You Won’t Believe What People Called “Gay” in Ancient Greek

March 28, 2024
ARIANA LEVI

There are two main reasons why Ancient Greek didn't have a word directly equivalent to "gay" in the modern sense:

Different Sexual Concepts: Ancient Greek society focused more on the roles played in sexual acts than on a person's overall sexual orientation. They had words to describe the roles (penetrator or penetrated) but not a single term for someone attracted to the same sex.
Fluidity of Desire: Many scholars believe the Greeks viewed sexual attraction as more fluid than modern categories. They assumed people might be attracted to men and women at different times.

Watch to learn crazy facts about Alexander the Great!

While there wasn't a direct equivalent to "gay" in ancient Greek, writings do discuss same-sex relationships. Understanding these relationships requires considering the social context of the time. Dear reader, today we’re discussing the new Netflix documentary Alexander: The Making of a God.

The Greek Minister of Culture, Linda Mendoni, said that the documentary was “extremely poor-quality fiction” and “low content, rife with historical inaccuracies.” Dimitris Natsiou, the president of the Christian Orthodox, far-right political party Niki, called the series “deplorable, unacceptable and unhistorical” and said it aimed to “subliminally convey the notion that homosexuality was acceptable in ancient times, an element that has no basis”. At the beginning of the series, Prof Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones of Cardiff University in Wales says, "The Greeks did not have a word for homosexuality, or to be gay. It just wasn't in their vocabulary whatsoever. There was just being sexual." When I heard that, I thought everything would be more simple if that were our mentality nowadays. As Medoni says, "…the concept of love in antiquity is broad and multidimensional. We cannot interpret either practices or persons who acted 2,300 years ago by our measures, norms, and assumptions…"

Just like the Greeks, our vocabulary could use more flexibility and fluidity. Love and attraction are as diverse as history itself, so let's take a page from the ancients and embrace the notion that sometimes, it's not about labels but simply about being... well, sexual.