BCE - Before the Common Era
2450 BC A joint Egyptian tomb for two male overseers, Khnumhotep and Niankhknum, -
manicurists in the Royal Palace - is constructed in Saqqara. They are believed
by some to be the earliest surviving same-sex couple depicted in art. Others
believe they may simply be male twins or brothers.
1600 BC Sîn-Leqi-Unninni, the Sumerian priest wove various tales of Gilgamesh into
one poem.
1040 BCThe legendary King Mempricius of the Britons is supposed to have abandoned
his wife and children for sodomy. He was devoured by a pack of wolves.
1010 BC Reign begins of King David of Israel. Lover of Jonathan.
961 BC King David died around this date.
720 BC All Greek contestants in games were permitted to appear naked.
714 BCArchilochus born on Paros in the Cyclades. His fragmentary poetry displays
erotic depictions of male desire.
c680 BC Hesiod advises his brother Perses not to treat his same-sex companion as
equal to his brother.
c612 BC Birth of Sappho.
564-60 BC The lyric poet Ibycus was in Samos, and reputedly crazily in love with boys.
560 BCDeath of Solon. A line of his poetry: “when amid the delectable flowers of
youth he loves a boy, yearning for thighs and a sweet mouth.”
542-537 BC Ibycus gained fame for his lyric poems addressed to boys. One was Ganymede
c.540 BC Around this time Theognis of Megara wrote of Ganymede, justifying his own
love for boys. Theognis was happily married but addressed 50 poems to
Cyrnus, a young man.
c.540 BCAnacreon’s greatest love was Cleobulus.
c.530 BCA cup depicting Ganymede is left on the acropolis, where a fragment remained.
534-493 BC Duke Ling of Wei had a favourite, Mizi Xia, who was allowed to break various
rules without punishment.
514 BC The tyrant Hipparchus is overthrown by the Athenian lovers Harmodius and
Aristogeiton.
c.500 BCGanymede becomes a very popular subject on the black and red Athenian
pottery.
492 BCDeath of Duke Ling of Wei. During his reign a young courtier, Mizi Xia,
sacrificed eating a peach for the love of the ruler. Mizi Xia’s name became
closely associated with same-sex love.
480-79 BC The Persians carry off the statues of Harmodius & Aristogeiton as spoils of war.
477-6 BC The statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton are replaced at the cost of Critias &
Nesiotes.
1st century replacement statues of Harmodius & Aristogeiton
Unknown, copyist Antenor, original artist Kritios and Nesiotes, replacement artists, “Harmodius and Aristogeiton,” Digital Portrait "Basket" - ARTH488A - "Ancient Mediterranean Portraiture", accessed February 15, 2025, https://classicalchopped2.artinterp.org/omeka/items/show/16
476 BCPindar writes a poem to commemorate Hiero’s winning of a horse race. He uses
the story of Poseidon falling in love with a boy.
c.460 BCA father dedicates a Ganymede statue in Olympia after his son recovered from a
wasting disease.
c.450 BCA man from Thessaly dedicates a statue depicting Ganymede in Olympia.
446 BCNehemiah, Biblical figure, & a eunuch, was cupbearer at the Persian Court.
433 BC Agathon (c.18), future playwright, and the older Pausanias are at a distinguished
gathering at the house of Protagorus. They are thought to be lovers, and are
still together 15 years later. Agathon had great physical
beauty and a noble character.
424 BCThe Knights by Aristophanes is performed. Includes a former male prostitute,
now a sausage seller, who is persuaded to become a demagogue opposed to
the vulgar demagogue, Cleon. They try and out-compete each other in
vulgarity, and buggery is included. A boy asked to fetch a folding stool is said
to be well-hung, and may then himself be used as a stool.
432 BCClouds by Aristophanes is produced. ‘Right’ recalls the ‘dew’ on a boy’s penis
in the gymnasium, and the impression of his buttocks in the sand.
422 BCXenephon’s Symposium is set in this year, although the writer was only a child at
the time.
416 BCFebruary. Agathon holds a dinner party in Athens, which Plato writes up in
The Symposium. Agathon and Pausanias are plainly lovers.
414 BCThe Birds by Aristophanes contains an exiled pederast, Stillbonides, who is
accosted by the father of a beautiful boy: “you did not kiss him, you did not
speak to him, you didn’t hug him, you didn’t go for his balls, and you a family-
friend. He is accused of being stand-offish.
411 BCIn Thesmophoriazusae by Aristophanes, Agathon is described as having a
“soft womanly voice and pretty, effeminate gestures.” He is attired in women’s
clothing.
c.411 BCAgathon (40) moves to Macedon with Pausanias, as a protégé of King
Archelaus. Euripides (72) has an erotic interest in Agathon.
408 BCOrestes by Euripides seems to have Ganymede described as the bandmate of
Zeus, but the text of the play is corrupt.
405 BCThe Frogs by Aristophanes wins first prize at a festival of Dionysus in Athens.
In the play Dionysus confesses to Heracles that shamefully he is not in love
with a boy, but an effeminate man, Cleisthenes.
404 BC Socrates outlines for Phaedrus a brutally realistic version of same-sex love.
401 BCXenephon leads 10,000 Greek mercenaries through Mesopotamia and modern
Turkey to Greek territory. There is evidence that Xenephon may have had a
male lover during this journey.
c.400 BCThe term kinaidos becomes popular in Athens for describing a lecherous
effeminate older man always chasing after younger men. The older term
katapugon becomes obsolete.
A law was passed to ensure the sponsor of under-18 boy chorus singers was
40+, to ensure he had already reached the age of greatest self-restraint.
399 BCSocrates condemned to death in Athens.
A marble head of Socrates in the Louvre (copy of a lost bronze head by Lysippus)
385 BCEarliest composition date for Plato’s Symposium.
c.378 BCThe Sacred Band of Thebes is formed from 300 pairs of lovers.
c.350 BCThe sculptor Leochares depicts Gaymede in bronze being carried off by an
eagle.
347 BCDeath of Plato.
347 Aristotle’s Ethics.
346-5 BCA speech by Aeschines was made in Athens arguing Timarchus was unfit for a
role in public life. One of the reasons without any evidence is because he
was a paid male prostitute, instead of being involved in pederasty to educate.
c.343 BCAeschines accuses Demosthenes of corrupting young men in his charge, and
of living for a long period with Aristion, and also with a boy called Cnosion.
He also alleged that Demosthenes’ pupil Aristarchus had been promised that
he could be taught to be a great orator, but Demosthenes had plundered the
boy’s inheritance.
c340 BC Theopompus mentions that Romans “certainly have commerce with women,
but they always enjoy themselves much better with boys & young men.”
338 BCThe Sacred Band of Thebes (150 pairs of male lovers) is wiped out at Chaeronea
by Philip of Macedon.
c.336 BCDiogenes extends his middle finger & says “here is the statesman of Athens,”
a slighting reference to the proclivity of Demosthenes with his students.
c.335 BCAristoxenus retells the legend of the friendship between Damon & Pyhtias.
334 BCHephaestion writes to Olympias, Alexander the Great’s mother, asking her to
stop quarrelling with him, as he loves Alexander more than he loves anyone
else. Alexander leaves a wreath on the tomb of Achilles in Troy, while
Hephaestion leaves another on the tomb of Patroclus.
330 BCDarius III is murdered, and his chief eunuch becomes Alexander’s property.
An apparent genuine love between Alexander and Bagoas is the result.
326 BCTitus Ventruius, a magistrate’s son, lost his money, and was sold into slavery.
His new master attempted to have sex with him, but Titus denounced him to
the consuls, and the purchaser was jailed. Enslavement because of the
settlement of a debt was abolished.
324 BCDeath of Alexander the Great’s lover Hephaestion, who is mourned with
extravagant funeral rites.
Alexander the Great, Photo: The Legacy Project
323 BC Death of Alexander the Great.
c300 BC The Thebans erect a large stone lion at Chaeronea to memorialise the Sacred
Band.
c.285 BCAsclepiades of Samos writes pederastic verses, which becomes a popular genre.
c.270 BCTheocritus writes idylls 29 & 30, which directly concern love for boys by an
older man.
c.275 BCBirth of Rhianus of Crete. He would go on to be a master of pederastic verse.
c250 BC The poet Sotades inventor of the palindromes, composed effeminate verse.
Theocritus describes a male kissing game in Megara.
c226 BC The Roman law Lex Scatinia was passed. A sexual relationship with a free-
born boy was punishable by a fine.
206 BCThe Han Dynasty begins in China. Same-sex behaviour appears to increase.
Official biographies begin to detail the emperor’s favourites.
186 BCHisapala Faecenia, a freedwoman & courtesan, heard an aristocratic young man,
Publius Aebutius, was going to be initiated into a bacchanalian cult by his
parents. She knew that this meant he was to be sodomised and warned him.
The news reached the consul Spurius Postumius Albinus and he repressed the
cult.
c.175-70 BCA Macedonian gym text survives banning intimate conversations with
underage boys on pain of a fine.
149 BCThe Lex Julia imposed a fine on same-sex male sexual intercourse.
141-87 BCReign of Emperor Wu of Han dynasty. His favourite Han Yan was famed for
archery & riding, and being skilled in warfare.
129 BCScipio describes some attributes of effeminate men. He “daily perfumes
himself and dresses before a mirror…who walks abroad with beard plucked
out and thighs made smooth.” He was soft, with a shrill or lisping vouice, and
walked with mincing steps.
104 BCGaius Lusius, nephew of the General Gaius Marius, tried to sodomise a young
soldier, Trebonius, but he killed his superior officer. Trebonius was put on
trial, and had to defend himself. Marius accepted that Trebonius was in the
right for attempting to preserve his manliness from becoming the passive
partner.
80 BCJulius Caesar was an ambassador to the court of Nicodemes IV of Bithynia.
His prolonged visit led to rumours that he was the passive partner of the
King. This was the only rumour of a same-sex relationship for Caesar.
68 BCCatullus began writing poetry. Most of his love poetry is directed towards
females, but several poems are aimed at males. His homoerotic poems
include: ‘Yesterday: to Licinius Calvus’, ‘Stolen Kisses: to Iuventius’,
‘Catullus 16’ etc.
c.60 BCMeleager of Gadara compiled an anthology of epigrams – many extolling
same-sex love.
37 BC Virgil publishes his Eclogues. This includes Eclogue II, the Corydon, which is
the most famous homoerotic poem in Latin literature.
c.30 BC Diodorus Siculus in his history said that Celts paid little heed to their women,
but preferred male embraces. It was considered dishonourable to reject an
adult male’s advances. Men slept with a young male on either side of them.
29-19 BCVirgil composes the Aeneid, which includes Nisus & Euryalus, a same-sex
couple who die heroically.
Nisus & Euryalus dying heroically, by Jean-Baptiste Roman (1827)
27-9 BC Livy writes The History of Rome, which includes the sodomy practised during
Bachanalian cults (186 BC).
c.20 BC The Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty cuts his sleeve off to prevent waking his
lover, the boy Dong Xian.
17 BC Virgil’s Aeniad is published two years after the author’s death.
16 BC Heroides by Ovid – the poet criticises Sappho for loving other women.
8 BC Death of Gaius Macenas, patron of poets & statesman. His greatest love was a freed slave & pantomime actor, Bathyllus.
A poet calling himself Virgil, but not the great poet who was dead, wrote Elegiae
In Mecenatem, to defend his memory.
c.6 BC Emperor Ai of Han Dynasty cuts off his sleeve rather than wake up his lover Dong Xian. From then on same-sex relationships were referred to as the
passions of the ‘cut sleeve.’
1 BC Emperor Ai of China dies without an heir. He attempts to leave the succession to Dong Xian, his lover. However, political enemies force Dong Xian to commit suicide.
The Art of Love by Ovid – Ovid’s only mention of same-sex love is a passage in which he laments having neither a boy or girl about whose love he can speak.
Bibliography
Bray, Alan, The Friend, University of Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Davidson, James, The Greeks & Greek Love, London: Weidenfield & Nicholson, 2007.
Fone, Byrne R.S., (ed.) The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature, New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
Griffin, Gabriele, (ed.), Who’s Who in Lesbian & Gay Writing, Routledge: London, 2002.
Norton, Rictor, My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters through the Centuries, San Francisco: Leyland Publications: 1998.
Woods, Gregory, Homosexuality in Literature, London: Yale University Press, 1998
Aldrich, Robert & Garry Wotherspoon (eds.), Who’s Who in Gay & Lesbian History: From Antiquity to World War II: London, Routledge, 2001.
Aldrich, Robert, Gay Life Stories, London: Thames & Hudson, 2023.
Rowse, A.L., Homosexuals in History, London: Wiedenfeld & Nicholson, 1977.
Spencer, Colin, Homosexuality, a History, London: Fourth Estate, 1995.
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