SOME FRAGMENTS, POEMS, EPIGRAMS, ETC...

It is noteworthy, considering that the greater part of ancient Greek writing has been lost to us, that there exists such a large amount of work which explicitly involves homosexual love in what remains.

STRATON (AN EPIGRAM)
Going out in revel after supper, I,
the wolf, found a lamb standing
at my door, the son of my neighbor,
Aristodicus, and throwing my arms
around him I kissed him to my
heart’s content, promising on
my oath — many gifts.

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KALOS KAGATHOS (A PHRASE ATTACHED TO HUNDREDS OF SURVIVING IMAGES)
Often, Greek images of young, nude males (vase paintings, relief’s, ceramics) bear the simple inscription, “Kalos Kagathos,” which encapsulates the Greek ideal of youthful male beauty. The body alone was not enough. It means “beautiful in body and soul.”

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PHIDIAS
One of the two greatest sculptors of antiquity (the other was Praxitiles who also had homosexual loves) Phidias so loved one of his models that he inscribed “beautiful Pantarkus” on a finger of his monumental statue of Zeus at Olympia.

and then again —

AN UNKNOWN LABORER
“Hippias is Beautiful” — inscribed on a building brick..

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SOLON (THE LAW GIVER)
One of the greatest and most enlightened law-givers of the ancient world. He was also a dedicated lover of men.

You will love these young men
in their delightful prime
desiring their thighs
their delightful lips.

STRATON
Seventeen years old
I wouldn’t dare lay claim
Zeus alone has that right!

and

It is youth the thing that I love
As to beauty and what it may be
I have no preference for every young man
has his own.

and

I am not charmed by needless things
taught in the school of art
but by the dusty grime of a youth
fresh from the palaestra [gym]
and by the glow given to
his supple limbs by the gloss
of oil. My love is sweetest when
he is unadorned.
 

ANACREON
May his chest and hands be those of Hermes
His thighs those of Pollux
And his belly that of Dionysius

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PINDAR
Pindar was the greatest and most powerful of all Greek lyric poets (522 – 442 BCE) most of whose love poetry has been lost to us. It is known, however, that he died in the arms of his lover, the athlete, Theoxenus, who he described as “my gift from The Gods.”

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PLATO, SOCRATES AND THE PALATINE ANTHOLOGY
Socrates and Plato both had vivid love lives as younger men. Each — as he aged in his turn — turned his physical sexuality into a curiously strict form of intellectual and spiritual homosexual love. (Thus we have the oddly inappropriate term “Platonic” when referring to sexless heterosexual friendships.) As philosophers (not to mention the fact that they were getting older) they determined that the life of the mind/soul outweighed the life of the flesh although both continued to adore “the beauty” of men.

Here are two of several fragmentary epigrams of Plato.

When I kissed you Agathon, I felt your soul on my lips; as if it would penetrate into my heart with quivering longing...

 and

...oh, Dion, who filled my heart with the madness of love...

The amount of homosexual poetry still extant is amazing and I cannot begin to touch it all here. In the immense Palatine Anthology the twelfth book is devoted exclusively to the love of young men. It contains 58 epigrams of nearly 1300 lines altogether and represents the work of 20 famous Greek writers. There are many more by unknown authors.
 

Here are three representative pieces from The Anthology.

EPITAPH
How small the stone, dear Sabinus
That tells of the great love that was between us
I shall love you always:
 and you,
Kneeling by Lethe’s Water with the dead,
Drink not then forgetfulness of me.
  — Anonymous

 and

Fair are the boys of Tyre
By Love I swear it
But Mysikos sweeps the bright stars from the sky!
That Bursting Sun!
  — Melaeger

 and

Boy, hold my wreath for me
The night is black
 the path is long
And I am completely and beautifully drunk
Nevertheless I will go
To Themison’s house and sing beneath his window
You need not come with me:
 though I may stumble
He is a steady lamp for the feet of love!

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