had an affair in 1890 with the sixteen year old Maugham in Heidelberg, where the latter was at university. It was the boy’s first sexual experience.[66]
Charles D. Williamson and Salvatore
Williamson, a former pupil of Johnson Cory and former beloved of Reginald Brett, took Catholic orders and moved to Italy, where in 1892 he developed a relationship with a fifteen year old youth whom he also appointed as houseboy. They were together for four years, until the boy’s death.[67]
André Gide and Ali
The first homoerotic encounter of the young writer, in North Africa, with a young Arab.[68]
Lord Ronald Gower and Frank Hird
Image:Tuke – Frank Hird – a comission for Lord Ronald Gower – colored chalks (29 x 24 cm.), 1894.jpg
Frank Hird
Gower, the model for Lord Henry Wotton in Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, adopted the boy (no later than 1894) and lived with him in what became a life-long relationship.[69] “Gower may be seen, but not Hird.” —Oscar Wilde
John Gambril Nicholson and William Alexander (Alec) Melling
One of the poet’s boyish muses, Melling was the dedicatee of Nicholsen’s collection of Uranian poems, A Chaplet of Southernwood, published in 1896.
John Gambril Nicholson and Frank Victor Rushforth
In his Dead Roses the Uranian poet hides the name of his thirteen year old beloved:
But art is victor still through all the ages
And renders evergreen our sunny hours:
Key to my verse you are; and may its meaning
Every time you turn my volume’s pages
Rush forth to greet you like the scent of flowers![70]
Norman Douglas and Michele
Douglas had an affair with the youth, 15, in Capri in 1897.
Hector MacDonald and Alaister Robertson
At the time of the Battle of Paardeberg in 1900, MacDonald’s principal friend was Alaister Robertson, a Glenalmond schoolboy from Aberdeen whose photograph he kept on his desk and with whom he corresponded.[71][72]
20th century
Image:Leyendecker arrow color 190 Beach.jpg
Charles BeachJ. C. Leyendecker and Charles Beach
The illustrator met his lover in 1901, when the youth was fifteen. He immortalized the boy – and later the man – by using him as the principal model for The Arrow Collar Man ad campaign. Their relationship lasted fifty years.[73]
John Maynard Keynes and Arthur Hobhouse
In 1902, his freshman year at Cambridge, Keynes fell in love with Trinity undergraduate Hobhouse, sixteen years old at the time. The youth was the first in a series of male love affairs that was to last seventeen years.[74] Keynes and Lytton Strachey had been competing for Arthur’s favors. When Lytton lost, he countered with a love poem to Arthur.[75]
Image:GrantKeynes.jpg
Duncan Grant and KeynesLytton Strachey and Duncan Grant
The two, former childhood friends, became lovers in 1902 when Grant was a house guest of the Stracheys in London. He was seventeen and Strachey twenty two. “When he was 17, it was decided that he would join the vast household of his London cousins, the Stracheys. It was not long before Lytton Strachey, five years Grant’s senior and openly homosexual, declared himself besotted with his handsome cousin. After several rebuffs — legend has it Grant told Strachey, Relations we may be: have them, we may not — Strachey finally had his way, becoming the first of Grant’s many male lovers.” [76]
Jacques d’Adelswärd-Fersen and Loulou Locré
Loulou was a pupil at the Lycée Carnot, involved with Fersen in 1903.[77]
Stefan George and Max Kronberger (Maximin)[citation needed]
A chaste love (one of many for George) which lasted one year, till the boy’s death at 16 in 1904. George was then creating a cult that lifted Maximin to a godlike status. [78]
St. John Lucas and Rupert Brooke[citation needed]
Whilst at Rugby in 1904, the 16-year-old RB had a relationship with 25-year-old St. John Lucas, an author and aesthete who gave a great deal of encouragement to RB, and introduced him to the 1890s poets (Wilde, Dowson, etc.).[citation needed] Image:Paul Hoecker-Nino-1904-Jugend.jpg
Nino CesariniJacques d’Adelswärd-Fersen and Nino Cesarini
The baron, 24, met the 14 year old laborer in Rome, 1904. They lived in Capri till Fersen’s 1923 suicide.[citation needed]
Frederick Rolfe and Ermenegildo Vianello
The writer, also known as “Baron Corvo” met the boy, a young gondolier of around seventeen years of age, in Venice in 1908[citation needed]
John Moray Stuart-Young and Thomas Olman Todd
Described as “the love of his life,” Tommy Todd, son of the Sunderland occultist by the same name, visited Stuart-Young during his school vacations. Their relationship deepened over the years.[79]
Image:Dahoum – Selim Ahmed 2.jpg
Selim AhmedT. E. Lawrence and Selim Ahmed (Dahoum)[80]
For love of a Syrian boy of 15 met in 1912 at 24, Lawrence fought for Arab independence. “I liked a particular Arab very much, and I thought that freedom for the race would be an acceptable present.” —T.E. Lawrence
Image:Noel Coward in his teens.jpg
Noel CowardPhilip Streatfeild and Noel Coward
Streatfeild, a 35 year old painter and member of the Uranian Society, took the 14 year old child actor in and introduced him to high society in 1913. Coward is thought to have modeled for his painting of nude boys on the beach. “His “friendship” at age 14 with painter Philip Streatfield (the only relationship about which the program is somewhat coy – homosexuality may have reached a greater level of acceptance today, but man-boy sex is still taboo) led to a connection with aristocrat Mrs. Astley-Cooper, and indeed, residence at the Cooper estate.”[81][82]
André Gide and Marc Allégret
Became lovers in 1916 when they were 47 and 15, remained friends for life. Allégret was the son of Elie Allégret, best man at Gide’s 1895 wedding, and later became a renowned filmmaker. [83]
Forrest Reid and Kenneth Hamilton
From 1916 until 1920 the two were linked by an intimate friendship, interrupted by the boy, now sixteen, leaving to join the Merchant Service and then, at eighteen, cattle ranching in Australia. Shortly thereafter he rode off alone into the bush, where he is thought to have died.[84]
John Henry Mackay and Atti
Mackay fell deeply in love with the Berlin schoolboy in early 1916 during a school holiday.[85]
Image:Mohammed el-Adl.jpg
Mohammed el-AdlE. M. Forster and Mohammed el-Adl
Forster met the 17 year old boy in Ramlah around 1917. Their love served as inspiration for much of the writer’s later work. (http://www.emforster.info/pages/cavafy.html)
Image:Raymond Radiguet by Modigliani, 1915, private collection.jpg
Raymond RadiguetJean Cocteau and Raymond Radiguet
Cocteau met the young poet in 1918 at 29, when the boy was 15 years old. The two collaborated extensively, socialized, and undertook many journeys and vacations together. Cocteau got the youth exempted from military service and exerted his influence to garner the “Nouveau Monde” literary prize for Radiguet’s novel, Le Diable au Corps. Some sources suggest that their friendship was loving and sexual.[86][87] Their relationship has been placed in the context of “a series of younger lovers and collaborators”. [88] An anecdote told by Ernest Hemingway has an enraged Cocteau charging Radiguet (known in the Parisian literary circles as “Monsieur Bébé”) with decadence for his tryst with a model: “Bébé est vicieuse. Il aime les femmes.” (“Baby is depraved. He likes women.” [Note the use of the feminine adjective]). Radiguet, Hemingway implies, employed his sexuality to advance his career, being a writer “who knew how to make his career not only with his pen but with his pencil,” a salacious and phallic allusion.[89][90] Cocteau however was guarded in his discussion of his relationships: “Cocteau never put his name to an openly, unashamedly homosexual text and invariably alluded to his male lovers – the most celebrated being the precocious novelist Raymond Radiguet and the actors Jean Marais and Edouard Dermit – as his ‘adopted sons’ (in the case of Dermit, even formally adopting him)”.[91] In 1919 Radiguet’s father discovered a “compromising correspondence” between Cocteau and his son, giving rise to an exchange of letters in November of that year between the two adults in which Cocteau compared the youth to Rimbaud. In mid-March 1921 he hastened from Paris to join Radiguet (among others, including Georges Auric and Monsieur et Madame Hugo Valentin), who had left alone for Carqueiranne. On the 30th of the same month he replied to his mother, who had commented on this voyage: “Have you not yet understood that my life is spent releasing my instincts, watching them, sorting them once they are out, and forging them to my advantage?” After Radiguet’s death (of typhoid fever), Cocteau did not attend the funeral. However, in this version of the story, Cocteau takes to his bed prostrated with grief (see below to see what happened according to Cocteau)[92] After the death of Radiguet, Cocteau began to use opium, to which he became addicted. The people who wish to say that Cocteau and Radiguet had a relationship say that this was the direct result of Radiguet’s death, but this reading of the story is contradicted by Cocteau himself (see below)[93]
Others contest this interpretation, claiming that it has not been confirmed in any correspondence or writings by Cocteau or those close to both of them, and that Radiguet had any number of well-documented liaisons with women and generally spent his nights alone at the apartments of Max Jacob and Juan Gris, sleeping on the kitchen table or the floor. Cocteau, speaking about Radiguet in a transcription of a television interview made three months before Cocteau’s death claimed that he did not particularly care for Radiguet personally and only respected his talent as a writer. Upon Radiguet’s death, which was due to typhoid fever complicated by heavy drinking, Cocteau was, in his own words, “paralyzed with stupor and disgust”. He did not attend the funeral — Cocteau did not attend anyone’s funeral, as a rule — but instead immediately left Paris with Sergei Diaghilev (see below) for Monte Carlo for a performance of Les Fâcheux by Auric and Les Biches by Poulenc. While Cocteau began to smoke opium after Radiguet’s death, to which he became addicted, he himself said that this was pure coincidence and had nothing to do with Radiguet’s death.[94]
Karol Szymanowski and Boris Kochno Image:Boris Kochno.jpg
Boris KochnoSzymanowski, 37, the foremost early 20th c. Polish composer, met Kochno, 15, a poet and dancer, in Elisavetgrad, 1919. The composer wrote four love poems to the boy, and also gave him a Russian translation of “Symposium,” the central chapter of his legendary lost novel, Efebos.[95]
Gustav Wyneken and Viktor Behrens
In late 1920, Wyneken had a love affair with his seventeen year old student. A year later he was brought to trial and convicted of acts of frottage.[96]
Sergei Diaghilev and Boris Kochno
Diaghilev’s librettist for 8 years, till Sergei’s death in 1929 at 57. Later, Monte Carlo ballet director.[97]
Willem de Mérode and Ekko Ubbens
Ekko, whom he met in 1922, was one of de Mérode’s chaste pederastic friendships.[98]
E. M. Forster and Kanaya
While serving in 1923 as secretary to the Maharajah of Dewas, Forster entered into a regular relationship with Kanaya, a boy barber provided to him by the Maharajah for sexual purposes “if the boy agrees.” The relationship lasted six months.
J. R. Ackerley and Ivan Alderman
In 1924, having acquired a taste for working class youths, Ackerley spotted the fifteen year old Ivan, who was gay and about to enter art school. The two struck up a relationship, for Ivan his first with an adult, which was to last close to a year.[99]
John Henry Mackay and Otto Hannemann
At Mackay’s death in 1933, Otto was one of the two executors, being the one boy of Mackay who remained a friend for life.[100]
Benjamin Britten and Wulff Scherchen
The composer met the thirteen year old son of Hermann Scherchen in 1934. Their relationship lasted six years, and inspired at least one major work, Young Apollo.” Lie back and think of Britten “Adam Mars-Jones finds that John Bridcut has set himself a daunting task in Britten’s Children – to prove whether ‘Darling Benjamin’ was a mentor or a menace to boys”[101]
W. H. Auden and Michael Yates
In 1934 the poet took his former pupil, aged fifteen and by Auden’s own account one of the five great loves of his life, on travels through Europe, and was inspired by him to write some of his tenderest love poems, such as Lullaby (“Lay your sleeping head, my love . . .”)
Image:Robert Denning with Bugatti.jpg
Robert Denning in photograph taken by Edgar de Evia in the 1950s.Edgar de Evia and Robert Denning
They met in 1942 – de Evia was 32, Denning, 15, their relationship lasted 18 years until Denning met Vincent Fourcade, but they remained close friends for life. [102]
Giovanni Comisso and Guido Bottegal
In 1943 the novelist Comisso (1895 – 1969) fell in love with the 16 years old Guido, who later was shot by partisans for being mistaken for a fascist spy.
“Walt” and Rudi van Dantzig
The 1945 relationship between the twelve year old van Dantzig and a Canadian soldier was dramatized in van Dantzig’s autobiographical book and movie by the same name, For a Lost Soldier.[103]
Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein and L.T.
According to Nigel Hamilton in his 2001 biography of Montgomery,[104] “Monty” fell passionately in love the twelve-year-old Swiss youth in 1946, and would spend time with him at his chalet in Gstaad. The intimacy only went as far as bathing the boy and towelling him off. They corresponded for many years
Bill Tilden and Bobby
Tilden, thought at the time of this death to have been the greatest tennis player in history, was apprehended in late 1946 while fondling his fourteen year old friend as the boy was at the wheel of Tilden’s car in Beverly Hills. Though Bobby’s father, a film studio executive, did not want Tilden incarcerated, he nonetheless served seven months of a one-year sentence.[105]
James Baldwin (writer) and Lucien Happsberger
At the time of his first trip to Paris in 1949, Baldwin met and fell in love with Lucien Happsberger. The boy was a Swiss seventeen-year-old runaway, and the two remained very close, until Happsberger’s marriage three years later, an event that left Baldwin devastated.[106]
Sandro Penna and Raffaele
The Italian poet took the 14 years old streetboy from Rome to his home in 1956 and lived with him for several years.
William S. Burroughs and Kiki
During the years in which William S. Burroughs was living in Tangier he had a relationship with a Spanish teenager named “Kiki”.
René Schérer and Guy Hocquenghem
Guy Hocquenghem began an affair with his teacher in 1959, when he was 15. The gay activist Hocquenghem and the philosopher Scherer remained lifelong friends.
Pier Paolo Pasolini and Ninetto Davoli
The Italian poet, novelist and film director Pasolini started a relationship with the 15 year old Davoli in 1963 and let him play many comic roles in his movies. [107]
Roger Peyrefitte and Alain-Philippe Malagnac d’Argens de Villèle
Peyrefitte met the 14 year old aristocrat during the filming of his novel Les Amitiés particulières in late 1963. Their love is described in Notre amour and L’Enfant de cœur. Malagnac lived with him from the age of 16, was adopted by Peyrefitte, and eventually married Amanda Lear.
Alexander Ziegler and Stephan (Mutscha)
In 1966 the twenty two year old Swiss actor and writer was sentenced to a two and a half year jail term for a love affair with the sixteen year old Stephan, documented in the autobiographical novel Die Konsequenz and later turned into a movie by director Wolfgang Petersen.
Anthony Mercieca and M. F.
Father Mercieca and the future US Congressman engaged in a two year relationship starting in 1967, when F. was thirteen years old. In The Herald Tribune “Father Anthony Mercieca said Thursday he never had sexual intercourse with former U.S. Rep. M. F., but throughout the day offered more details to national media outlets about his intimate relationship with the then-Lake Worth altar boy. Mercieca told the Washington Post he and F. once engaged in “light touching” and told CNN he fondled F. when he was a teen, though he didn’t consider the contact abuse because F. “seemed to like it.”[108]
Jan Hanlo and Mohammed
In 1969, when they were 57 and 12 – a chaste relationship, as were his others.
See also
Friendship
Greek love
Homosexuality
Pederasty
Pederasty in ancient Greece
Pederastic couples in classical antiquity
Platonic love
Pederastic couples in Japan
Shudo
Sodomy
Sources
General
Louis Crompton. Homosexuality and Civilization, Cambridge, Mass. and London, 2003. ISBN 0-674-01197-X
Michel Larivière. Homosexuels et bisexuels célèbres, Delétraz Editions, 1997. ISBN 2-911110-19-6
Muslim Lands
Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe, et al. Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature, New York: New York University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-8147-7468-7
J. Wright & Everett Rowson. Homoeroticism in Classical Arabic Literature. 1998.
‘Homosexuality’ & other articles in the Encyclopædia Iranica
China
Chinese couples documented in Hinsch, 1990, p.37, 69.
Pre-Modern Period
Serge Bramly. Leonardo : The Artist and the Man, Penguin, 1994. ISBN 0-14-023175-7
Modern
Marcel Moré. Le très curieux Jules Verne : Le problème du père dans les Voyages extraordinaires, Gallimard, 2005. ISBN 2-07-077367-1
Michael Matthew Kaylor, Secreted Desires: The Major Uranians: Hopkins, Pater and Wilde (2006)Michael Matthew Kaylor, Secreted Desires: The Major Uranians: Hopkins, Pater and Wilde (2006), a 500-page scholarly volume that considers the major Victorian pederastic writers and their relationships (the author has made this volume available in a free, open-access, PDF version).
References
↑ Richard A. Posner, Sex and Reason; p148 N3
↑ Hubbard, Thomas K. “Introduction” to Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook of Basic Documents. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. pg. 9.
↑ El-Rouayheb, Khaled (2005) The Love of Boys in Arabic Poetry of the Early Ottoman Period, 1500 – 1800, Middle Eastern Literatures 8,1:3-22.
↑ Kaylor, Michael M. Secreted Desires: The Major Uranians: Hopkins, Pater and Wilde. Brno, CZ: Masaryk University Press, 2006.
↑ The Teachings of Confucius, Chapter 10:1
↑ Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization, p.202
↑ Ibn Warraq, Why I Am Not a Muslim p.342
↑ Crompton, p.183
↑ Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender & Queer Culture, Europe:Medieval, Eugene Rice
↑ Homosexuality in the Middle Ages, Warren Johansson and William A. Percy accessed 3/1/2008
↑ Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization, p.167
↑ Radu R Florescu, Raymond McNally, Dracula, Prince of Many Faces: His Life and His Times p.48
↑ Beurdeley, Cécile. L’amour bleu, Fribourg 1977
↑ Bramly, Serge. Leonardo : The Artist and the Man, 1994
↑ Clark, Kenneth. Leonardo da Vinci, Cambridge University Press, 1939
↑ Zahir ud-Din Mohammad (2002-09-10). in Thackston, Wheeler M.: The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor. Modern Library Classics. ISBN 0-375-76137-3.
↑ Bramly, Serge. Leonardo : The Artist and the Man, 1994
↑ Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization p.269
↑ Leonardo, Emma Dickens. The Da Vinci Notebooks p.23
↑ “Giovanni dall’Orto: “[4a La vicenda (perfino un poco bocaccesca) è narrata in dettaglio in due biografie anonime del XVI secolo intitolate Vita di Benedetto Varchi, che si leggono in: Benedetto Varchi, Storie fiorentine, Le Monnier, Firenze 1857, vol. I. Per l’episodio in questione vedi le pp. XVII-XVIII e 355-357. Cfr. anche Manacorda, Op. cit., p. 11.”]
↑ Norton, Rictor. Critical Censorship of Gay Literature. Retrieved on 2008-04-14.
↑ “Qui la carne, ora ridotta a polvere, e le mie ossa/ prive dei begli occhi e della mia bellezza/ rendono testimonianza a colui a cui portai grazia nel letto,/ che abbracciavo, e nel quale la mia anima continua a vivere.” “MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI” by Giovanni Dall’Orto Babilonia n. 85, January 1991, pp. 14-16
↑ La gaya scienza, Théodore de Bèze
↑ Queers in History, compiled by Paul Halsall
↑ Giovanni Dall’Orto, “‘Socratic Love’ as a Disguise for Same-Sex Love in the Italian Renaissance,” in The Pursuit of Sodomy: Male Homosexuality in Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe, pp.55-57
↑ Maurice Lever, Les bûchers de Sodome, p.89
↑ Bergeron, David M. King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire, Iowa City: University of Iowa P, 1999
↑ Crompton, op.cit., p.390
↑ Maurice Lever, Les bûchers de Sodome, p.90
↑ 12 septembre 1642 : décapitation du jeune marquis de Cinq-Mars
↑ Robert Aldrich, Garry Wotherspoon, Who’s Who in Gay and Lesbian History
↑ Maurice Lever, Les bûchers de Sodome p.127
↑ Maurice Lever, Les bûchers de Sodome p.127
↑ Maurice Lever, Les bûchers de Sodome p.212-3
↑ Keith Stern, Queers in History, p.271
↑ Albert Romer Frey, Sobriquets and Nicknames p.178
↑ Harbottle, Thomas Benfield, Dictionary of Historical Allusions p.217
↑ Maurice Lever, Les bûchers de Sodome p.160-1
↑ Edward Carpenter, Ioläus: An Anthology of Friendship; 1917
↑ Guy Chapman, Beckford (1940), pp81-2
↑ Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe, Islamic Homosexualities, p.189-191
↑ Eisler, Benita. Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame, Vintage Books USA, May 2000
↑ Byron in his letter to John Cam Hobhouse – The Convent, Athens, August 23rd, 1810
↑ Fiona MacCarthy, Byron: Life and Legend p.128
↑ Hubert Kennedy, Book review in Journal of Homosexuality 35(2) (1998): 85–101. Eros: Die Männerliebe der Griechen, ihre Beziehungen zur Geschichte, Erziehung, Literatur
September 26, 2010 at 8:51 pm
http://www.iot.org.br/caostopia/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/bums-in-brigantia-phil-hine.doc
Bums in Brigantia: Sacred Gender-Variance in Ancient Germanic & Celtic Cultures
by Phil Hine
INTRODUCTION
The relationship between gender-variance, homeroticism, magic and mystery traditions has been, until fairly recently, a taboo subject for both occultists and academics alike. Over the last decade or so, interest in both the Northern and Celtic traditions has grown apace, and the latter, in particular, has been romanticised to the point where some people are somewhat dismayed if you point out that the Celts kept slaves, ate meat, and indulged in head-hunting. Admittedly, it was my revulsion to this kind of romanticism which first spurred me into investigating some of the aspects of Celtic culture which had been omitted by the revisionists. Another impulse for writing this article is as a counter to what James Martin referred to in Chaos International No.16 as “the dispossession of gay and bisexual archetypes.” This is not merely (as some might imagine) an exercise in selectively sweeping through history in search of justification for a modern phenomena, but a desire to demonstrate that gender-variant roles are as much a part of pagan cultural heritage as anything else.
THE GERMANIC PEOPLES
Call me varg
and I’ll be arg
call me golden
and I’ll be beholden.
(Wolf-charm, transl. by M.R Gerstein)
The suggestion that gender-variant rites and roles played any part in the Northern Tradition is tantamount to heresy amongst some modern exponents of this current, yet much evidence can be found, if one merely lifts the blinkers of Christian influence.
It is generally considered that expression of same-sex relationships was frowned upon amongst the Germanic peoples. Surface evidence for this comes via Tacitus, the ambiguity of Loki, and the incident between Sinfjotli and his foe Gundmundr in the Eddas when the former accuses the latter, of being a ‘puff.’
The most ‘obvious’ figure of gender-variant magic and mystery is that of Loki.
The complex figure of Loki encapsulates both animal transformation & gender variance. In the Lokasenna tale, Odinn verbally abuses Loki for allowing himself to be impregnated, calling him argr – a crude form of abuse inferring that one takes the passive role in intercourse with another man. The noun is ergi – and there is the suggestion that anyone repeatedly & willingly doing so is regarded differently from other males. However, the Germanic historian Folke Strom says that ergi refers to male practitioner of seidr – that it was both the passive role in sodomy & the receptive relationship to the gods was what caused a man to be looked upon, or identify himself as ergi. Morever, in the case of Loki, it is this ‘impregnation’ which has given birth to Sleipnir, Odinn’s eight-legged steed. Loki is interesting in this respect, as the ambiguous relationship between male-oriented and female-oriented magics are most obvious in him. Loki often uses Freyja’s feathered cloak to aid his schemes, and it may also be significant that it is only when Loki & Thor submit to feminization that they are able to conquer the giants. Certainly the motif of the bird-feather cloak is a recurring symbol for both shape-shifting and gender-variance in European traditions.
Odinn too, has a somewhat ambiguous relationship to the provenance of female-based magics. All of his major acts of power seem to depend from a Goddess. Odinn is said to have worn female clothes on Several occasions. One of his titles is ‘Jalkr’ ‘Gelding’ and Kveldulf Gundarsson (author of Teutonic Magic) suggests that this title relates to Odinn’s initiation into the mysteries of Seidr Magic – with the implication that Odinn gave himself up to the female principle, becoming a gender-variant shaman. Indeed, in the Lokasenna cycle, Loki does respond to Odinn’s flyting by drawing attention to Odinn’s practice of seidr, the ways of which he was instructed by Freyja:
But thou, say they, on Sàm’s Isle once wovest spells like a
witch: in warlock’s shape through the world didst fare:
were these womanish ways, I ween.
There is more to the Lokasenna episode than is at first immediately apparent. Both Loki and Odinn are complex figures, and it should not be forgotten that they are blood-brothers.
From Saxo Grammaticus, a 12th Century Christian chronicler, comes the information that the god Freyr was served by gender-variant male priests who displayed feminized behaviour and employed bells, which were considered ‘unmanly.’ They apparently enacted a symbolic sacred marriage in order to “ensure the divine fruitfulness of the season.” A ritual which took place every nine years, and consisted of the sacrifice of nine males of every species (including humans) to Freyr, who was worshipped as an erect phallus. The Priests of Freyr also performed shape shifting rites with boar masks.The ergi priests who practiced seidr also performed tasks usually associated with women, such as weaving and childrearing. The quality of their voices was was referred to as seid laeti, possibly indicating that some of them were castrati. Seidrmen were clearly differentiated from men who might occasionally indulge in same-sex relations & take the active role.The key theme here is that in surrendering themselves to passive intercourse, the ergi became a channel for the divine.
Some ergi men were thought to undergo gender transformation every ninth night, and go out hunting other men in the same manner that a werewolf might hunt victims. The ergi-werewolf link appears elswhere in Germanic, and other European traditions.
Ergi priests would perform shamanic journeys (often in the form of a falcon) in search of divinatory gnosis and their chief function was working magic. They were considered able to bestow fame and wealth or take them away, heal and curse, bring lovers together or drive them apart, raise storms and dull the swords of enemies. Perhaps their reputed power for good or ill, goes some way to explaining their rather ambiguous status in Germanic culture, particularly as Christian incursions began to paint sorcery and wonder-working in quite a different light entirely.
According to Tacitus, ergi males were drowned in mudholes and marshes – this has been popularly misinterpreted as the fate of anyone who was ‘queer’ in Germanic culture. Folke Strom however, points out that the male corpses found in peat bogs appear to have been hanged first. A theory suggested by P.V Glob suggests that the bog corpses are possibly sacrificial deposits, made by worshippers of an early Earth Mother. Glob gives the example of the ‘Tollund Man’ found with a skillfully plaited noose about his neck, which Glob says indicates to be a replicate of a twisted neck ring, an mark of honour of the goddess. There is no complete answer to this problem. Within the worship of Freyja, ergi priests appear to have been respected rather than considered criminals. Ergi males found in bogs may well have been considered fitting sacrifices to their goddess. However, ergi males were being drowned, burned and tortured by the 10th Century.A.D due to the incursion of Christianity. A practitioner of seidr, Eyvinder Kelda was drowned along with other seidrmen on the orders of King Olaf Tryggvason, a christian fanatic, in 998 CE.
During the persecution of seidrmen by the Christians, they became labelled as ‘heathens’. This is an interesting choice of word, as ‘heathen’ is etymologically linked to Heidr or Heidi, one of the titles of Freya. Heidr is linked to Germanic word heide or ‘heath’. According to Diana L. Paxon, the ‘heath’ is the wilderness outside the Garth, into which the seidr practitioners retired to work their magic. Gundarsson describes the utangards (wilderness) as “the realm of disorder, …the uncanny and unknown.” A wilderness populated by not only outlaws, but also ghosts, trolls and elves.
Margaret C. Ross notes that the Jardarmen rite of blood brotherhood had as its prime symbol the Brisingamen torque of Freyja. It has been suggested that torques were used to strangle male sacrifices to the goddess. The torque came to symbolise argr behaviour – the gesture of forming the hands into a ring suggested one had the power to cause another male to submit to intercourse. Ross says that Odin once directed this gesture at Thor, boasting that he could have him whenever he liked. Ross concludes that the Jardarmen rite, as a ceremony of blood brotherhood, may have involved ritualised intercourse between young males and elders to mark entry into a adult male society.
This latter point is interesting in the light of the ergi-werewolf link, and the existence of warrior-bands such as the Vargr, or wolf-warrior. Some Germanic scholars think it highly probable that initiation into wolf-warrior bands involved initiatory homosexuality. The image of the werewolf has many resonances with initiatory homosexuality – such as the Wolf (Erastes) – Lamb (Eromenes) initiatory relationship in some areas of Greece; the initiatory trial of “living like a werewolf” in ancient Sparta, and the unrestrained sexual behaviour of the lupari – the wolf priests of the Roman Lupercalia. There may be a hidden hint regarding this in the tale of Sinfjotli and Gundmundr. Sinfjotli. is known to have been a member of a wolf warrior band, whilst Gundmundr is portrayed as a ‘female’ wolf who has given birth to nine children, of which Sinfjotli is the father. It is possible, even, as Randy Conner (author of Blossom of Bone) points out, that Gundmundr was a practitioner of Seidr.
THE CELTS
“Although they have good-looking women, they pay very little attention to them, but are really crazy about having sex with men. They are accustomed to sleep on the ground on animal skins and roll around with male bed-mates on both sides. Heedless of their own dignity, they abandon without qualm the bloom of their bodies to others. And the most incredible thing is that they don’t think this is shameful. But when they proposition someone, they consider it dishonourable if he doesn’t accept the offer!”
Diodorus Siculus (1.BCE)
.
There is little information extant about gender variance amongst the Celts, but from what we do know, it seems that same sex relations between warriors were not unknown – there is evidence of homosexuality in Celtic warrior bands which were known as ‘Bleiden’ or ‘Wolf’. What is significant is that, despite similar motifs (such as shape-shifting & the wilderness initiation) there was a marked difference between Greek and Celtic homoeroticism in that unlike the Greeks, the Celts did not consider it shameful that males elected to take the ‘passive’ role. Diodorus’ attitude requires a little explanation, as the ancient Greek attitude to homoeroticism was not as clear-cut as is often thought to be the case. The basic Greek homosexual relationship was between an older man and a youth. The older man admired the younger for his male qualities (beauty, strength, speed, endurence) and the younger man respected the older for his wisdom, experience and command. The older man was expected to train, educate, and protect the younger, and in due course the young man grew up and became a friend, rather than a lover-pupil. Both males were expected in due course to marry and father children. These relationships were not deemed to be privately erotic, but were regarded of as great importance to the state, and so supervised by its authorities.
However, some Greek societies strongly disapproved of sexual relationships between men of the same age. Male prostitution was permitted but its practitioners were prohibited from holding office. Sexual relationships between men of the same age (and status) was deemed unnatural because it meant one of the men adopting a passive role, and thereby betraying his masculinity. So long as a man retained the ‘active’ role and his partner was a woman (seen as naturally inferior), a slave (unfree) or a youth (not yet a fully grown man), then his masculinity was preserved. According to Plutarch, men who did not marry were scorned, ridiculed and punished by the Spartan authorities.
Three areas where we can find evidence for gender-variance and homoeroticism include; hints on same-sex relationships in the life of Cuchullain, the story of the Men of Ulster, and the myth of Gwydion and Gilvaethy.
Doctor Sandy MacLennan, writing in Azoth No.17 (1983) suggests that the Celtic hero Cuchullain’s initiation from Cullan the smith may have had a sexual component. The name Cuchullain means ‘Cullan’s Hound’, and the dog can appear as a symbol of homosexual intercourse. He also notes that in some Irish traditions the Picts came from the region of Scythia and, as Herodotus describes, the Scythians had a cult of shamans called the Enariae, who celebrated the dog days (rising of Sirius) with ‘sodomitical orgies’.
In another instance, Cuchulain & Ferdia were both given warrior training by a legendary female warrior (possibly a goddess) Scathach (Shade). Later, they found themselves on opposite sides of a battle over the brown bull of Cailnge. Ferdia says of Cuchullain:
‘Fast Friend, forest companions,
we made one bed and slept one sleep
In foreign lands after the fray.
Scathach’s pupils, two together,
We’d set forth to comb the forest.’
Cuchullain slew Ferdia in the battle (there is a possibility that it was an accidental slaying), but took his dying friend in his arms and lamented. This has been compared to Achilles’ lamentation over Hector and may represent a paradigmic example for displaying the ideals of close friendship between warriors.
The tale of the Sickness of the Men of Ulster features the gynandrous horse goddess Macha who is associated with shape shifting. The story is that Macha took for a lover a peasant named Crunnuic, who rashly told the King of the Ulaidh that his ‘wife’ could run faster than any horse. Macha (disguised) though pregnant, is consequently forced to race against horses. During the race, she suffers great agony and gives birth to children on the track. She reveals her true nature and curses the Men of Ulster so that during moments of crisis, they will become feminized and experience the pangs of childbirth. This curse was effective for nine generations. Jean Markale, author of Women of the Celts links this myth to gender transformed shamans, but the aspect of the ‘blessing’ of such metamorphosis has been lost, she feels, due to the erosion of matrifocal myth.
Another interesting Celtic myth in this respect is the Judgement of Math upon his two nephews:
“This was the judgement of Math the King upon his nephews Gwydion and Gilvaethy who stole the pigs of Pryderi. He transformed one into a doe and the other into a stag, and sent them forth into the wilderness. They returned a year later, and brought before Math a faun. Math again transformed the nephews, the doe became a boar, and the stag became a sow, and the faun he transformed into a handsome boy, Hydwn. A year later, they returned with a young pig. This time, Math transformed the boar into a she wolf and the sow into a wolf, and the young pig into a boy with auburn hair; Hychdwn the Tall. The final time they returned with a wolf cub, whom Math transformed into Bleiddwn the Wolfling, and then he relented, and restored the nephews to their true shapes.”
Paraphrased from ‘The Island of the Mighty’ by Evangeline Walton
There is an echo here, of the Greek wilderness initiation rite mentioned above, certainly of the relationship between animals, shape shifting, initiations, and homosexual behaviour. Christian based commentaries on this episode maintain that as the nephews had broken the law, they were sent out to live ‘like animals’, but I feel there is an element of an earlier myth here. It would be interesting to look further into the Celtic Mythic associations of the three animals, the Stag, the Boar, and the Wolf. The role shifts between the nephews, from male to female animals, and the birth of the ‘handsome boys’ which Math raised as his own, are also intriguing. This myth contains elements of shape-shifting, shamanism, and the wilderness initiation. While the experience is, on the surface, a ‘punishment,’ Gilvaethy is endowed with great strength as a result of the ordeal, whilst Gwydion is thereafter renown for his cunning. Math certainly plays the role of an initiator-mentor in this myth, and it is made played throughout this entire cycle that Math’s power stems from the land itself, – from Nature, rather than mere human authority.
There is also the figure of the Irish ‘filidh’ to consider: a poet, storyteller, singer, historian and practitioner of divination. This bardic figure appears to have had many shamanic aspects, and is linked to rituals involving eating the raw flesh of a sacrificed bull, drinking it’s blood & sleeping in it’s hide – in order to inspire prophetic dreams. The Filidh were considered to be representatives of the Goddess, and there is some evidence that in this respect, there was a ‘romantic attachment’ between a King and the filidh, in which the filidh played the receptive role, although it is not clear as to whether there was an erotic dimension to this relationship. A cloak of bird-feathers is thought to be one of their symbols of office.
Transgression & Transformation
Nine, the number of the Moon, and of female mysteries in general, also appears time and time again in association with these transformations. There is a Greek legend concerning a secret ritual held yearly atop Mount Lykaion, at the conclusion of which, a man was transformed into a wolf for nine years. This legend is an extension of the original wilderness transgression of Lykaon, who was transformed by Zeus into a wolf. Nine is also a prominent number in the Celtic and Germanic mysteries – Odinn hung from the World-Tree for Nine days, for example.
A recurrent theme which has emerged from this discussion is the link between gender-variance, lycanthropy, and ‘outlaw’ status. This theme is concerned with the power of the blurred, or liminal, image. All belong to the realm of disorder which lies beyond ordered society. This is the case for the Greek lycanthropes, the Celtic Bleiden, the Germanic vargr (from which depend the words vagabond & vagrant), and the Anglo-Saxon term for outlaw: wolf’s-head. The wolf-image relates to the paradoxical theme of sacred transgressors – those who are outlaws, yet also figures of myth, fear and respect. Both the skin-changer and the gender-variant male are ‘sacred outlaw’ figures which show a wide cross-cultural dispersal, and are two of the most ancient practices associated with shamanism.
Sources
Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture – Arthur Evans, Fag Rag Books, 1978
Blossom of Bone – Randy P. Conner, HarperSanfransisco, 1993
Homosexuality in Greek Myth – Bernard Sergent, Athlone, 1987
The Island of the Mighty – Evangeline Walton, Ballantine Books, 1970
Phallos: A Symbol and its History in the Male World – Thorkil Vangaard, Jonathan Cape, 1969
October 9, 2011 at 7:41 pm
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April 10, 2012 at 6:41 pm
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April 11, 2012 at 10:52 am
Hi Amor, good idea grabbing the RSS feed as we don’t have any alternative method of getting out there. We don’t do email subscription or a newsletter. I’m afraid it’s just the blog or nothing. Thanks for adding us to your reader though!
December 3, 2012 at 4:24 pm
Welcome. Anyone know how neutrally called gay? I found a lot of sources, but most of the names were negative or insulting. (Sorry for my English).
December 4, 2012 at 8:57 am
The thing is that I don’t think the Vikings had the same concept of gayness that we have today. They weren’t too concerned about the sex of the partners so much as they were concerned about the position. So a man who fucked other men was simply a normal man, but a man who allowed himself to be fucked was womanly and contemptible. You can’t find a word for ‘gay’ if they didn’t have that concept at all.
December 29, 2015 at 9:40 am
I’m glad there isn’t much on Vikings being gay I mean personal hygiene back then would’ve been very poor thus they would be all smelly. Gay sex can be really messy and with most men these days not washing themselves before sex, I think the Viking gay orgies etc would be putrid.. I mean can you imagine all those smelly uncut penises? Eww.
December 29, 2015 at 12:44 pm
I think there are a couple of things to say to that. 1. Actually the Vikings were noted for their good personal hygiene, and 2. people don’t generally have sex for the entertainment of some voyeur from the future. If you don’t like imagining unwashed people having sex, by all means don’t imagine it, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, or that it wasn’t as splendid to the participants as any other kind of sex.
October 25, 2013 at 12:45 am
[…] “The Vikings and Homosexuality” on Fordham University’s website. See also “Viking attitudes towards homosexuality” by Alex Beecroft. )) It is also worth noting that men performing oral sex on other men may not have […]
June 29, 2016 at 3:25 am
You equate macho with heterosexuality? Why?
WHy do you that “macho” represents heterosexuality and not homosexuality?
If I well recall, in the past it was homosexuality what was considered manly, masculine, macho; not heterosexuality.
November 4, 2016 at 7:24 pm
The article doesn’t equate being macho with heterosexuality at all. It says that the Vikings were a very macho society. It doesn’t say that that was because they were all straight.
In fact they didn’t think of sexuality in terms of gay and straight, they thought of it in terms of penetrator and penetratee. If you were the one who did the penetrating, then you were a macho man no matter the sex of the person you were penetrating. But if you were on the bottom you were regarded as not being manly enough. It’s a fairly common distinction in many ancient societies.