Story-Portal

In this ground-breaking study of homosexuality, Edward Carpenter reviews an extensive body of literature, including accounts of Shamans and Bedarches (transgenders) in tribal society, and same-sex unions in ancient Greece and feudal Japan. This book includes much that has a direct bearing on issues of gay spirituality, including a discussion of the Kedushim, the priests of the ancient Near Eastern Goddess religion, and target of the Levitical anti-sodomy and anti-cross-dressing regulations. There is also a mention of the sanctioned Christian male same-sex unions in the Balkans, which gives a new dimension to recent controversies. The chapter on same-sex unions in feudal Japan is also of particular interest, as it deals with a topic very rarely dealt with by western writers.

Quote:I cannot perhaps do better by way of description of this institution than to quote the careful account of it both in Sparta and in Crete given by C. O. Müller in his great work.58  He says:--"At Sparta the party loving was called εἰσπνήλας and his affection was termed a breathing-in or inspiring (ἐισπνε̃ιν); which expresses the pure and mental connection between the two persons, and corresponds with the name of the other, viz., ἀίτας i.e., listener or hearer. Now it appears to have been the practice for every youth of good character to have his lover; and on the other hand, every well educated man was bound by custom to be the lover of some youth. Instances of this connection are furnished by several of the royal family of Sparta; thus Agesilaus, while he still belonged to the herd (ἀγέλη) of youths, was the hearer (ἀίτας) of Lysander, and himself had in his time also a hearer; his son Archidamus was the lover of the son of Sphodrias, the noble Cleonymus; Cleomenes III. was, when a young man, the hearer of Xenares, and later in life the lover of the brave Panteus. The connection usually originated from the proposal of the lover; yet it was necessary that the listener should regard him with real affection, as a regard to the riches of the proposer was considered very disgraceful; sometimes, however, it happened that the proposal originated from the other party. The connection appears to have been very intimate and faithful; and was recognised by the State. If his relations were absent, the youth might be represented in the public assembly by his lover; in battle, too, they stood near one another, where their fidelity and affection were often shown till death, while at home the youth was constantly under the eyes of his lover, who was to him as it were a model and pattern of life; which explains why, for many faults, particularly for want of ambition, the lover could be punished instead of the listener . . . ."