What was the ancient Greek attitude towards homosexuality?

It was accepted to a limited extent. It seems to have been a common custom for a mature man to court an adolescent boy, with the boy taking the passive 'female' role in the relationship. But once the boy reached sexual maturity, i.e. could grow a beard etc, the relationship was supposed to end, as it was considered unsuitable for an adult male to take a passive role in a relationship. But nobody in those days thought of homosexuality as a permanent state of being - a ,man would expect to get married and have a family whether he had a relationship with a boy or not. There is not much evidence for female homosexuality, apart perhaps from the poetry of Sappho, which sometimes suggest her love for a girl, though only fragments of her poetry survive. If it did go on, it would be in the private world of the women's quarters which men did not have much to do with.

Both, sort of. Male love was highly prized, but it was codified in a certain way, with an older/younger man in particular top/bottoms roles. Greek men fought and argued about it, c/o The Symposium so other types of male love were happening in society (equal male love and positions were advocated by Plato), but that was the ideal.

Female homosexuality was non-existent. Women weren't citizens or even human beings but odd alien creatures to Greek men. OK, Sparta was different. Sappho got exiled.

Even though it's Wikipedia, it's a pretty good explanation. It was a very complex subject. What we consider homosexual relations today was not always seen, in ancient Greek society, as homosexual sex. That is because the passive partner was not seen by society as being a man, even though they were male.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_anc...

quite commonly accepted for both sexes. There are lesbian poems written by Sappho that survive to this day

Many ancient Greek men were indiscriminate about who they stuck it in to. It was just nature calling. Even today, there are species particularly among the chimp family w/ little discretion about who to have sex with. They love each other a lot and no/few complications develop.

Understand, everyone is born into a societal culture that may or may not put limitations on what is acceptable.

I think I read something about Brazilian men. They consider the catcher gay, not the pitcher.

Teen boys and adult men were a thing, and expected. Male/male sex was also expected in the military. You were seen as odd if you didn't have sex with other guys. Women didn't get a lot of respect in ancient Greece.

Pederasty is a (usually erotic) homosexual relationship between an adult male and a pubescent or adolescent male. In the history of Europe, its most structured cultural manifestation was Athenian pederasty, and became most prominent in the 6th century BC. Homosexuality in the militaries of ancient Greece was regarded as contributing to morale. Although the primary example is the Sacred Band of Thebes, a unit said to have been formed of same-sex couples, the Spartan tradition of military heroism has also been explained in light of strong emotional bonds resulting from homosexual relationships. Various ancient Greek sources record incidents of courage in battle and interpret them as motivated by homoerotic bonds.

It was indeed common - but its precise nature was possibly not what we might expect today.

It was accepted in the Greek world that love was something that was between two males. However, it did not necessarily imply any physical relationship. That MIGHT be a part of the deal, but if so was entirely secondary to the most important aspect. Where an ancient Greek said Lover, we might today say Soul-mate.

A few illustrative examples.

The archetypal male lovers in Greek mythology were Achilles and Patroclus. A key scene in the Iliad concerns Achilles' revenge on Hector because the latter had killed the former's lover. HOWEVER, the Iliad opens with Achilles in a sulk because Agamemnon has stolen a female captive from him. There is also a scene where Achilles and Patroclus each take a woman to bed.

The great hymn to Greek homosexual love is The Symposium, by Plato - the man who has given us the word Platonic.

One of the elite fighting units of the classical world was the Theban Sacred Band, in which homosexuality was COMPULSORY. Lovers were recruited in pairs, and always fought side by side (and if killed, had their ashes mingled in the same urn).

Excessive homosexual lechery - ie sex without love - WAS frowned upon. There's a passage in Aristophanes (I forget which play) which lambasts the practice.

So the Greek attitude to homosexuality was complicated - which shouldn't come as a complete surprise.

As for female homosexuality - Greece was a very misogynistic society. Women were regarded as second-class citizens, and their lives rarely deemed worthy to be recorded. Off the top of my head, I can only think of one female Greek writer whose work has survived - Sappho: and she was a Lesbian. Oh, and Lesbian originally meant "Inhabitant of the island of Lesbos." Go figure.

If I remember correctly, just about everything was accepted. Hetero and Homo-sexuality....pedophilia....rape....among siblings.....the whole kit and kaboodle.

An argument should start from some basic knowledge – like that there were several separate cultures in classical era Greece.