Ever since I first got wind of these myths, I wanted to read them in full, to savor their rich flavor. But whenever I reached out for this or that compilation, I was disappointed to find scant, if any, mention of male love. Finally, I decided to gather the stories myself, despite being unfamiliar with the classics, an experience a lot like that of “a blind man finding a jewel in a heap of dust.” I can only hope that my amateur effort will inspire someone better qualified to do justice to these important and beautiful myths, cornerstones of the gay canon.
Most of the homoerotic Greek myths exist as fragments, occasionally conflicting ones, scattered throughout surviving ancient texts. Reassembling them has been much like putting an ancient vase back together. First the pieces had to be dug up, then checked for fit. Time and again the shards seemed to take on a life of their own, arranging themselves in unexpected ways. Often, gaps remained. At times the missing piece turned up after a bit more digging, else plaster had to be shaped to plug the hole. I would like to think the makers of the vases, upon seeing the restorations, would claim them as their own.
Along the way I began to realize how much Greek mythology, in its current incarnations, has been altered in deference to modern sensibilities. This process has only intensified in recent years, as myth and folklore have been co-opted by mass market commercial interests beholden to the imperative to appeal to all and offend none. In the process, the rough primal beauty and terrible symmetry of Greek myth have inevitably been diluted. When we understand Oedipus’ sufferings stem from his father’s rape of a boy, they take on deeper meaning. Likewise, Aphrodite’s birth rings truer to the poetic ear when we learn she arose from the spilled seed of Uranus,[1] rather than from mere sea water. These and many other hidden gems bring Greek myth to vivid life, illuminating the ancient world view as well as the modern mind.
We, the parents of today, are not the only ones shortchanged. Our young have been cheated as well, by being handed a pantheon of emasculated gods and heroes. Myth, at once primitive and sophisticated, is a pedagogy as well as a psychology. It communicates enduring human values, and speaks to people of all ages. The watering down of myth saps its power to resonate with the mind, to teach its lessons of honor, duty, love, courage, humility, wisdom, and the sanctity of all experience. One can only wonder whether these once-sacred stories might be even more popular in their authentic forms, and whether, by discovering in them the full spectrum of desire, our children might grow up more tolerant of each other, and richer in self-esteem and self-acceptance.
My only regret is that there is nothing here about the love of women for one another. Their history has been even more thoroughly effaced than that of male love[2], because their oppressors were usually as close as the same bed, or the next room, and always the ones in power.
For those of us who have grown up with the conventional view of myth and history, these stories may be nothing short of mind-altering, forcing a re-evaluation of our ancestors, lovingly outed in these pages. Would it be too much to hope for a re-evaluation of ourselves as well, and of our conventional Western pigeonholing of erotic experience?
Andrew Calimach
Tantallon, Nova Scotia
August 2001
